CawsnJaws

Is Jayski the Godfather of racing columnists everywhere?

If you are a NASCAR fan, and if you own a computer, one thing is for sure: you’ve found out that the premier stop on the internet to access all things NASCAR is Jayski’s. From information on drivers and teams, to links to NASCAR headlines from all parts of the internet, this is the place to start (and to return to on a daily basis to keep up with all things NASCAR).

The man known as Jayski, whose real name is Jay Adamczyk, is known as a reclusive fellow. At various times, though, he has shown up in an article, or on a rare TV appearance. The most that we seem to know about him is that he used to live in New Jersey, and unintentionally ended up creating the most well-known NASCAR site on the internet.

A few claim to have met him, and all that have usually say either ‘kind of quiet’, ‘short’, and/or ‘wears a baseball cap’. Sparse details indeed.

Most fans ‘know’ him by the frequent stops they make at his website. They probably don’t think much more than, “Wow. This guy has the greatest stuff to read and link to here at this site. It must take him a lot of time.”

A dimension they might not know about is from a racing columnist’s standpoint. I have not been writing racing columns long, and do not have the famousness as such writers as David Poole, Lee Spencer, or Monte Dutton do. But it didn’t take the same time as one lap around Bristol to find out that, in order for anyone to see my articles, they have to find favor with Jayski (and the much sought-after link that would accompany that).

You might think of it this way: Jayski is the racing columnists’ Godfather (in the Mafia sense, of course). I don’t know if he stuffs cotton into his cheeks to speak in a muffled way, or if he has a garden of tomatoes in his backyard. I do know that, as mentioned prior, that he used to live in New Jersey, and there’s plenty of shady characters that are rumored to hang out there. I also know that if any NASCAR writer that posts articles on the internet wants fans to read them, they must pass across the computer screen of Jayski, and either be approved and linked to from his site, or discounted with a quick flick of his finger, forever negating the article to wither on the cyberspace grapevine.

He even has a disclaimer on his ‘articles/columns/links page’ that reads as follows:

NOTE: just because folks send me links to stories/columns they find or to their sites, does not mean I am obligated to post them; now, tomorrow or ever. I post links that interest me and that I think will interest my readers and that are appropriate for the site. I am not here to help sites get their hits and page views, I am here to post what I think readers will like and what I like, no more, no less....thanks

Now, play some brooding Italian music in the background as you read that, and try to conjure up Marlon Brando’s muffled Godfather-speak and apply it to the words, and hear it as us racing columnists do. Then feel your heart pound.

I honestly admit that the times that my articles have not found favor, I am depressed all day. I feel like I did when I turned in some of my high school English essays, and the teacher passed it back with lots of red marks on it. The world feels a little chillier and grayer, and that’s as close to a good description of the feelings as I can muster.

In the future, when you head over to Jayski’s article links page, keep this in mind. And say a little cheer for those writers that managed a link on there. I assure you they are giddy-happy it’s there: it’s a feeling they can’t refuse.

Posted by CAW at June 7, 2005 05:12 AM