March 11, 2009
By Chuck Abrams
First of all, a good race and an interesting victory lap by Kurt Busch. Busch and Jeff Gordon’s combined resurgence (OK, I know it is early) is refreshing after last year where Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch dominated the season.
But let’s put the race aside for a moment and talk about all the empty seats at Atlanta Motor Speedway. After admonishing California a couple of weeks ago, I have to wonder what is going on in Atlanta?
Atlanta often gives us weird spring weather and weather can often hurt ticket sales. But this year the weather was perfect and still there was about a third of the seats still open. That is a lot in the heart of NASCARland. Of course times are hard right now and people are cutting back. But Atlanta has had a hard time selling out both of its dates in recent years and if that continues, economy woes or not, it may lose one of its race dates.
Las Vegas could get a second date and Bruton Smith will be trying to get a race date at his newly acquired Kentucky Speedway.
Atlanta puts on a tough show as the track eats tires like crazy. The speeds are also among the fastest in all of NASCAR. It is the site of some of the best finishes in NASCAR. But if no one shows up, NASCAR will go somewhere that will fill the seats. That is a fact.
In Atlanta’s favor is that even two thirds full, it seats about as many as California does full. So if any track loses a date first, it should be California.
Kentucky is nearly as flat as California but smaller and only seats about 68,000 (with boxes). NASCAR doesn’t like that small of gate, but Chicago, Martinsville and Darlington are also in that same arena of seating so it is possible.
We will have to watch other tracks carefully the rest of the year to fully understand just how much the economy is dragging down attendance across all tracks this year.
On the other hand, TV viewership is up. So while you are not going to the track, you are watching it on TV. So there is a silver lining somewhere in this for NASCAR even though it is hurting the tracks.
OK, next up – Digger.
Get rid of that thing! As soon as the cartoon “commercial” started, I clicked off the pre-race show for several minutes to avoid shooting my TV. I endure the on-screen freak whenever the buried camera view is shown, but now I cannot even stand that. This animated atrocious animal is an affront to all things racing and a less than subtle marketing ploy.
I cringe every time I listen to Mike Joy or Larry Mac mention anything about Digger. Waltrip can not possibly love that creature and every time he mentions it, his racing credentials are reduced. Pretty soon, he will not be a viable voice in NASCAR as a retired all time great driver because of his shilling for some stupid Fox animated gopher.
There, I said it. Someone had to.
OK, now weigh in with your thoughts.
Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at Insider Racing News.
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