TRADITIONS DIE AS NASCAR ANNOUNCES MAJOR CHANGES.

Call me old-fashioned or a traditionalist. I don’t like to see changes. I understand why they happen but that does not mean I have to like them. There were dramatic changes made in the Nextel Cup schedule this past Friday and more traditions bit the dust.

            “If you are not in a major market and you don’t have 100,000 seats, you’re going to be in trouble,” said Speedway Motorsports Inc. President Humpy Wheeler in response to announcements made on Friday by NASCAR CEO Brian France.

            Darlington Raceway, an original on the Cup schedule, lost one of their dates and will run their only Cup race on Mother’s Day eve in 2005. And it will be an event run under the lights. Cup racing on Mother’s Day weekend has always been a no-no. Breaking tradition may not be easy in the South and could be a reason for that new date to fail. If it happens Darlington, with well less than 100,000 seats, could lose its only Cup date in the next schedule shuffle.

            Many will remember that Darlington was the site of the Southern 500 for many years. This year the Southern 500 date was given to California Speedway and Darlington got stuck with a night race in November for their Southern 500. Not quite the same. And now they have hammered the nail in the coffin of the Southern 500 as the November date disappears from the schedule.

            And North Carolina Speedway (Rockingham), cut to one Cup race this season, has been eliminated from the 2005 schedule. In fact the track has been sold to Speedway Motorsports Inc. with the Cup date being moved to Texas Motor Speedway giving them two races in 2005. The second race will be on November 6th making it part of the 10-race Championship Chase.

            To give you an idea of just how much a Nextel Cup date is worth Bruton Smith and his SMI group paid more than $100 million for Rockingham and there are no plans announced for the future of the track. Smith and New Hampshire International Speedway owner Bob Bahre spent $65 million a few years back to buy North Wilkesboro Speedway which had 2 Cup dates at the time. Smith moved a date to Texas Motor Speedway and Bahre moved the other date to his speedway. North Wilkesboro sits deteriorating with no plans for its use any time in the future.

            California Speedway will give up a spring date and move to the second race date of the season, one week after the Daytona 500. Someone finally figured out that racing in Rockingham in the winter was not a good idea.

            In addition International Speedway Corporation has announced that they have purchased Martinsville, VA Speedway from the France family and Clay Campbell. That does not bode well for the future of the track if Humpy Wheeler is correct in his statement. Martinsville has a little over 60,000 seats and is not in a major market. One of their two dates could disappear (ending up at Kansas Speedway) when new dates are announced for 2006.

            All these announcements, reshuffling, came about as the Ferko lawsuit (a Speedway Motorsports Inc. shareholder) against NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation was settled. Ferko had sued claiming that Texas Motor Speedway, owned by SMI, had been promised a second date by Bill France Jr. (NASCAR) but that did not happen. France claimed he never made such a promise.

            In February Brian France told us he welcome the court battle. Friday he indicated that it came down to finding a solution that works.

            Some say that NASCAR and ISC welcomed the opportunity to settle so that they were not forced into the position of facing questions about antitrust violations. Many have accused NASCAR and ISC of being a monopoly.

            Though Brian France said that he hopes no tracks lose a date in the future the handwriting is on the wall. ISC is looking at locations in the Seattle and New York areas. If that happens there will be tracks losing dates and it will be the tracks that are not in major markets and do not have 100,000 seats.  

            With more and more Cup dates going to Saturday nights (prime time TV coverage) the short track racing industry (there are a thousand or more short tracks around U.S. and Canada) will be facing some difficult times. Just about every short track racing promoter will tell you that when there are Cup races televised on Saturday nights it does hurt their attendance.

            Short tracks have been the backbone of oval track racing for many years but they seem to have been forgotten by the people making the schedule decisions in major league auto racing. Quite frankly there is nothing more exciting than sitting in the grandstands at a local short track watching contact sport three and four abreast racing action.

            – THIS WEEKEND FANS  can head to Nazareth Speedway and watch NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series drivers Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Johnny Sauter and, pending sponsorship, Robby Gordon. That’s right, all have shown interest in Nazareth Speedway and at least four of the five Cup drivers have confirmed their attendance and will be competing at the “World’s Fastest Mile” this weekend – right in your own backyard!  It’s not too late to get your tickets for the Goulds Pumps ITT Industries 200 at Nazareth Speedway on May 22-23.  Tickets are still available for this NASCAR extravaganza featuring the NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series races on Sunday, May 23.

            Two-time Daytona 500 champion, Michael Waltrip didn’t plan to run the entire season in the Busch series however, since the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway he has shown interest on several occasions about racing at Nazareth Speedway. “We're going to run until possibly Charlotte or even Nazareth. That would get us through Dover running all the races.”  Waltrip said during a NASCAR teleconference on April 25 and confirmed his attendance today. Waltrip drives the #99 Aaron’s Chevrolet in the Busch Series and is in the thick of the battle for the Busch Series title.