And I'd be willing to bet about 99% of the population didn't use it either. But that's a story for another day.
Cuzzin Rickie and I went to the midget races in Indy on Thursday night for the BC39 race. It's a big attraction for midget racing fans and drivers with the show running for two consecutive nights. We went last year for the inaugural event and it was a miracle they managed to get the race in with all the rain that fell. This year it was a great night for racing with several qualifying races and a 39 lap main event. With all that talent out there the race was won by a 16 year old youngster who took home $15,000 for his efforts. They added 600 more seats for this years event and it looked to be pretty close to a sellout.
The Brickyard 400, however, wasn't even close to a sellout. The Missus turned the race on and I watched a bit of it before heading out to the shop to work on the sandblast cabinet. It looked like the stands were just about bare. Several sections had no one in them at all, and the grandstands by the starting line looked pretty sparse from what I could tell. I went to the first few races and it wasn't too bad getting around the first year but then they added another event the day before and then it was hard to find parking and took forever to get out after the event. It probably wasn't much tougher leaving after the race than it was after the midget race the other night, both events being held at IMS.
The race used to held in the middle of August and it was always hotter than hell. Now that they've moved it into September the weather should be better suited to sitting on aluminum bleachers for the better part of the day. However, with all the changes NASCAR has wrought, they've really shot themselves in the foot. I pretty much quit watching years ago when I tuned in to the Daytona race at the beginning of the year and sat through about of an hour of Jon Bon Jovi, Gillette razor flash cards in the stands and finally gave up after about an hour without seeing them turn a wheel and took the Missus to the movies to watch The Worlds Fastest Indian - that will give you an idea as to how long ago that's been. Then they went with "The Chase" and now they do some idiotic stage racing. And, of course, your Confederate flag is no longer welcome. I wouldn't be at all surprised if IMS lost money on the race yesterday. You damn sure didn't have to contend with a scalper to get a ticket. Just walk right up and lay your money down at the ticket booth - Plenty of good seats available.
2 comments:
I watch the 'local' track races-local to me-... Bristol and Kentucky speedway. I used to follow nascar with regularity, but lost track of it a few years after the Earnhardt tragedy.
I have a vague idea of who's who. I find myself more catching the highlight reel on youtube a few days later. Night races? We go to bed between 8:30-9pm, so that's out of the question. Ok when I was a night owl, but those days are history.
I can see what they were trying to do with the stage points and playoff system, but this is not football, and they are beginning to see the downsides, I think.
...Rich in Ky
They need to figure it out pretty soon or they won't have anyone in the seats. Without the fans it'll be tough to attract sponsors and then the whole shootin' match will suffer - might be that's already starting. The Indy cars had trouble coming up with enough cars to fill the grid when they split into two groups. When you have a good thing going, don't mess it up.
Good hearing from you.
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