NASCAR, in eclipse

 One of the three or four greatest drivers in the history of American stock car racing effectively retired the other day, and the sounding brass of our daily media clamor barely uttered a whisper. Aaron Judge kept chasing Roger Maris and Tom Brady kept breaking tablets and college football kept being wonderful, and, oh, by the way, did you see where Jimmie Johnson is hanging it up?

You didn't? 

Well, he is. Johnson, who won seven NASCAR titles before leaving the sport a couple years ago to give IndyCar a try, announced the other day that he's stepping out of racecars for good, mostly. He'll still strap in for select marquee events, but other than that, he's officially done, at the age of 45.

I'm trying to think of any other athlete so accomplished in his or her sport retiring with such an absence of occasion. Remember the sendoff Serena Williams got at the U.S. Open a few weeks back? And all the tributes that attended Roger Federer's retirement announcement a couple weeks later?

Jimmie Johnson's announcement was a blip in the news cycle by comparison, there and gone so fast you wondered if you'd heard it right. So Tennis 2, NASCAR 0 on the Q-rating scale even here in America, and when did you think you'd ever see that?

That NASCAR does not have a sliver of the broad commercial appeal it once did is ground that has been well-worked, and the Blob will not plow it again here. Suffice it to say the lack of stir over Johnson's announcement illustrates once again just how much into eclipse the sport has passed.

Twenty, 25 years ago NASCAR was such a booming concern its poobahs briefly entertained the notion it was about to become America's fourth major sport, after football, basketball and baseball. This turned out to be a delusion, but it was touchable enough that for a time it didn't sound that way. Even those not disposed to derangement bought into it.

But now?

Now it can't whip tennis. Now we're already one round deep in the NASCAR playoffs, and who knew?

I didn't. And I'm a gearhead from way back. 

And yet, if I hadn't looked it up, I couldn't have told you that three of the first four playoff races have been won by non-playoff contenders. I couldn't have told you that some dude named Tyler Reddick won Sunday at Texas, and that it was his third win this season. And I couldn't have told you that, four races in, Joey Logano is your playoff leader.

What I could  have told you  (because I noticed it when it happened) is the Bristol night race, once one of NASCAR's marquee events, aired on a cable channel a week ago. And that the first four playoff races have all been on cable. And, yes, that Jimmie Johnson, who won those seven titles and 83 races in 20 NASCAR seasons, is retiring as a full-time racer.

 Now you know.