Hey, I live in Georgia now...but in the past, I made my way from San Diego to Mesa Marin on a number of occasions for much lesser events than a Cup race.

So, where do you think Bristol is...."in the middle of no-friggin-where"!!!

I'll bet that the population/distance numbers for Kern County aren't alot different than quite a few other tracks that DO have Cup dates, and are better than some of them that could stand to lose a date.

A dynamic leader like Bruton Smith could make Bakersfield work. Just look at Bristol, which used to be a 10,000 seat track. Having Cup racing at any "Bristol West" venue would bring the people out. And with the wide open area such as Kern County, the campers could be made very happy.

The bigger problem with any future Cup location is controlling costs--to build, to buy tickets and attend, to have the local infrastructure capable of supporting it. I have not been there lately, but I know when Kansas Speedway was built (first race 2001), there was NOTHING around....now, quite a bit of the "essentials" are there.

You are welcome to disagree...

And I meant to say...just where do you think Darlington is? Try "nowhere"...and I don't live that far away. I'll get there some day.

Well, it may not be in the ideal location, but the replacement for the old Mesa Marin track is built but stalled--in Kern County http://www.kerncountynascar.com/ . A Cup race with 100,000 seats would be quite a feat, but I'm not sure that "if you build it they will come" applies to any track in California.

The more likely scenario would be for Bruton to rebuild the Las Vegas Bullring (Craig Road Speedway)property into "Bristol West"--even if it IS less than a mile from LVMS.