Fastest in America...But is it really?

Well, that’s that folks. The latest season of “Fastest in America” wrapped up last night, and to say that it appeared “sketchy” would be an understatement.

As most of our readers are very aware, I have never been a huge fan of this stuff. I am not the guy that will sit down religiously every Monday night to watch what happens in street racing. That doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy racing, but for the most part, the TV aspect of it is really not my thing. I was reminded of that yet again last night as I tuned in for the final episode of the season.

Last night’s episode featured NOLA facing off against Memphis in the finals of the “Fastest in America” and about 15 minutes in I could tell that it should have been “Best Con Job in America” in my opinion. I am well aware that the premise of the show is for all of these teams to beat the shit out of their stuff and themselves all for a chance to race against the Memphis crew and a shot at $100k. I am also keenly aware that this is in fact a television show. With that said, what I saw last night was almost as bad as the Eagle’s 4th quarter quarterback change and then claiming they were trying to win.

When you have been around drag racing for more than 30 years you start to know a little about somethings, and last night was nothing more than a hustle. While I have the utmost respect for both teams, their drivers, their cars, and everyone involved, this was not a show about who’s cars were the baddest and fastest in America. I have friends on both teams and all I saw last night was a glorified version of “three-card monte” being played against NOLA.

While I will be the first to admit that I wasn’t there to witness the action, I could certainly tell that the road had changed drastically from previous episodes (which I did in fact watch) and that J.J. was pulling no punches when it came to the hustle. I have a hard time believing that there weren’t things going on in an attempt to put NOLA at a significant disadvantage before they even rolled out the trailers that night.

Never one to hold back on speaking his mind, this is what Kye Kelley had to say about last night via his social media:

I’m not even gonna speak on tonight , I will say we weren’t paid to lose. I will also say I’ll never participate in anything else that rules get changed , roads get altered , or we don’t get to test where we are racing if the other team is allowed too. I will also never race a team that their team leader heads the rules and flags the race. You screw me once that’s on you , you screw me twice that’s on me , you screw me three times I’m just an idiot and I can promise u I’m not an idiot. NOLA is the fastest team in the land with no hustling , just straight up putting them on the line and beating down the pavement like men. We’ve proved that time and time again. Peace out . Thanks for watching us the past few months!

And Kye’s teammate and friend Bobby Ducote put it another way with a photo of some KY Jelly and and Preparation H on his social media.

Those two responses tell me a lot. It shows me that they believe, as do a lot of people that I know, there was some bullshit happening and the NOLA team got “f**ked”. Again, I understand that this is television, and that the idea of Memphis losing to NOLA might be bad for TV in the future, but none of us are idiots either. I don’t know anyone that believes Memphis has faster cars than NOLA, with the exception of Dennis and the Silver Gorilla. The entire situation left me shaking my head and having to remind myself over and over that some shady shit seemed to be happening.

As I scanned social media this morning, I also saw that some people believed that the “fix” was in. Some had insinuated that NOLA was paid to lose. These people have lost their damn minds! There are some things that money can’t buy, and one of those things is pride. The other thing that money can’t buy is the recognition of being the fastest street racers in America. Those two reasons alone, notwithstanding the fact that there is no way that NOLA would throw a race, much less a race where they were made to look like a JV team playing against Sunday afternoon professionals.

Take from last night what you will, but what I got from last night was not a legit “who’s the fastest” race. I got to witness, in my opinion, a disastrous screwjob. Call me a sucker for even watching, but it is an interesting show. Just find it astonishing that for weeks NOLA was on kill and then all of a sudden they swung and missed on everything. GTFO here with that shit. I think we all know who really has the “Fastest Streetcars In America”.

What are your thoughts on how last night went down?