Last week’s brainstorm thread seemed to get a good response, so I’ll try again today with another crack at improving the sport so many of us love.
With Martinsville fresh in our minds, everyone is back at it with the: “MORE SHORT TRACKS!” thing. Me, too! It seems so obvious that if the schedule was mostly short tracks instead of mostly intermediate tracks, NASCAR would be in far better shape.
Short tracks currently make up only 17% of the schedule (Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond have two races each), so it seems like there’s room to expand.
But the question is: How? And more important: How in a realistic way?
It’s not as simple as saying, “Bring back North Wilkesboro!” That’s not feasible, since the track facilities are crumbling. The whole thing would have to be rebuilt, so that doesn’t count as realistic if you take money into account.
Also, NASCAR can’t just go to your favorite local short track and bring 30,000 fans, a television compound, dozens of media members, etc., if some infrastructure isn’t there. It has to be a track that can at least be upgraded at a relatively low cost or has hosted a national series race of some kind before.
If you want to play along, please provide:
— Short track(s) you want to add;
— Track(s) you would take OFF the schedule in order to accomplish that;
— How you’d get around anti-trust scrutiny (i.e., how you’d move a race from one track to another without risking a lawsuit. Hint: Either move it within the same track company or, if necessary, you can propose a sale).
OK, let’s hear what you’ve got.
Add Iowa Speedway to Cup schedule.
Trying to think this through, but aside from Iowa (which is owned by NASCAR — not SMI or ISC), I don’t know of a realistic answer.
Kern County Raceway Park in California looks pretty sweet (and new), but I haven’t been there to see if there’s a way to expand the seating, etc., for a Cup race.
The best option might be for ISC or SMI to build a short track from scratch, but I don’t think either company is in a mood to spend hundreds of millions of dollars right now. I wish that Denver-area track would somehow get built!
Get Harvick to give Kern a push, being it’s his hometown and all. That should do the trick, right? ha.
Not to ignore your point about North Wilkesboro, but…… SMI owns it and Kentucky, so (assuming a good bit of renovating/updates are done) what about some sort of alternating schedule for x number of years? North Wilkesboro on 2 years, KY off 2, vice versa…or even just flip back and forth from year to year?
Logic being SMI owns 4 active 1.5mi tracks (Atlanta, Charlotte, Kentucky, Vegas, Texas). Atlanta has one race, but is too much of a mainstay to swap. Charlotte has 2 races, 3 if you count All-Star, and clearly, would not be giving any of that away. Texas has 2, and Vegas has 2 starting next year. That leaves Kentucky, with its 1, not-so-relevant or prestigious race, to be swapped.
Going from eight 1.5milers to “just” seven every other year wouldn’t be so bad would it? Obviously, the money/renovation factor is crucial, but I thought the other stuff was interesting too.
Simply just remodel existing tracks. Repave Atlanta into a 5/8ths
Make New Hampshire a Three quarter mile banked track and top it off with lights.
Add Iowa in place of any one (or two) of the cookie cutters
Or hell just come back to Martinsville a third time under the lights
This could be crazy but could they remodel some of older mile and halfs? Remove the stands, shorten the track.
Don’t most of the newer 1.5 tracks only have stands along front stretch? Maybe they could just shorten those stands and re-profile first/last turns to shorten everything up?
A lot of money was spent to turn Atlanta into a standard 1.5, have to think it wouldn’t be more expensive to shorten a place like Chicagoland or Kansas than that project.
I know it’s not “respectful to history” but I’m ok with each track getting one race in a 30 week schedule. That lets us shorten the season and add a couple tracks.
Add-One Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
Remove-One Pocono race
There is actually already a connection between the two. About 10 years ago one of the Mattioli’s was the race promoter at the Fairgrounds. The city of Nashville is wanting to make improvements to the Fairgrounds. Maybe a deal could be made?
The problem is there is no realistic way to do this. ISC and SMI will not give up dates from current tracks
Lucas Oil Raceway Park (IRP) seating capacity is 30K but NASCAR would have to come in and improve the facility. This would be a great track to test out a prime time night race on the weekday.
Rotate with IMS every other year because that show has worn off extremely.
The easiest of anything would be to rebuild North Wilkesboro because SMI still owns that track. They could easily switch a date with Charlotte in the fall. They could have that track ready in a year..
Drop Indy race, add Iowa
Take a race from Pocono/Texas/Kansas. Add 2 races at Iowa, 1 race at Rockingham. I am not smart enough to know how this can happen, but I just know it SHOULD happen. This day and age it seems like television deals are way more important than big tracks with a bunch of seats. If the sport wants to get healthy again, I think this would be a good step in the right direction.
I’m going to be the wet blanket of the page and say you don’t add. As much as the core fan likes them, the TV numbers show short tracks don’t draw eyes, Pocky tweeted he thought 70% of stands filled Sunday and Richmond sales running behind, so where is the draw except from the core fan, and that isn’t growing the sport. If you follow through on the how you do it, Martinsville gets the All Star race every other year, which might keep ISC and SMI out of court, and add a 1 day weekday show at Iowa as the 37th race.
While most of us do want more short tracks, unfortunately the business of NASCAR won’t simply allow us to “replace intermediates with short tracks”. In a perfect world we could dump a date at Pocono for a race at Iowa, which is a short track that can handle a Cup race weekend.
However, in the short term, there’s no reason Charlotte needs back-to-back race weekends in May. With Martinsville consistently putting on a great show, moving the All-Star Race there for one year for their first Cup race under the lights would be fantastic.
It won’t happen but I would move the All Star race to different short tracks each year (I.e. Kern, Berlin, Bowman Gray, IRP, etc ). After the 5 yr agreement, I’d put any track over a mile except Daytona and Talladega to have one race date to free up some dates.
Assuming that SMI and ISC aren’t going to be giving up race dates anytime soon, how about reconfiguring some of the tracks?
Turn Kentucky into a 5/8-mile D-shaped oval and do similar work to Chicagoland and/or Kansas. These tracks were built to accommodate multiple types of cars with the idea that IndyCar would be a big enough draw. Now that IndyCar is not racing at these circuits, let’s make them more conducive to stock car racing.
Sure, this is going to cost a lot of money, but this route would be a lot cheaper than building an entirely new track.
While I’m at it, move the truck race at Charlotte to the dirt track across the street. Heck, host the all star race there.
I would really like to see the Monster Energy series go to mid-Ohio. The xfinity series seems to have very good luck with this track as far as logistics and infrastructure goes. I understand the ME series will bring more fans/attention/equipment, but i think the area could handle it.
The answer to me is actually quite easy… See we already have property. Land is king in this thing. We don’t need to lose anything on the current schedule, we don’t need to do anything at all with track ownership either. The only thing we need to do is look at attendance trends. If a track (Just for argument sake) Vegas for example is suffering attendance-wise, advertising-wise, if it ticks all the boxes of a real problem child, then simply reconfigure.
Phoenix, Atlanta, Homestead, all have made drastic changes to their property’s configuration. There is NO reason why a current superspeedway couldnt be flattened, and rebuilt as a short track facility. certain elements can be re-used and re appropriated to save on the overall project, but the idea remains. Level it, and rebuild.
In your guidelines you said you can’t renovate Wilkesboro, and I agree. But if you make a brand new carbon copy (track wise) state of the art version of Wilkesboro. I.E. 5/8ths mile with all the amenities of the newest track projects (I’m looking at Daytona here) In the midwest or west coast markets and ran that as part of a proper short track season (i.e. bristol richmond martinsville wilkesboro swing from the old days) you’d have a ratings gold mine with all the retaliation etc carrying over week to week. CEMENTING RIVALRIES…..
Take away Kentucky, it seems to be the track that people in the industry would be okay with leaving and add Iowa Speedway. I think you can make it a fun weekend with trucks on dirt at Knoxville Raceway in the middle of the week with Xfinity and cup at Iowa Speedway.
ISC will have to step up and free up a date from one of its tracks on an alternating basis to allow a date for Iowa.
Lower ticket prices and/or add certain events pre race at the 3 short tracks to get attendance up. It looked awful at Martinsville and I go to Richmond every year and they don’t even sell out there with the backstretch stands gone already. More attendance equals more revenue and may get nascars attention.
Eldora. Look how that race does in the truck series. Build some stands and send the Monster Energy drivers there. That will attract fans.
iowa is the most obvious first option. Drivers love the track, its a mini Richmond.
is Memphis still open? I thought that always put on good races in the lower series.
I would knock Pocono down to 1 race. having 2 races in a 6 or 8 week span is just stupid. If we got memphis and iowa I would take 1 race from Dover.
It’s going to be tough now days. It seems like TV and track owners have more of the same this more than they used to. And now in my opinion to track owners have a monopoly on the sport. So whatever happens would have to happen to both companies equally. And they should get first right of refusal on brining New tracks to the sport. Whether they buy a facility for a creat a sanctioning mechanism similar to how live nation works with concert venues to use existing tracks in the country upgrade them for the purpose of a NASCAR sanctioned race. I think we are long past the building they will come mentality. We no longer need facilities that seed 150,000+ . I think we’re out of time and age where the sport needs to be taken to the fans to gain a new fan base. With reduce track activity and reduced fan interaction at the events like a manufactures midway and souvenirs it’s getting harder and harder to commit going long distances to events that I once used to go to. So it’s time to take the sports new areas to reach new fans. There are already tracks like The Milwaukee mile, gateway international, Memphis motorsports Park, Iowa Speedway, IRP and The Rock all of which have safer barriers currently. The road course in Austin or even dirt tracks like Eldora and Knoxville woukd be huge fans boosters. All of those facilities are capable of supporting 50,000+ people. It will be nice to get the schedule down to where are only a few race tracks have two dates. It’s tough because ISC and Speedway motorsports have put in a lot of time and money into making this for what it is today. But most of these races do not come close to selling out anymore. Taking the sports new areas would impact existing races as well. In the long run I think all tracks with benefit from having one successful date And re-energizing the sport by going to new places
Take Dover Spring Cup Xfinity and Truck Race and move it to Nashville Super Speedway (reopen it) as one day double header event, take Texas’ Fall Xfinity Race and move it to Memphis Motorsports Park, and take Phoenix fall Xfinity race and pair it with the truck race at Gateway Motorsports Park
the problem with nashville is nobody went.
The land was sold to and industrial developer anyway. I used to go to Nashville, until the Cup drivers stopped travelling to the independent races. As much as people hate Cup Drivers in the lower series, The days of Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano battling every week make for some exciting racing and entertainment. Those tracks like Nashville and Gateway really made an effort for driver autograph sessions and stuff too.
Nashville is about to be demolished….
Don’t a lot of tracks have short tracks inside of them? I’d assume temporary seating could be installed as fans in the stands would be further away without them. It’s not the ideal solution but it’s absolutely worth at least a test session to see how it works.
After this 5 year agreement expires, each track gets cut to one regular season race. Homestead keeps the finale as it’s only race. Then, add some short tracks and road courses to get to 25 regular season races. Add Iowa, for sure.. Add Road America. I’m not sure what other short tracks are capable of holding a MENCS race.
Finally, for the first 9 playoff races, alternate tracks each year to make each playoff year unique. Playoff schedules could be made a couple years in advance like Super Bowl hosting to increase hype and allow fans to plan vv
As some others have mentioned, is it feasible to take one of the tracks and make it into a short track? It seems like it would be the least costly option. And I still think Iowa would be a good option, but I’m not sure how you take away a race from another track.
The most realistic way to free up a date would be for either ISC or SMI to buy Dover Motorsports and move one of Dover’s dates. It’s feasible if either company had the desire because Dover should be fairly cheap to acquire (Dover’s attendance has significantly declined, it’s not in a glitzy market, and I believe they sold Nashville Speedway). Realistically, Dover would probably be better off with one date (I personally like the playoff race there) since the crowds are honestly pretty thin for both.
The problem is that neither ISC nor SMI seems interested in taking on additional debt to buy Dover plus another track, paired with significant Capex to build up the infrastructure at the new track. ISC has committed their Capex $ to renovations at existing tracks (previously Daytona, now Phoenix and potentially Richmond). SMI doesn’t have Capex commitments, but they also have a weaker financial position and lower free cash flow compared to ISC.
While new grandstands at Phoenix are great, the sport ultimately needs new tracks and new markets to regain growth. The schedule has been all-but stagnant for nearly 20 years (since the 1.5 mile boom opening Chicago and Kansas in 2001). Adding new tracks also helps attendance at existing tracks which only have to sell one date (see Auto Club as an example). The problem is that the ISC/SMI duopoly prevents new tracks from being added unless it comes through one of those companies, even disregarding the sanctioning agreements.
I plan on winning the lottery and building my own half mile track
I think the easiest/quickest solution without any tracks losing a date is to move some of the intermediate races to the legends ovals in the quad/tri-ovals at intermediate tracks. Next idea would be any tracks that need a repave build a short track on existing track property instead, but this could take years of construction. As for adding and removing tracks I don’t have the smi/isc tracks memorized off hand, but taking one race away from Michigan, Kansas and maybe Texas for two Iowa races and one Eldora would add a lot of excitement to the schedule. Pocono is my home track so I have a hard time saying nascar should only go there once a year, but it seems to come up on everyone’s dump list. So my suggestion would be to make one of the races on one of Pocono’s several road course layouts.
There was some good discussion on the Iowa option on the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast this week from Brad Keslowski’s spotter. While I am from Iowa, and I’d love to see Iowa get a date for the MENCS, I agree with some points that were given there on that podcast.
First, Iowa Speedway needs to add infrastructure to support team personnel and fans near the track. Des Moines is too far away. The track has a small airport, but it would need to be expanded. Retail in the form of rooms, restaurants, and stores would need to move to the track area to support fans and teams. There isn’t great parking options for well healed folks and teams either. But those things could come along.
Then there is the the NASCAR ownership of the track, which could be transferred easily enough. In my opinion, NASCAR bought the track for a reason, and I believe one of those reasons was to get a Cup date at some point.
Who loses a date? Well, I think there are several possibilities there. Dover, Pocono, and Indianapolis, which isn’t doing that well as far as putting on a good show.
Finally, I attend the Xfinity races at Iowa Speedway and they are definitely NOT like Martinsville or Bristol. There is a fair amount of parading around that track which gets a little old. One thing I feel a lot of folks don’t see is that Iowa races like a mile and a half at times, so there may not be the excitement you’d think there would be there. It’s good racing, but it’s a lot more like Richmond, which should be obvious, since Iowa is modeled after that track.
I have said this for about 5 years, reconfigure current tracks. I do know that creates a problem in the infield, pits and stands. It is the most feasable though. No land to purchase. No track owner to fight. No major schedule redraw. Maybe try one track and see if it works and go from there. But then we do not need “cookie cutter” short tracks after that. Get creative, do something fun, different. Build in fan amenities and make an experience out if it. You have to now. Have connected restaurant, arcade, t.v. room. Heck have designated areas with tv’s and bean bags (Or corn hole etc). Cater to the short attention span. WiFi throughout the property, charging ports at every seat. This stuff matters not only to young fans but all fans now. Have to keep the phone charged! Have standings and update screens all over. Build an app so people can follow the race on their phone and watch replays. These are things a lot of people miss when attending and may discourage them from doing so.
I agree add Iowa, IRS a fantastic track and drivers love it, fairly new and room for more seats, camping etc. I also agree that I dislike Indy most, or drop send Kansas e Michigan race.
Indy, especially for Xfinity, replaced by LORP.
One Kansas race replaced by Iowa.
One Pocono race replaced by Nashville speedway.
Fall Charlotte race replaced by Rockingham.
All star race to Martinville – under the lights!
Well, you gave a question with an impossible answer, except for the Iowa, but I don’t see Iowa working for a Cup Race. I have a great idea though, it’s at the end, so if you don’t want to read about Iowa, Milwaukee, or ORP… Scroll to the End and Start at “If you read one part of this, Read This:”
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Iowa – I don’t really see it or really want it, but it seems to be the given here, but it’s more of a challenge logistically but would go for it. The market/infrastructure really isn’t there though, there are only a couple of hotels(NASCAR itself would probably book all the available rooms) in Newton and not much else in proximity to track, but is close enough to Des Moines. A cup event would definitely jack up hotels and flying in and out would be a challenge except for private jets to the Newton airport itself. I would take away the Spring Kansas Night race, and to make this possible, NASCAR would have to sell the track to ISC.
Another major downside and why I don’t go to Iowa, until they can change state law, selling tickets is going to be a challenge as it already is since you can’t bring coolers/drinks/food into the track except for a bottle of water. Not going to fly for many fans since every other track in the Midwest allows carry in.
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I would like to see a cup race at Milwaukee and ORP as they are two great historic short track still alive, but it’s not ever going to happen unless NASCAR takes away the ISC/SMI reign when contracts come up for renegotiation. Free reign, I would take away the 2nd Pocono and Michigan races (Do we really need to hit 2 tracks twice in a 2 month period anyway?) I have an idea that might just work though if SMI/ISC would make just a little sacrifice :
Milwaukee is a decent sized market with infrastructure, and is right up the road from Chicago. I think Milwaukee and the area could self support the event itself as the fairgrounds host the state fair every year, and the track used to host events and still does IndyCar. Sadly, it was always said they would never see a cup race without garages though (but maybe there is room to change that with the new repair rules). Since the track is owned by the State, I don’t see anyway for it to get on the schedule. The management issues in the past that stopped the Trucks/Xfinity series has probably killed any chance of NASCAR making a return there.
ORP is a great little track, and it’s so sad that Xfinity moved to IMS from there. We know Indianapolis can handle sporting events of the largest size and ORP takes on quite a crowd itself with the NHRA Labor Day Weekend.
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Now, the real crazy idea here; Lets not get greedy and try to get 2 more short track races at ORP and Milwaukee. What if there was some way just to get one race weekend for an alternating non ISC/SMI track. It doesn’t match my give-up dates, but hear this out.
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If you read one part of this, Read This:
What if, just what if every other year ISC/SMI agreed to give up one of their second track race weekends of their choosing and NASCAR had a rotation of a suitable Non ISC/SMI short tracks like Milwaukee, Iowa, and ORP. In 2018, Lets say ISC gives up their May Kansas Date, and NASCAR CUP goes to Milwaukee. In 2019, SMI gives up the Spring Texas race and NASCAR CUP goes to ORP. In 2020 ISC Gives up a Michigan Race and NASCAR CUP goes to Iowa. and So one, but hopefully with even other suitable short tracks. Consider it a “Once a Year NASCAR Through America Short Track Tour”
I doubt NASCAR could convince ISC and SMI to make a 1 race every other year sacrifice to agree to such an idea, but imagine what it could do to make the sport better. It would expand NASCAR to markets it doesn’t touch, and really some of the tracks could use an extended break for much needed renovations. I think Michigan has to be next ISC track to get a face lift after Phoenix. So why not give up that race weekend to allow non-stop work and extra time to get the job done in time for the next race, or to have the track host a race in a construction zone like Daytona did for its renovations. This idea might need a couple of date trade offs within ISC or SMI to avoid going too far north in the early spring, since we are talking about chances of snow up here in Chicago tomorrow.
Ok I’ll get crazy with this one. Add them by changing the All Star Race. Three races throughout the year on Wednesday or Thurday night. As an example, Irwindale (if it still exists before Fontana), IRP before Indy, and say Hickory before the 600, New Smyrna before the Coke 400, Stafford before NH. It doesn’t really matter. Here’s the catch.
Each charter team can only enter one of the 3 races. The teams before the year would hold a draft based on last years owners points to select which race to go to. So the field would be small, 12 cars, maybe 13 or 14 if you include on-charters.
Top 6 go to the Final (I’ll get to that shortly). Winner can get some championship points or something for their time too.
Take the off week moved by the All Star race and shift the schedule to create a week between Richmond and Chicago for the start of the Playoffs and hold a race in Iowa. 18 cars that advanced plus 2 more teams from Last Chance race at Iowa. 20 cars go at it at Iowa. Winner of that race advances to the Round of 8 in the Playoffs with win.
You can add 3 more TV opportunities, test mid week races, add short tracks, put money and playoff reward on the line.
Iowa speedway would be the most realistic. It’s a great track that resembles Richmond. It’s a fairly new faculty . My proposal would be to take away the spring race from Kansas ( so the Midwest doesn’t gain or lose a race) the only problem is how to attain this race since some see it as a conflict of interest since NASCAR is part owner of the track. Maybe One of the two big track corporations could make a purchase but I don’t see that an option. I think NASCAR needs to go away with the two big track corporation agreements they have in place. A state like Iowa would kill for a cup race. The place is always sold out.
Option A) ISC buys Iowa Speedway, moves spring Kansas race to Iowa
Option B) Chicagoland, Kentucky or Kansas get reconfigured, maybe keep the trivoval formula for the short track,
Option C) ISC or SMI build a track in Denver or Northwest.
Option D) IMS loses its race after 2020 to IRP.
Realistic Option) NASCAR does nothing.
Jeff, I’m not so sure that bringing back North Wilkesboro is really as costly as it seems. Will it be a few million? Sure, but it sure as hell won’t be as expensive as the recent Daytona renovations, or even the renovations at Phoenix. It would absolutely need updated, but I would argue that we don’t need it to be some state of the art facility. NASCAR is sorely missing a short track that has the Friday night local track feel, and North Wilkesboro would certainly provide that. I think I have said it before, but the common argument against bringing it back is that NASCAR has outgrown the track, and is too commercialized to go back to a track of that size. While this may have been true 15-20 years ago after they first left, I don’t believe this argument holds true anymore. The governing body needs to be honest with themselves and realize that NASCAR is not as popular as when they left NW, and a track like this would serve the sport well in it’s current state. As for a track to remove, my answer a few weeks ago would have been New Hampshire, but they just took a race from there, and the New England fans admittedly are passionate enough that they deserve at least one race in their area. Seeing as how there are only 3 true short tracks remaining on the schedule, I just can’t bring myself to pick one to take a race from, though it would probably be Richmond if I absolutely had to pick. If I could, I would take a race from either Michigan, the Chicago race, or Pocono, even though it is my home track.
I live near Chicago but go to Bristol for my NASCAR fix. Chicagoland (like KY and Kansas) was a fantastic Indy car track and a bust at NASCAR. Now that Indy car is gone from these tracks let’s reconfigure Chicagoland. There is plenty of wasted infield space behind the garages. Keep the tri-oval and the turns but build a straight inside the current backstretch and bring the cars sharply off the banking onto the new backstretch and then back on the banking again. I would also like to make the new backstretch elevated so it would be visible from the stands over the garages. Otherwise just blow the place up and let the corn grow back and then try to negotiate a deal to race inside Soldier Field as a short track. NASCAR did that in the fifties.
Still a great racing track sitting at Rockingham. Wouldn’t take much to get it up and running. Martinsville is a great place to watch a race, but second in line to the ROCK.
SMI or ISC should buy Iowa Speedway from NASCAR. Add Iowa to the schedule.
Get rid of 1 race from either Kansas or Michigan or Pocono
Move all the Indy races to LORP and put it the week before the Indy 500. Take away a Pocono date and put it in Iowa. Love to see Tony expand seating at Eldora and send the MENCS guys there, replacing Kentucky.
Slightly off topic, as far as North Wilkesboro goes, I thought it’d be pretty cool if someone were to fix the place up. Running small series and other events there, but NASCAR’s lone yearly visit would be for “All-Star Weekend”….An all star race for points-earners in each series over the weekend, perhaps a legends race, maybe even some fairly recent retired drivers from all 3 series (Tony or Jeff in cup, Skinner in truck, etc) entering the all-star race for their respective series. You can’t tell me tickets wouldn’t sell
I hate to burst everyone’s bubble but all the post were a waste of time. Mr. Gluck even asking the question was a waste of time unless you were going for click bait.
Nascar is owned by the France family, the key word being family. The Frances are also ISC as the Bruton family is SMI. As long as they control the sport nothing will ever change. These two companies control all the money from TV, Radio, Concessions so they will never give up the power and money. If Nascar was run like the other major league sports then change could happen. But until ISC and Nascar is forced to become separate entities things will always stay the same. All one has to do is see all the new tracks built since 2000 are owned by who; surprise surprise it is ISC/Nascar/France. Once they really realized they could control all the money in the sport we have where we are today. The 2001 TV contract was not for the fans benefit it was to line the Frances pockets, saying it was for the fans was just good PR spin.
Gateway is not owned by either , Dover is not owned by either , Indy is not owned my either , And why would you think that TV contract was bad . I had no problem watching all the races .
It wouldn’t be very hard to add some short tracks in . Tracks like Myrtle Beach , South Boston , Hickory , have all hosted Touring series . Temporary stands would have to be used as well . Most of these tracks would not need SAFER Barriers as the speeds aren’t high enough for the need ( according to NASCAR themselves ) . I think NASCAR every year should pick one or two short tracks . Foot the cost of the purse ( which could realistically be half of what most purses are ) and just see if it sticks . There are hundreds of tracks around the country , some used currently and some not . It wouldn’t take that much money to have a couple races each year that alternate tracks . plus ratings for those races would be through the roof . The main problem would be having a place for the fans but if you can only seat 30,000 then so be it . When it sells out ( If it sells out ) it just sells out and the rest can watch on TV . You wouldn’t even have to take a race away . Just run it mid-week at a track that is close to the track that will be ran at that weekend . Have a one car limit so teams wont need two transporters for that week . Make teams bring the cars in older style trailers so the huge trucks don’t take up all the room in the infield and just run it like you would a Saturday night local late model race , only more laps .
ISC/SMI buys Nashville fairgrounds. They could get it fairly cheap. Huge market, Has history, and can be upgraded relatively cheap. Nashville population is booming also right now.
I’m also of the bring back North Wilkesboro crowd. Yes, I know it will cost money. But, I’d like to see SMI move the All Star Race from Charlotte to North Wilkesboro. And the winner would get a playoff birth (no other points). You’d keep the teams near their home base of Charlotte at that time slot, but two weeks back to back at Charlotte is boring. The All Star race would allow you to have a smaller field (even though their pit stalls could accommodate the current field size) and incorporate more of a short-track Saturday night format (i.e. real heats, certain drivers don’t make the main, etc).
Yes the infrastructure needs updating, but look at what Darlington was able to do with their throwback concept. Renovate Wilkesboro but give it a vintage feel (i.e. replace the old metal seats, but do it with grey seats still). And for some reason they’ve never let it become overgrown all these years (like Rockingham has started now). Daytona’s renovations are obviously beautiful, but I think Bruton has the attention to detail that could make NW a showplace again. The community infrastructure may not be there, but these same issues are seen at other tracks that are still around.
I’d also like to see some sort of roaming playoff race, but can’t really figure out how to make that profitable for the tracks as they wouldn’t be guaranteed a race every year. So the first race of round 2 rotates to different venues that aren’t typical tracks (this would be hard as few have the infrastructure). But maybe somehow that is a way to get other tracks in the mix.
I also agree with others that have said every track gets one race, but I know that wouldn’t be a good thing for shareholders of SMI/ISC. I do think it might improve attendance if you knew it was your one shot to see the Cup race at that track.
Just read Biffle tested at Texas World Speedway a few years back. Not a short track, but may provide great racing if SAFER barriers, etc were installed. Or they could run the road course there even, but wouldn’t be a bad idea to at least send Xfinity or Trucks there to try it out.
Go to Stafford Motor Speedway or back to Thompson International.
Those are short tracks…