Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Johnson says more West Coast venues needed

Tuesday, April 15, 2003 | 9:41 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

The West Coast deserves more NASCAR Winston Cup races, driver Jimmie Johnson said, but moving races to tracks such as California Speedway or Las Vegas Motor Speedway may not be the best solution.

Johnson said he would rather see the Winston Cup circuit make only one stop a year at each track and branch out into new markets.

"We run into problems now where tracks have two dates and neither one of their events are sold out because the novelty is gone," Johnson said Monday. "If you only had one and it was the 'the' event, that one event everywhere would be sold out.

"(Those tracks) could build more grandstands and really blow out that one weekend a year. That way, we hit as many markets in as many states as possible."

Although Johnson said he was in favor of tracks that can't sell out two dates losing one of their races, he would not want to see some of the older tracks fall off the schedule.

"I don't think we need to lose Martinsville and Darlington and Rockingham," Johnson said. "Those tracks have a lot of heritage and they've really brought the sport to where it is today so I think it's a good compromise to keep the old tracks around then bring in new ones that will make everybody happy."

With NASCAR talking of realigning its 36-race schedule beginning next year, California Speedway in Fontana is being mentioned as one of the tracks that could pick up a second race at the expense of tracks such as North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham and Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. Those were two of the tracks singled out by NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. earlier this year as facilities that could be in jeopardy of losing one of their two Winston Cup dates.

"I'm glad to hear that California is being considered as an option," Johnson said. Johnson, a Southern California native, won his first career Winston Cup race last year at California Speedway.

"There are a lot of race fans out there that are craving this and wanting (more races)." he said. "The more dates that we can have out there -- even if it's just another track in the area or something -- but we need more West Coast dates. There is a huge fan base out there that is wanting it."

Busch, 17, led every practice session at Nashville Speedway, set the track record in qualifying for the pole and led 84 of the 113 laps in the race.

Rick Hendrick was on hand to witness his newest driver's debut with his team and said he was impressed with Busch's performance.

"I was so impressed with the way Kyle handled himself during (the) race," Hendrick said. "I could swear he's 26 and not 17. He was so calm and cool inside that car, even with the veteran Frank Kimmel chasing him on the restarts.

"This is just great for this team and we're so glad to have Kyle on board."

Busch, the younger brother of Winston Cup star Kurt Busch, will make his NASCAR Busch Series debut May 24 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. His next ARCA race will be May 10 at Kentucky Speedway.