Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: West has long way to go before catching Deep South at gate

Tuesday, March 1, 2005 | 9:22 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.

FONTANA, Calif. -- By most accounts, Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at California Speedway fell at least 20,000 spectators shy of a sellout.

As is the case with most speedways, track officials did not release attendance figures for the Auto Club 500 -- the first of two Nextel Cup races California Speedway will hold this year. Most crowd estimates for Sunday's race were in the 70,000 to 90,000 range in a facility that can hold 115,000, including infield spectators.

In fairness to the folks at California Speedway, they were faced with the daunting task of promoting and selling their third Nextel Cup race in nine months (last year's spring race here fell on May 2 and they hosted their second event of 2004 on Labor Day Weekend). Sunday's race also fell two weeks before the series' popular stop at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- about a 3-hour drive from Fontana.

Kurt Busch, a Las Vegas native who finished third Sunday, was busy inside his racecar and admitted he did not notice the crowd, but said he had a theory about why the track may have had trouble selling out.

"The one thing I do notice about our West Coast fans is that it's new to them," Busch said of the NASCAR experience. "They're not as diehard as the fans in the Southeast, where those guys will pack their coolers to specifications ... and sit in the grandstands and don't move. Fans on the West Coast, they come out for the feeling of NASCAR. What they get from that is the start of the race (and) then they might go down to the midway to get a soda during a long green (flag) run or when there's a yellow.

"It's new to them and I think eventually, over time, people will be so captivated by it that they'll learn that Jimmie is on four tires, I'm out there on old tires, some guys took two (tires), some guys are stretching fuel, and they'll catch the racing that's going on within the race."

The flaw in Busch's theory is that NASCAR's premier series has been racing in Southern California since 1951 -- although not on a consistent basis -- and was a fixture in the Inland Empire at Riverside International Raceway and Ontario Motor Speedway from 1963 to1988.

Jimmie Johnson, a Southern California native who finished second Sunday, offered his two cents worth on the matter.

"I think when you have two events at any track, you take away a little bit from each event," Johnson said. "When you have a single event, there's a demand; it's the one shot you have to go and watch a race there. If there are two dates, you think, well, maybe you've got some stuff going on and you'll go to the next one.

"It gives more people an opportunity to go to the races and the overall attendance would be up, obviously. There are probably more new fans coming because of the two events, but it's new on the West Coast and I think it's going to take some time."

Johnson then offered a suggestion that certainly won't come as welcome news to those tracks -- such as Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- that are trying to secure a second annual Nextel Cup race.

"I would love to see us go to single events all over and race in every single state at 38 different races and hit every fan around the country." Johnson said.

DOWN MEXICO WAY: The NASCAR Busch Series' inaugural race Sunday in Mexico City has attracted 51 entries as of Monday, including eight Nextel Cup Series regulars.

Kevin Harvick, Kenny Wallace, Jamie McMurray, Robby Gordon, Carl Edwards, Rusty Wallace, Elliott Sadler and Boris Said are making the journey to Mexico City to compete in the 80-lap Telcel Motorola Mexico 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course.

Fox will televise the race live beginning at noon (PST).

WALTRIP POKER TOURNEY: Beginning April 7, the Speed Channel will air a series of specials on the Michael Waltrip Celebrity Poker Tournament that was held Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at the Palms.

Waltrip was joined in the Texas Hold'em tournament by fellow drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Casey Mears, Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman, Kyle Petty, Elliott Sadler and Hermie Sadler and TV analyst Bennie Parsons.

The series will run in 1-hour installments on Thursday evenings from April 7 to May 19, and the June 2 series finale will be a 2-hour special. A complete schedule can be found at www.speedtv.com.