February 25, 2010
By Doug Demmons
Every year at this time the same debate is engaged -- should Auto Club Speedway in Fontana have two NASCAR Sprint Cup races each year?
The obvious answer is no.
The grandstands that seat 92,000 were barely half full on Sunday drawing from a Southern California population base of millions. NASCAR is as much an oddity to the vast majority of Southern Californians as it is to New Yorkers.
Compound that with the fact that the racing is often boring at the relatively flat 2-mile oval -- including Sunday’s race.
Cars strung out along the track -- even if there is an “exciting” battle for 12th place -- does nothing to entice casual fans. That’s the norm at ACS and there is nothing to be done about it.
Actually, there is something that can be done about it, but it won’t happen. ACS President Gillian Zucker had suggested a while back increasing the banking and making ACS a restrictor-plate track.
That might actually work -- turn it into Talladega West. But International Speedway Corp., which owns the track, isn’t going to spend the millions it would take to do it.
And now that it appears Daytona might have to repaved earlier than anticipated at a cost of $20 million, pouring more millions into ACS is even less likely to happen.
So why does NASCAR continue to run at ACS twice a year? Several reasons spring to mind.
First, Los Angeles is the second largest TV market in the nation. TV ratings for Sunday’s race were down from last year, but will likely still be higher than most other races on the schedule.
Many of the sports sponsors are located in Los Angeles and want to come out and check on their investments. But this could easily be done once a year at Fontana or with a short jaunt to Las Vegas or Phoenix.
Then there is the argument that being in Los Angeles makes it possible for the sport to be promoted on TV shows that it normally would never get any mention on -- simply because the drivers happen to be in town. This is said to be a good thing because it exposes the sport to potential new fans.
But a big reason, I suspect, is cultural. NASCAR wants to be accepted on the national stage, to be embraced beyond the Southeast, as if cracking the New York and Southern California markets would somehow rid NASCAR of the redneck image some people still carry.
All this is worth rehashing because NASCAR is likely this year to shift a race from one ISC track to accommodate Kansas Speedway and the new casino being built there. The question is which of ISC’s 12 tracks loses a race to make room for a second Kansas race.
The frontrunners are Auto Club Speedway and Martinsville.
Those who defend ACS point out that Martinsville only has about 62,000 seats, so a sellout there isn’t much more than ACS drew on Sunday.
True. But Martinsville is in one of the smallest markets in the country and still outdraws or keeps pace with Fontana.
Martinsville is also the only track still on the schedule that was around when NASCAR was barely out of its moonshine days. And Martinsville is a unique short track where the racing is never boring.
Abandoning Martinsville would be like hitting the big time and replacing your wife of 30 years with a trophy wife. It just ain’t right.
So NASCAR will just have to decide which is more important -- rubbing elbows with the stars in L.A. or doing right by the fans who have supported the sport for decades.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes daily and weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at Blog of Tommorow
Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougdemmons
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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