Earnhardt Jr.-Busch Richmond Rivalry

Mopardh9 said:
How big is the track supposed to be?
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IMO it sounds & looks like they are building another Richmond track. There is a link on their web site to a .pdf that shows the layout of the entire complex.

Oval Track
7/10-mile lighted asphalt D-shaped oval with progressive banking on turns.
Planned for ample front-stretch pit stalls and infield garage capacity for 100 haulers and cars
75,000 permanent seats, expandable to 125,000. Seating would include significant number of climate-controlled seats.
Investigating potential of creating significant evacuation center using concrete flooring and seating.
Track will be designed to accommodate stock car racing, open wheel racing and other applicable motorsports activities.


ROAD COURSE
3.4-mile road course in two distinct, but connecting, sections to provide for unique testing capabilities.
Investigating drive-on, drive-off condo/garage combinations.
Some climate-controlled seating planned in addition to permanent seating and traditional infield expanse used for road-racing spectators.

Here's a link to their website......

http://www.alabamamotorsportspark.com/
 
Spike said:
I like Talladega, but thats neither here nor there.

75,000 just seems like alot of seating for a short track(or any track) unless it gets a Sprint Cup race. I would assume a truck and Nationwide race is almost a given though.
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Google "Kentucky Speedway"
 
I dont get the reference...Nashville is twice the length and has 10,000 fewer seats.
 
Spike said:
I dont get the reference...Nashville is twice the length and has 10,000 fewer seats.
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Nationwide, Trucks and ARCA already race in Talladega, which seats over 160,000. Why would they add another track there?

And IndyCar already races at St. Pete. Just because you build it doesn't mean they'll come... see Kentucky.

Only thing I could see GCE doing is closing the oval at Memphis and moving its dates to Alabama.
 
Spike said:
I dont get the reference...Nashville is twice the length and has 10,000 fewer seats.
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Nashville wouldn't have gotten a date if it hadn't been near, well, Nashville.

And I'd still rather see them race at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.
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Mobile and Talladega are roughly 4 hours apart, about twice the distance Joliet and Indianapolis are from each other(among others).
 
Spike said:
Mobile and Talladega are roughly 4 hours apart, about twice the distance Joliet and Indianapolis are from each other(among others).
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Closest Truck races (that's not on a weekday) to me are Kentucky and Martinsville. Both of those drives are well over 4 hours. :rolleyes:

And I live in a market that's much bigger and much more profitable than Mobile.
 
Spike said:
Mobile and Talladega are roughly 4 hours apart, about twice the distance Joliet and Indianapolis are from each other(among others).
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Chicago is the third largest city in the US, and they only have one date.

Indianapolis has a population that's three times the size of the Mobile area, and they only have one Sprint Cup race as well.

If I were NASCAR, I'd give Gateway a Cup race before I even thought about giving Alabama Motorsports Park a Nationwide or Truck race... that is unless I were leveling Talladega.
 
I failed to mention that the Dover racetrack, which runs it's Truck race on Friday, is still a three hour drive from me.

And I also failed to mention that my market, the DC market, has over 5.3 million people.

The Mobile market serves just under 400,000 people.

That means my market, the DC market that does not have a Truck race, is around roughly 13 times larger than Mobile's market. So, in business terms, it makes more sense for NASCAR to move a Truck race here when the new track is built in St. Mary's County than it does to move a Truck race to Mobile.

Also, Philadelphia, which has over 5 million people as well, is 40 minutes away from New Jersey Motorsports Park. Atlantic City is also 40 minutes from NJMP. Given those numbers, I'd say it'd be a solid bet that New Jersey will probably get a Nationwide/Truck date before Mobile does.
 
I wasnt arguing for it to have one. Just pointing out that distance wouldn't be much of an issue. I would love for Gateway to get a Cup race since it is less than an hour from the house and I could stop at White Castle on the way home.

Didn't the Fairground Speedway have Winston Cup races not too long ago?

Nashville, btw, is the greatest city on Earth.
 
Spike said:
I wasnt arguing for it to have one. Just pointing out that distance wouldn't be much of an issue. I would love for Gateway to get a Cup race since it is less than an hour from the house and I could stop at White Castle on the way home.
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And I'm pointing out the population things.

Building a track to seat 75,000 (expandable to 125,000) makes no sense out there since they're counting on a quarter to a half of the population coming out to see the races.

Realistically, if my track (Old Dominon) wanted it and put the effort for it, we'd get a race before Alabama Motorsports Park even finished filling out it's application.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
They used to have races at a place called Fairgrounds Raceway in Birmingham, AL through 1968.
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Richmond and Beltsville also had 2 races that year. Both those tracks are within 2 hours of my house. While at it, Langley (which is about 2 hours from Richmond) also had 2 races in 1968.
 
How much does it really matter what the local population is to a given track? People come from everywhere for these races. If population mattered, California would be a sell out each race.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
How much does it really matter what the local population is to a given track? People come from everywhere for these races. If population mattered, California would be a sell out each race.
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It matters to NASCAR. They still have 2 races in Southern California despite 5 years of failure.
 
AndyMarquisLIVE said:
And I'm pointing out the population things.

Building a track to seat 75,000 (expandable to 125,000) makes no sense out there since they're counting on a quarter to a half of the population coming out to see the races.

Realistically, if my track (Old Dominon) wanted it and put the effort for it, we'd get a race before Alabama Motorsports Park even finished filling out it's application.
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I think that you misunderstood my point or maybe I misunderstood yours. You seemed to indicate that NASCAR had to rely on the local population to come out to see the race. That's what I had disagreed with. Every time that I hear one of these track presidents come on NASCAR Radio prior to their race, they say that most of their fans come from states other than their own. Now if you are saying that NASCAR likes to be in area of high population, I agree with that. I don't think that it is for putting butts in the seats though. I think that they just don't want it to look like a 'redneck' sport. They'd rather have it look like they are accepted by a place like New York.
 
Sorry, I just love Nashville. I would move back there in a heartbeat.

And yea, population matters. Its why places like North Wilkesborro and Rockingham lost dates(that and Bruton Smith is a POS).
 
That was only the case with Rockingham IIRC. This is the same reason Kentucky will likely never get a Cup race though. If it was a tad closer to Louisville...
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Those places lost out because of the population in the stands, not the local area.
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Rockingham is in the middle of bum**** nowhere, with a crappy one lane road leading to the track with nothing to do outside the track. They still got over 80% of their seats full.

California has interstates and highways leading to the track. There's a ton of nightlife in LA. They can't even sell 75% of their seats.

If the Southern California track was in the middle of New Mexico, no Cup race. It's that simple.
 
North Wilkesboro Speedway lost it's dates because the owners transferred them to their other tracks.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
North Wilkesboro Speedway lost it's dates because the owners transferred them to their other tracks.
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If you want to get down to it, Rockingham lost it's date because Texas Motor Speedway sued NASCAR and a judge ordered NASCAR give them a second race.
 
AndyMarquisLIVE said:
If you want to get down to it, Rockingham lost it's date because Texas Motor Speedway sued NASCAR and a judge ordered NASCAR give them a second race.
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No, No judge ordered NASCAR give TMS a second date.

Rockingham lost its date because it continually sold less than 35,000 tickets, so it lost 1 date but it WAS purchased and the second date was moved.

TMS did not sue NASCAR, an individual investor, Plano resident Francis Ferko sued NASCAR.

Bruton Smith BOUGHT Rockingham from ISC for over $100,000,000 and moved the date to TMS. Before NASCAR would approve the date change, the lawsuit had to be dropped.

Paying $100,000,000 for a race track that one really doesn't want isn't a gift.
Bruton also had the option to continue running that race date at Rockingham, so the fact is NO date has been given to TMS Bruton has purchased BOTH dates. The other date came from his joint purcase of N. Wilksboro with Bob Beher(sp)? of NHIS and 1 date was moved to each track.
 
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