Controversy in NASCAR gets the creative juices flowing

By Mike Smith (contact)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | 10:14 p.m.

A Sprint Cup driver is always looking for the perfect car that will take him to Victory Lane. A cartoonist is always looking for the perfect controversy that will give him or her a great cartoon idea. When it comes to controversy, NASCAR rarely fails to deliver.

When I initially started drawing StockcarToons, an editor asked if there was enough news in the sport to support drawing one cartoon a week. I said to the editor, who obviously wasn’t a NASCAR fan, that there was enough news to justify a cartoon every day!

So when tires started popping at the Brickyard, I knew this would be the story from the week that I would concentrate on when sketching ideas. You would think that having an important story would make my job a cakewalk. Actually, it makes it harder.

While a big headline can get the creative juices flowing, it inevitably results in me having more ideas than if I was contemplating less interesting news. Then I’m stuck trying to figure out which sketch should become the final cartoon. And that means my friends in the newsroom have to endure my endless inquiries as to which idea they like the most.

Approaching a journalist who’s focused like a laser beam on the computer screen with only minutes to spare before deadline is not recommended. It’s the equivalent of approachingTony Stewart after he’s had a bad day at the track.

Above is a cartoon idea from Monday that I didn’t use. You can see this week’s final cartoon here.

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