Guest Column By Cathy Elliott

It’s kind of funny how a single word can become a rallying cry for an entire nation. Some notable examples from the past include things like “freedom,” “equality,” and tragically in the past couple of weeks, “Haiti.”

While it can hardly be called new, NASCAR Nation can happily claim a rejuvenated buzzword of its own in 2010. From Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November 2009 through every speech at Champion’s Week in Las Vegas and every announcement made at the annual media tour in Charlotte earlier this week, one small word has been made into a very big deal.

Fans.

Considering myself relatively normal, I think most people are a lot like me and don’t necessarily limit their sports interest to stock car racing (although it goes without saying that NASCAR is the number one choice).

Most years — yes, even this one — I am firmly camped in front of the TV anytime the UNC Tarheels are playing basketball, not even caring that my tent and sleeping bag don’t match the decor. Although they do cover up that scorch mark from the time I tried to make s’mores in the living room. For the record, a bad idea.

But Roy Williams has never made himself available to talk to me in the off-season.

Being a Washington Redskins nut, I have no dog in the Super Bowl hunt this year.

But I have kept a flow chart for the past 10 years to keep track of the Redskins’ coaches, and the only thing they have in common so far, with the exception of that Gibbs fellow, is being noticeably absent from anyplace where I am present.

And while I truly believe this could the Cubs’ year, I have begun to notice that Alfonso Soriano has never stopped to chat with me in a hotel hallway. Not even once. Can you believe that?

The NCAA, the NFL and MLB and all other sports seem to make an effort to take care of their players, and that’s as it should be. But from where I sit, the only one of the top four American sports currently going out of its way to take care of its fans is NASCAR.

Lots of statistics out there maintain that NASCAR is the number one spectator sport in the country. Race fans are passionate. They are also outspoken. So when fans in general seemed to be dissatisfied with “the product” over the past couple of years, NASCAR not only remarked that opinion, but took action to change it.

On January 21, NASCAR President Mike Helton said that this season, competitors would have more latitude behind the wheel, a “more driver, less car” type of approach.

“It doesn’t mean that you get a free pass out of jail card or anything from some of the characters we have got in the sport, but it certainly means that what we are encouraging the competitors to do … is for their character and their personality within reason to be unfolded,” he said.

Also, the wing affixed to the back of the cars will be replaced with the more traditional-looking spoiler sometime in the first half of the season.

Bottom line? The racing will be more exciting and competitive, and the cars will look better while they’re out there beating and banging.

Why? For the fans.

We all work hard and feel we deserve those all too rare vacations. We have earned them. After completing the longest season in professional sports, surely NASCAR athletes deserve a vacation, as well.

Here’s how they spent those days off. More than just the top 12 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers traveled to Las Vegas for the season-ending banquet festivities. Many were involved in team and sponsor changes and the negotiations that go along with them.

Let’s hope they enjoyed the week of Christmas and their New Year’s celebration of choice, because immediately following those holidays came …

A Goodyear tire test. The National Motorsports Press Association’s annual convention, and the NASCAR media tour.

There was the hugely popular Sprint Sound & Speed in Nashville, Tenn., an interactive fan event featuring country music performers along with NASCAR superstars including Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne.

On a side note, I’m told you haven’t heard anything until you’ve heard Mike Helton and Blake Shelton singing a karaoke duet. Brooks and Dunn’s decision to retire when they did was a wise one; they wouldn’t have wanted to face THAT level of competition.

From Nashville, it was on to Daytona International Speedway for Preseason Thunder, another opportunity for fans to enjoy some personal contact with their heroes.

Why are these things so important? Because “it always helps when the drivers are out and they’re visible and we can be around the fans and give the fans an opportunity to be around us and have contact with us and our cars and the main items and pieces that make the sport go — the things that they follow, which is the drivers and the cars.

“If we can give them as much access to that as we can, it’s good.”

Those aren’t my words, by the way. That’s a quote from one Mr. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who participated in Preseason Thunder 2010, along with Jeff Gordon and many others.

Race fans, you are the best. For the most part, you don’t just get around to watching the races during the Chase, or when Daytona and the Brickyard roll around. You are invested in the season from start to finish. You care about NASCAR, and you care about the athletes who serve as the ambassadors of the sport.

Isn’t it a wonderful feeling to know they feel exactly the same way about you?

The opinions expressed in this articles are solely those of the author and not this website.