December 23, 2010
By Doug Demmons
Andrew Murstein is out to prove one of the oldest sayings in auto racing.
You know the one, about how the best way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a large fortune.
Yes, racing has drained a lot of bank accounts over the years, most recently George Gillett’s. Gillett used to own Richard Petty Motorsports -- a team he bought from Ray Evernham back when prices were sky high and sold this month when the price was rock bottom.
Coincidentally, Murstein, the president of Medallion Financial Corp., is the new owner/rescuer of RPM.
It didn’t take long for that acquisition to go to his head. The New York Daily News is reporting that Murstein has big plans beyond running AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose in the Cup Series this coming year.
Murstein wants to build a new race track in -- are you ready? -- New York City.
Yes, that’s right. The metropolis where International Speedway Corp still owns a hunk of useless property on Staten Island -- property it once dreamed of developing as a race track within sight of the glittering skyscrapers of Manhattan.
But Murstein figures he can succeed where NASCAR failed -- by building a track alongside existing facilities in either Queens or Brooklyn.
Here’s what a spokesman told the Daily News:
"We think NASCAR is one of the best and most profitable sports for investment. A track in or near New York City will draw many racing fans from the tristate area who now have to travel to Pocono."
This is the first problem with Murstein’s vision. NASCAR didn’t want to build a track in New York to provide a more convenient place for New York area fans to watch a race.
NASCAR was all about putting a race smack in the middle of the nation’s largest TV market and the home of numerous corporate sponsors.
But Murstein, God bless him, wants to provide solid racing entertainment for New York area fans. If he succeeds in turning the Big Apple on to the big oval, he should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nobel Prize and a lifetime pass to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
OK, so maybe I’m being too cynical. Maybe New York is just eaten up with NASCAR fans who spend their Saturday nights at some dirt track on the Upper East Side but can’t raise the bus fare to Pocono.
And it is certainly Murstein’s right to blow a wad of money on whatever boondoggle he wishes. And it would certainly be a very large wad.
But putting a NASCAR race in Queens would be like putting an NBA team in Bolivia. The locals might come out once or twice to check out the cultural curiosity, but that’s it.
If Murstein is so intent on becoming a track owner, there are several fine tracks available at bargain-basement prices -- tracks that are already built and come complete with those intangible assets known as history and sentimentality.
Bruton Smith would be happy to sell him North Wilkesboro Speedway. Murstein could probably pick up that track for what it would cost to get building permits for a track in Queens.
And I’ll bet Dover Motorsports wishes Murstein had been among the bidders when it auctioned off Memphis Motorsports Park earlier this month. Dover has a track outside St. Louis they’d be happy to entertain ridiculously low offers on.
So why build a track in New York when there’s perfectly good asphalt in North Wilkesboro and elsewhere in need of minimal investment. There’s even a beautiful facility outside of Atlanta that Bruton might be willing to part with.
And maybe a fresh face on the scene is just the ticket to turn one of these failing old tracks around, someone with a whole new concept of racing.
Do that, Mr. Murstein, and you’ll be a legend.
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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