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Another race at Darlington and I was left scratching my head, wondering whose idea it was to take a race away from a track that produces great racing. Maybe someone at NASCAR had inhaled too much exhaust on the day the decision was made, or maybe we should really blame those suits on Wall Street who think NASCAR will be better off by moving races out West. Never mind that a race may end up at a track without much personality or the ability to excite fans with dramatic competition.
I’m all for growing this sport. And since I live in the West, I love seeing more racing in my back yard. But I can think of a handful of other tracks that should have given up a race before Darlington was forced to sacrifice one of its dates for a snooze-o-rama race at Auto Club Speedway in California. How can you grow a sport if a quality product is replaced with a watered down one? NASCAR is really selling entertainment, so shouldn’t the location that offers the best entertainment be the priority?
Besides, judging from the hits Wall Street is taking as a result of its greedy, over-investment in questionable home mortgages, I wonder if these “experts” are the right people to be listening to.
It’s time these Wall Street executives get out of their limousines and attend a race.
What is your favorite racing moment from Darlington? Feel free to post it here.
Purchase the latest StockcarToons book, "Nuts for Racing"
It doesn't matter what the track is like or where it is, Kyle Busch will make the race exciting.
He'll make the race exciting by wrecking every other car on the track.
Rather than have two races at Darlington, we should just have more tracks like Darlington (or Bristol, or Martinsville, or Dover).
"Visionary" Bruton Smith missed a tremendous opportunity last year when he turned LVMS into another Charlotte instead of another Richmond.
Actually, I don't think the racing is as good at Bristol since it was repaved.
NA$CAR is just blindly chasing dollars around the country. They wrongly think going to the Golden State will yield golden rewards. Not only have they been wrong about the $$$, they are wrong about the interest, and wrong about the racing as well.
I think the article oversimplifies the business and marketing dimensions of na$car...roughly half the tracks are owned by the France family and Mr. Smith owns most of the rest. There is pressure by Mr. Smith (and other track owners) to increase the number of events at their tracks (usually Mr. Smith has to buy a track to move a race away from it to another of his tracks). Yes, there is also pressure from the major team sponsors to have events in the larger market places to increase their exposure (I recall Mark Martin's sponsor, Winn-Dixie, refused to sponsor his car when it ran out west because they didn't even have stores out here). So the Winn-Dixie's give way to the national chains. Meanwhile, the France family wants national (and international) tv audience to grow because those contracts bring in the big $$$. I'm in favor of having many more tracks (including road courses and urban circuits) included in a multi-year rotation.