<p>UMP Modified race cars slide sideways through the dirt tracks final turn and streak down the straightaway before a crash sends sparks flying and brings a chorus of whooping fans to their feet.</p><p>Red flag, ladies and gentlemen! the announcer calls over the grandstand loudspeaker. Yall know what that means _ Busch beer, one dollar down at the pub!</p><p>Fans who regularly attend Friday night races at Oglethorpe Speedway Park know the drill. Men in ballcaps and flannel shirts leave their seats, warmed by blankets and propane heaters, as soon as the deal is uttered.</p><p>Remember soccer moms, those swing voters considered crucial to President Clintons 1996 re-election? Meet their 2004 counterparts: NASCAR dads.</p><p>Democratic pundits say these conservative voters could turn against President Bush in November despite their love for God, guns and Old Glory. But to woo them, Democrats must close the culture gap by tapping into their economic jitters and blue-collar roots.</p><p>Our message to them is Democrats are not going to take away your guns, but Republicans are taking away your jobs, said Celinda Lake, the Democratic pollster in Washington who coined the term NASCAR dads in 2002.</p><p>Its a group she defines as blue-collar, white family men under 55 living mostly in the South and Midwest. While they may vote Democratic in state elections, they have favored Republicans on a national level.</p><p>Thats the voter we should be targeting, Lake said. It doesnt have to be a majority of these guys. If we cut 10 percent off the Republican margin ... then were going to win.</p><p>Republican critics dismiss the notion of NASCAR dads being swing voters as a demographic pipe dream, fueled by full-throttle hype.</p><p>Having Democrats trolling for votes among NASCAR dads is like Republicans trolling for votes at a NOW convention, said GOP pollster Whit Ayers, referring to the liberal National Organization for Women.</p><p>While many fans say the only race they care about ends with a checkered flag, the political profile of Americas estimated 75 million NASCAR fans has accelerated rapidly.</p><p>Bush has held White House photo sessions with NASCAR drivers the past two years. Florida Sen. Bob Graham sponsored a Ford F-150 pickup truck, painted with his campaign logo, in NASCAR races before dropping out of the Democratic presidential contest last October.</p><p>Though not as overt, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean had his eyes on the same crowd when he called himself the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.</p><p>Though the big NASCAR races bypass Oglethorpe Speedway, just west of Savannah in southeast Georgia, its definitely a slice of the blue-collar, white America that Lake says Democrats need to recapture.</p><p>Race cars are plastered with decals for Allabout Flowers, Thomas Construction and other mom-and-pop sponsors. Fans clutch ballcaps over their hearts during the national anthem. Part of the grandstand is reserved as a Family Section _ no alcohol, smoking or cursing allowed.</p><p>These people you see out here at the race tracks, they work hard for whatever they have, said Bill Barrow, 35, a surveyor for a local engineering firm. They dont ask anybody to give them anything. And thats how Democrats buy votes, by giving people things.</p><p>Barrow, a father of two, considers himself a Republican, though hes upset with Bushs handling of the national deficit.</p><p>Bush, right now, has gone way over with the spending, said Barrow, sharing a cooler of beer with a co-worker from their usual spot overlooking turn four. Im not for big government. But theres not a Democrat Im going to vote for.</p><p>Barrows work buddy, Jay Simmons, said hes still shopping around for a candidate. He leans Republican, but also has issues with Bush.</p><p>Overseas, theyre going and fixing all these countries that have problems such as Iraq, said Simmons, 33. Youve got all these blue-collar people over here working their butts off, and elderly people who cant afford their medicine.</p><p>John Tice, owner of Racing Collectibles in nearby Midway, comes to big races at Oglethorpe Speedway towing a trailer stocked with souvenirs for sale _ from $55 model stock cars to Dale Earnhardt Jr. action figures.</p><p>Tice doubts too many of his stubbornly opinionated customers will give Democrats enough wiggle room to sell them a candidate.</p><p>NASCAR fans, in their issues ... they dont see a whole lot of gray areas, said Tice, 55. Take racing fans and their drivers. Theyll stand here and fight over `I hate Jeff Gordon or `I love Dale Earnhardt.</p><p>Still, the hoopla over NASCAR dads has reached such a pitch that the sports corporate offices have noticed. In an opinion column published by several newspapers last month, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer George Pyne complained many pundits use the term to convey a narrow stereotype.</p><p>People think with racing were rednecks, white trash and all that, said Johnny Collins, a 28-year-old race driver and railroad worker from Jacksonville, Fla. These guys are just like everybody else.</p><p>Collins, who has a 4-year-old son, came to Oglethorpe Speedway in hopes of claiming a $5,000 prize in the Super Late Model class. He said work and racing keep him too busy to vote or follow politics.</p><p>A number of NASCAR dads likely wont go to the polls. Conservative on social issues like gun control but wary of free-trade policies that could send their jobs overseas, they might find themselves in a political no-mans land, said Emory University political scientist Merle Black.</p><p>They dont really see anybody standing up for their issues, said Black, a Southern politics expert.</p><p>Forty years ago, their hero really was George Wallace _ Republicans, Democrats, there isnt a dimes worth of difference, Black said. They might lose some votes for Bush, but it doesnt necessarily mean those people will move over and vote for John Kerry.</p>
