NASCAR is a sport that prioritizes fan engagement over major stick-and-ball sporting leagues. Essentially, NASCAR fans have the opportunity to get up close and personal with their favorite drivers and teams ahead of an event. It’s just hard to imagine an NBA or MLB fan getting access to the athletes, and this is where NASCAR stands out.

Fans can get access to the team garage or sponsored events and meet with their favorite personalities. Often at times, this leads to an obligation on drivers and popular figures to take time out and greet their supporters. For a NASCAR fan, buying a ticket to a race is more than just watching a race; they hope for an experience of a lifetime, a memory of good times they can look back on.

There is a wide range of activities for fans to explore and entertain themselves. However, the hype usually revolves around catching a glimpse of their favorite driver and getting them to sign an autograph. At times, this can be too demanding on the NASCAR stars, as they often find themselves cornered and intimidated by multiple requests. As a result, this leads to drivers losing their cool and not-so-pleasant memories for the race fans.

A user on Reddit recently sparked a conversation about this topic, asking the community about their experience meeting with NASCAR drivers. Although a bunch of positive interactions did come forward, the negative interactions started to take the spotlight.

These drivers didn’t have their best days while interacting with the fans

Corey LaJoie recently landed in the bad books of the fans after he wrecked Kyle Busch at Pocono. It was a deliberate attempt to crash Rowdy out of the race, and he was unapologetic about it. This was indeed a good time for this fan to share his personal experience with the Spire Motorsports driver. “Corey LaJoie. I know it’s a bandwagon thing to hate on him right now but he was a douchebag both times I met him.”

NASCAR’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott, is assumed to have a good image amongst the fans. For the most part, they are the ones who vote for him year after year as the star boy of the stock car racing scene. But, even he seemed to have a bad day while interacting with this fan, “Chase Elliott full stop. Completely out of touch with how important fans are to the sport. I’ve always wondered how he has always been the most popular driver, and who even votes for that? Obviously, no one who has met him if part of the poll lol.”

Kyle Busch was perceived as NASCAR’s ‘most hated’ driver before his move to RCR. However, in this particular instance, Rowdy’s frustration was somewhat justified, as he had crashed out of the race. “I talked to Kyle, he wasn’t nice, but, one of his trucks crashed from the lead at dega. Sooo, so so.”

Bubba Wallace is known to ruffle some feathers with his brash and unapologetic personality. And going by the looks of this next interaction, it feels like he still has a long way to go in repairing his bonds with the fans. “Bubba Wallace, NH 2019, Just seemed like he didn’t want to be at the autograph session and made it known.”

This next one was rather surprising given that Cole Custer is possibly in the best spot with his promotion back to Cup racing. “Saw Cole Custer at Indy last weekend. He was cold and wouldn’t talk to anyone. You’d think someone who just had their announcement for next year would be a little more friendly.”

Indeed, race enthusiasts do not always get the desired experience while meeting their favorite NASCAR star. But again, the point to highlight here is that, like any human being, the drivers too have it rough at times. And unfortunately, those emotions are split in an environment that is supposed to be positive or a happy place.