I guess people forget that Jake King was a ford mechanic, before being paid to built hemi's...
Or that Ronnie Sox started out racing Chevys before being paid to race Mopars...
Or that King Richard was paid to race a Ford in 1969...
Or that Grumpy Jenkins raced Mopars before going to Chevrolet...
When racing is what you do for a living...brand loyalty goes out the window, if the money stops coming in.
If you have a successful racing operation, making large amounts of money, racing a Mopar, then all of a sudden Mopar pulls the plug on funding, but GM or ford are willing to support you, are you going to continue to race out of pocket due to brand loyalty, close up your operation, and take a job in a factory somewhere, or go where the money is??
Brand loyalty is fine for the average car guy, but not when it's your business/lively hood.
Agree and understand all of that. Just saying IMO it hurt the sport a bit when it became ALL about money and big business. The people that filled the stands and supported drag racing ( in the beginning at least ) were not about big $ and big business. Things change, not sure all for the better. If you look at the success of the street racing thing, although those guys spend cubic $, the program theme is not about the $ or big business. Most that watch it have no clue about the $ spent or drag racing in general. It's all about the personalities which they attached to the cars ( reads brand loyalty in a weird kinda way. )
