October 24, 2008
By Rebecca Gladden
Unless you're a NASCAR fan living in South Florida, the name Curtis Gray may not be immediately familiar.
But Gray, President of Homestead-Miami Speedway since 1999, actually has deep roots in stock car racing.
A Florida native, Gray was Director of the Winston Cup Series during one of its most explosive growth eras, from 1993 to 1999.
Those years saw the emergence of an entirely new direction for the sport as it branched into new markets, with new tracks and a hot young superstar-in-the-making named Jeff Gordon.
During Gray's tenure, Gordon won three Winston Cup championships to Dale Earnhardt's two - but Gray credits Earnhardt and Gordon equally, as well as Richard Petty, for impacting the sport in different though profound ways.
"Richard Petty really brought in the fan element," he told me. "He built that relationship between the drivers and the fans. Earnhardt brought the business part into the sport. It was uncanny how he was able to brand and grow the sport. And Gordon reached a different demographic than other drivers reached - younger fans, and in different parts of the country. He reached that South Beach or Miami crowd that may not have been reached prior to Jeff."
Beyond attracting a younger, arguably more affluent fan base to NASCAR, Gray believes that Gordon started the move toward younger drivers - a trend that continues today.
"Jeff Gordon changed the way team owners look at the caliber of young drivers," he said. "It used to be that if you were under 30 years old, owners didn't think you had the experience to drive a good car. Jeff won his first championship at 24 and now all the owners are looking at guys 18 to 20 years old."
Case in point: Kyle Busch, the racing phenom who's won more Cup races than any other driver this year, and has 20 wins across NASCAR's top three series - a new single-season record.
Busch entered his first truck race at the tender age of 16, but was forced to stop competing for a while when NASCAR established a rule requiring drivers to be 18 in order to race.
Now 23, Busch completely dominated the first 26 Cup races this year, but quickly fell to the bottom of the championship standings once the Chase began.
Under the circumstances, I asked Gray whether he thinks the current points format helps or hurts the sport.
"I think our sport needed the Chase," he said. "At the end of the year, how we established a champion before was somewhat anticlimactic. The Chase really makes the teams better. They compete at a higher level. The competition is better than it's ever been and there's a focus on our sport like there never has been during the run for the championship. The Chase brings other teams into it with a chance to win the championship after 26 races. You look at this year in particular. We pretty much would have handed the trophy to Kyle Busch after 26 races and that's the way it always worked - it seemed like one or two drivers always separated themselves. Now you don't have that any more."
But is it fair to Busch and others who've been in his situation?
"That happens in every sport. A team would dominate during the regular season - last year's Super Bowl is a perfect example. The team that 'should have' won or 'deserved' to win was obviously the New England Patriots, but they weren't the best team that day, and that's what happens. That's what makes it exciting. Now, you have this playoff situation and you can argue either side - the team that's consistent all year versus the team that's best under pressure. That pressure has never been there in our sport - not to this level. Unfortunately for Kyle, the 18 team didn't perform that well during the Chase."
The team that has done well under pressure, not just this year but for three seasons running, is the No. 48 team of Jimmie Johnson, with crew chief Chad Knaus on the pit box. Though Johnson appears to be on his way to a third straight Cup title, Gray feels it won't be long before other teams figure out what Johnson and crew are doing right.
"I believe what's happening is that the other teams are watching how they're doing this, and it looks to me like the 48 team is getting better prepared for these last ten races than the other teams are able to do. They have a very distinct game plan. They know exactly what they want to do at each track. They have an expectancy of where they're going to finish. Their goals are different at each track. Every team does that, but I don't think they're focusing on these last ten races as much as the 48 team seems to be. I think what's going to come out of this is we're going to see a more competitive drive for the championship in years to come, as teams are seeing what this team is doing and start applying it to their team."
Gray contends that highlighting the prestige of the NASCAR championship will benefit the entire sport, and not just because the final races for all three series are held at Homestead-Miami each year. He worries about what he calls the "Tiger Woods Syndrome," in which elite young athletes achieve fame and fortune early on and then selectively compete on a part-time basis, hurting the sport as a whole.
"These drivers are making so much money now at a young age that they aren't going to want to race until they're 30 or 40 years old. That has happened with Tiger Woods and it affects the attendance and the popularity of that golf tournament or that race."
Of course, track presidents are also coping with fallout from the current economic downturn, which hurt sports like auto racing that depend on discretionary spending. "I think everybody is being affected in some way. It's not just certain sports or NASCAR, but all sorts of entertainment events. We're feeling it. The economy in South Florida has been hurt by the economic situation as bad or worse than any area of the country. However, having the championship events for all three of NASCAR's premiere series helps get you over that hump. Obviously, our fans travel from far away to get to the championship events, and we've still sold tickets in all 50 states and we expect to sell the event out."
Always an innovator, Gray brought the same flare for marketing to Homestead-Miami that he used to spearhead NASCAR's expansion in the 1990s. "I think all the tracks are starting to focus more on the total experience and the entertainment feature for fans in the grandstands, but we feel like we were among the first to do that. South Florida is not your traditional motorsports market, and when we first introduced NASCAR in South Florida, the crowd was maybe 50 percent NASCAR fans and 50 percent people who like big events. We had to introduce NASCAR as more of a fun, entertaining, party-type atmosphere."
Some of the added attractions include charity fundraisers, live concerts, interactive exhibits, casino events, driver appearances, and the "Sailfish Cup" fishing tournament.
Homestead execs have also carefully cultivated a relationship with the Hispanic community in South Florida, incorporating everything from ethnic foods at the concession stands to a Spanish-language section on the track's website. Gray is also proud of the track's art deco style and South Beach color scheme which give it a distinct Floridian flavor. "You could take this track and drop it in any other part of the country and people would still recognize it as our track. I don't think a lot of other tracks can say that."
Mr. Gray's lifetime accomplishments were recently acknowledged by the South Florida community when he was inducted into the Miami Sports Hall of Champions, joining previous inductees like Dan Marino, Joe DiMaggio, Muhammad Ali and Don Shula.
"For the Hall of Champions to recognize motorsports and our facility is a huge accomplishment," said Gray. "In ten years, to come into a market that has the Miami Dolphins, the Florida Marlins, the Miami Heat, we have every professional sport, plus major golf tournaments and tennis tournaments. To single our facility out and our sport out was a huge honor for us and a great recognition from the City of Miami."
Ford Championship Weekend kicks off on November 14 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Ford 200 Craftsman Truck race on Friday and the Ford 300 Nationwide race on Saturday. The weekend culminates with Sunday's Ford 400, the final race in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup.
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