In the world of professional sports, change is something all fans have had to get used to. In sports like baseball, basketball and football, players jump from team to team so often that it’s hard to keep them straight. Championship teams are dismantled because of salary cap issues, and the days of the dynasty are all but forgotten.

As other sports underwent dramatic modifications, driving out many of their fans, NASCAR managed to resist wholesale changes. For more than 50 years, the sport had been a direct reflection of southern-U.S. society. NASCAR got its beginnings in states like Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. Drivers like “Fireball” Roberts, Tiny Lund, Richard Petty and Buddy Baker came from communities like South Boston, Va., Dawsonville, Ga., and Batesville, Ark. Even the sport’s long-time sponsor – Winston – cultivated its tobacco in the fields of the South.

Most old-time fans knew it was only a matter of time before the sport they grew up to love would be forced to succumb to the winds of change. The first breeze came in 1995 when Vallejo, Calif.-born Jeff Gordon won the first of his four Winston Cup titles. More Yankees soon followed – from Bakersfield, Calif., Cambridge, Wis., and Grand Rapids, Mich. These drivers even began to race at tracks north of the Mason-Dixon line, including the “hot bed” of New Hampshire.

But the gale force winds of change waited until this year to hit NASCAR. Gone is Southern-bred Winston as title sponsor. In is mobile communications giant Nextel. The face of NASCAR is no longer the “good ‘ol boys” like Roberts and Petty. Now it’s guys like Gordon and fellow California natives Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.

Perhaps the most noticeable face in the sport is Dale Earnhardt Jr. But while his family has always been synonymous with the sport, Junior is not your typical Earnhardt. His long list of friends includes the members of 3 Doors Down, Sheryl Crow and actress Susan Ward, just to name a few. Junior also has jumped over the Clydesdale as the face of Budweiser. Not all beer drinkers follow NASCAR, but an overwhelming majority know the face of the 29-year-old from Kannapolis, N.C.

This year may be the sport’s most trying time, however. While new fans from all over the country have flocked to the races, the old-time fans have become vocal about the sweeping changes – most notably the change to the point system. In a response to Matt Kenseth’s championship last year when he won only one race, new chairman Brian France – who has followed in the lineage of his father and grandfather – has implemented a new system. “The Race for the Championship” will start with the last 10 races on the schedule. Drivers in the top 10 and any other drivers within 400 points will have their poistions adjusted, separating each racer by only five points.

This change hasn’t drawn the ire of just the old-time fans. Even fans relatively new to the sport have called for France’s head. Many see this as a TV-driven change as NBC’s ratings for the final 10 races dropped off considerably in the face of competition from the NFL.

Fans are also concerned with the changes Nextel will be implementing. Winston was the title sponsor of NASCAR for more than 50 years, bringing a sense of consistency. Now with a new sponsor, fans are scared that the high-tech company will drive the sport into the ground.

But what old-time and new fans fail to realize is these changes might be the best thing yet for the sport. Nextel will be able to do something Winston could not do for more than 10 years – advertise. Since the government restricted tobacco advertising, getting the word out about the sport proved difficult in the mainstream media. Now, with those constrictions gone, the sport may grow even more. More advertising means more money, which could help the sponsorship problems many teams, like that of multi-race winner Jeff Burton, now face.

All of these concerns are about to be answered. After a long off-season of talk, the engines will finally fire on a new season with the Daytona 500 Sunday. NASCAR may be moving toward a new era in the sport, but its tradition and history will never simply be tossed away to be forgotten. Instead, a new tradition will just have to be added to what’s already there.

Matt Duval is a senior in journalism and The Lantern editor. He can be reached at [email protected]. After more than two months and countless hours watching “Winston Cup Wednesdays” on SPEED, he’s ready to digest all of the testing, practices, qualifying and races he can handle.