Saturday, June 12, 2010

Kentucky Motor Speedway -- For Sprint Cup, Is It Just a Matter of Time??


The Nationwide Series trip to Kentucky Motor Speedway ups speculation what will be NASCAR’s (or Bruton Smith’s) next move for reallocating track dates to different facilities. One thing is certain, there will be a second date at Kansas, but from which International Speedway Corporation facility will that date be plucked. Surely, two dates at Fontana, California has proven a miserable failure. NASCAR would loathe abandoning such a large market, but if it were so good a draw why did it take so long between the closure of Ontario and Riverside before the Fontana track brought So Cal back to big league NASCAR?

Bruton Smith clearly wants a date at Kentucky. The move makes some sense as it opens up the southern Ohio, western Kentucky, and surrounding area a date on the calendar in an area where racing is popular. Their nearest Sprint Cup venues are Indianapolis for the Brickyard in one direction and Bristol, Tennessee in the other direction. Fine, but what Speedway Motor Sports facility gives up a date?

While Kentucky makes sense in many ways, does NASCAR really need another generic 1 ½ mile course? It was one thing when Charlotte and Atlanta were the only two, but then with the opening of Texas Motor Speedway, then Las Vegas, Homestead, Chicagoland, and Kansas (not to mention Fontana is of similar dimension and style to Michigan), NASCAR’s new tracks are quite generic. NASCAR has entered its era similar to when MLB and NFL franchises rushed to “cookie cutter” stadia like Three Rivers, Veterans Stadium, Riverfront, Busch II, Fulton County, and QUALCOMM – well at least a couple of them had real grass. Isn’t it time for a Camden Yards style revolution for new racing venues? Perhaps that’s what Rusty Wallace and his investors accomplished at Iowa. With its less than a mile .875 length and relatively slight banking, this most fan friendly facility creates much more appealing bump and grind racing.

NASCAR wants to spread the sport out to serve as many of the regions of the country as possible though certain factions in the Pacific Northwest clearly signaled NASCAR was not welcome. Surely, with Nationwide racing at St. Louis, Memphis, and Kentucky, that region forms a triangle where surely the top series might find a place to prosper. Kentucky will surely have its date before too long, but do we really need another generic “cookie cutter” track?

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