More Short Tracks

StandOnIt said:
Jeff Burton: Adding short tracks is not the right question

Burton believes historic tracks like North Carolina Motor Speedway (Rockingham) and North Wilkesboro Speedway lost their dates because of poor attendance.

“Rockingham wasn’t exactly full when we left,” Burton said. “There were a lot of empty seats in the grandstands. … Let’s don’t reinvent history and say these places were packed and the fans loved it, because fans were not going there and they were packing Chicago and Kansas and Texas.

“Let’s don’t confuse history and say the sport left those tracks. Those tracks had a role – and the fans had a role in not showing up.”

https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2018/0...dding-short-tracks-is-not-the-right-question/
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Spoken like a true PR/NASCAR man. Wilkesboro was full until the day Cup ran its last race. Rockinham’s race dates in Feb and Nov set it up to fail, the weather in the region seems like it doesn’t cooperate at that time. If he’s going to use that argument then take Dover, Michigan, Indy, Chicagoland, and other places off the schedule that can’t fill seats up. It’s such a cop out to use the attendance arguement when it comes to The Rock and Wilkesboro, call it what it is: NASCAR left those places because they wanted to expand their footprint out of the southeast.
 
StandOnIt said:
Jeff Burton: Adding short tracks is not the right question

Burton believes historic tracks like North Carolina Motor Speedway (Rockingham) and North Wilkesboro Speedway lost their dates because of poor attendance.

“Rockingham wasn’t exactly full when we left,” Burton said. “There were a lot of empty seats in the grandstands. … Let’s don’t reinvent history and say these places were packed and the fans loved it, because fans were not going there and they were packing Chicago and Kansas and Texas.

“Let’s don’t confuse history and say the sport left those tracks. Those tracks had a role – and the fans had a role in not showing up.”

https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2018/0...dding-short-tracks-is-not-the-right-question/
Click to expand...
Jeff, nice job of misinterpreting the reasons behind those attendance numbers. Chicago, Kansas, and Texas didn't draw more people because they were 1.5ers vs. Rockingham's 1-mile. It's because they're in major metropolitan areas with millions of people within an hour's drive on interstates, with plenty of good hotels to house traveling fans. Rockingham is in the boonies, with nothing else to do and hotels where the bedbugs didn't go barefoot.
 
I can support that lifestyle, but a town featuring that isn't going to attract tens of thousands of people a couple of times a year any more. Darlington at least has two interstates within 10 miles along with Florence's hotels. It also has the major tourism destination of Myrtle Beach 90 miles down the road; many fans use the race to start or complete beach vacations.
 
Snappy D said:
Spoken like a true PR/NASCAR man. Wilkesboro was full until the day Cup ran its last race. Rockinham’s race dates in Feb and Nov set it up to fail, the weather in the region seems like it doesn’t cooperate at that time. If he’s going to use that argument then take Dover, Michigan, Indy, Chicagoland, and other places off the schedule that can’t fill seats up. It’s such a cop out to use the attendance arguement when it comes to The Rock and Wilkesboro, call it what it is: NASCAR left those places because they wanted to expand their footprint out of the southeast.
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North Wilkesboro was adding seats those final years.
It's a common misconception that NWS didn't sell out and only had 40,000 seats. Very smart people have been programmed to believe this because they've heard it so much.
Charlie Spencer said:
Jeff, nice job of misinterpreting the reasons behind those attendance numbers. Chicago, Kansas, and Texas didn't draw more people because they were 1.5ers vs. Rockingham's 1-mile. It's because they're in major metropolitan areas with millions of people within an hour's drive on interstates, with plenty of good hotels to house traveling fans. Rockingham is in the boonies, with nothing else to do and hotels where the bedbugs didn't go barefoot.
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Rockingham is a ****hole. One of the worst towns in the state. I love that track but the area around it sucks. Every time I drive through there, I roll my windows up.
 
No, 381 to business 74 to 220/I74. Took the wife past Level Cross just to show it to her. I've logged a LOT of miles on the back roads of the rural south, including eastern Kentucky and Western West Virginia, so maybe my perspective of Shi*hole is a little different. Now some of the towns in West Virginia coal mine country.......
 
US 15 to Laurenberg where I'd rendezvous with my Dad and friends at Wal-mart and get sandwiches at Subway. US 74 from the east to Bus. 74 into Hamlet to pick up NC 177 and come at the track from the back side. 177 offers a lovely view of dilapidated trailers on the left and the railroad freight yard on the right.


And I'd give almost anything to have a racing reason to make that crappy run again.
 
Formerjackman said:
No, 381 to business 74 to 220/I74. Took the wife past Level Cross just to show it to her. I've logged a LOT of miles on the back roads of the rural south, including eastern Kentucky and Western West Virginia, so maybe my perspective of Shi*hole is a little different. Now some of the towns in West Virginia coal mine country.......
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You missed alot of what Charles was talking about taking that route. I remember that rail yard too Charles, that meant you were getting close lol. Oh and dont forget how lovely the traffic before and after was, Kentucky would be proud.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
177 offers a lovely view of dilapidated trailers on the left and the railroad freight yard on the right.
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Hey, I'm one of those people that think railroad yards are things of beauty! I've driven considerable distances just to photograph them.
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Coincidentally, I work for a company that engineers, manufactures, installs, and / or manages the control systems for freight yards, mass transit, freight, and other rail systems. Any yet somehow I still don't regard a rail yard as one of the more beautiful tourist destinations. Isn't it ironic, don'tcha think? :rolleyes:
 
Work tends to take the fun out of everything. I love trains, but I have no desire to work for a railroad. I prefer to research them, watch them and photograph them. One of my current projects is to photograph every existing railroad station and depot in the state of Indiana. I am an auto mechanic by trade, but left the work early on because working on junk ass cars every day took all of the joy out of the work. I much prefer working on race cars, muscle cars, tractors, and doing welding and fabrication work, but doing it more as a hobby, not a job. Here is the engine for my friend's all original 57 Chevy project that I completed recently.
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aunty dive said:
^ Is the bolt missing from the exhaust manifold on back-order? :D
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That is where the lifting chain was attached, and I forgot to screw it back in before I took the pictures. I had the engine off the stand, and then put it back on for photos. The familiar Chevy lifting brackets that attach to the intake manifold bolts were added sometime after 1957, as this engine never had them.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
North Wilkesboro was adding seats those final years.
It's a common misconception that NWS didn't sell out and only had 40,000 seats. Very smart people have been programmed to believe this because they've heard it so much.

Rockingham is a ****hole. One of the worst towns in the state. I love that track but the area around it sucks. Every time I drive through there, I roll my windows up.
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We watched the last Bristol race, i haven't watched a nascar race in over 2 years...loved every bit of what we saw the other night.
Short track racing needs to come back.

I'm buying 4 tickets to the first race at NW if it ever comes back. it still pisses me off every time i drive by it to see what the smith family has done do that place.

It's in real bad shape though.
 
I guess I'll believe it when actual dates are announced, but some cool developments of late.


 
Realistically Cup no, but there is ZERO reason the trucks shouldn't go to those tracks, and probably Xfinity too.
 
I would like to see trucks and Xfinity series combining at more short tracks
and leave Cup, ARCA and Modified at the big tracks. :sarcasm:
 
sdj said:
I like a good short track race as good as anybody, but, you go sit 1/2 way between turn 4 exit and the entrance to pit road in one one of the bottom 5 rows at Atlanta for a race and then tell me what ya think. As I stated, I like short tracks, but, I like SPEED and raw horsepower more and watching these drivers manhandle a race car that is on the edge of out of control 98% of the time at corner entry speeds of 180 to 219 MPH for 500 miles is what big time NASCAR Racing is about, this ain't Late Model racing.;)
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Yeah cause they don't has the to manhandle the cars at a short track, yeah right...
And horse power can't be seen coming off a short track corner. And there ain't nothing to managing horsepower for the corner entry at the paperclip.

You get all the stuff with the intensity on steroids at a short track.
 
Go Panthers said:
We watched the last Bristol race, i haven't watched a nascar race in over 2 years...loved every bit of what we saw the other night.
Short track racing needs to come back.

I'm buying 4 tickets to the first race at NW if it ever comes back. it still pisses me off every time i drive by it to see what the smith family has done do that place.

It's in real bad shape though.
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Yes NWS needs a ton of work but I really believe that one of the single-biggest things NASCAR could do to restore interest from lost fans would be to commit to bringing a race back there, even if it was just the All-Star race.
 
sdj said:
I like a good short track race as good as anybody, but, you go sit 1/2 way between turn 4 exit and the entrance to pit road in one one of the bottom 5 rows at Atlanta for a race and then tell me what ya think. As I stated, I like short tracks, but, I like SPEED and raw horsepower more and watching these drivers manhandle a race car that is on the edge of out of control 98% of the time at corner entry speeds of 180 to 219 MPH for 500 miles is what big time NASCAR Racing is about, this ain't Late Model racing.;)
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I'm kinda in the same boat about short tracks, I watch most of the lower series race them, K&N, ARCA and most of them are yawners, single lane, hardly any passing and creeping slow speeds. If I want to watch good short track racing I watch the dirt sprints, multiple grooves, much faster speeds and IMO better driver skill. Not a big fan of more short tracks being the "revival" cure all end all for the Nascar Cup series.
 
carolinabuff said:
Yes NWS needs a ton of work but I really believe that one of the single-biggest things NASCAR could do to restore interest from lost fans would be to commit to bringing a race back there, even if it was just the All-Star race.
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NWS has been gone for 25 years, Rockingham from the Cup schedule for 15. While I can accept the position that people left because of some of the tracks the series moved to, I don't know about them being that affected by tracks it moved away from. NASCAR has been adding and dropping tracks from the beginning.

I don't see attempting to recreate the past as an effective strategy for the future; maybe it's time to stop worrying about the shrinking population of former fans and focus on the much larger pool of potential new ones.
 
Greg said:
Yeah cause they don't has the to manhandle the cars at a short track, yeah right...
And horse power can't be seen coming off a short track corner. And there ain't nothing to managing horsepower for the corner entry at the paperclip.

You get all the stuff with the intensity on steroids at a short track.
Click to expand...

Like I said earlier, this ain't late Model racing at the Cup level.
 
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