Motorsports FanHouse

Charlotte Track Sponsor Future Unclear

Geoffrey Miller — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 07:23:00 EST

Filed under: Lowes Motor Speedway, Speedway Motorsports Inc.

The "Lowe's" in Concord, N.C.'s Lowe's Motor Speedway may or may not be around in 2010, depending on who you've listened to this weekend.

Bruton Smith -- he's the owner of the LMS' parent company Speedway Motorsports Inc. -- said Saturday that he doesn't envision seeing the home improvement store chain involved with the flagship track of the nine he currently he owns thanks to contract discussions that aren't even close to agreement.

Meanwhile, Smith's son Marcus heads the Charlotte-area track and disputed the report in the SportsBusiness Journal that the two sides had walked away from the bargaining table -- leaving lots of questions and not many answers.

The original SBJ report said that the track and Lowe's had been trying to find common ground between Lowes' offer in the neighborhood of $3.5 million -- the original 10-year naming rights deal on the track that started in 1999 was good for $34.6 million over the course of the contract -- while SMI was looking to significantly up the asking price to somewhere near $9 million.

SBJ cited a number of factors including the overall economic impact that has occurred lately in the home construction sector as well as what figures to be a heavily rising price for the other major NASCAR commitment for Lowe's, sponsorship of the three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 ride.

The deal with Johnson is slated for renewal in 2010 and his on-track success is sure to up the asking price to the highest neighborhood of Sprint Cup sponsor pricing.

And so Bruton, talking with reporters at the site of Saturday night's IndyCar race at the SMI-owned Kentucky Speedway, figured his company will be looking for a replacement.

"I think we'll miss them," said Smith during one of his always wide-ranging press conferences. "Sometimes you're negotiating and maybe you ask to much, but I don't know."

Bruton's words came just hours after both his son Marcus -- he also has the title of SMI President and CEO -- denied the report that discussions with Lowe's had ended.

"We're still working on and discussing the components of another extension to continue our relationship," Marcus Smith told the AP. "Those components have not been finalized, but the process is moving along."

A representative from Lowe's also denied that anything official had happened in the discussions.

Confusion over what exactly has transpired has long been a tactic of Bruton Smith and SMI, as the man is quite saavy when it comes to business and getting what he wants.

For proof, just look at the deal he sewed up with a once-rebilious new wave of Concord, N.C. city council members who tried to stop construction of a new drag strip on the LMS property. Smith threatened to completely shut down LMS, abandon it and build a new one in another part of the region -- yes, his claims got that far into left field -- and scared the Council into backing off their decision and giving the track millions in tax abatements and such.

In other words, while we don't know what exactly is going on with Lowe's and the old Charlotte Motor Speedway, Smith undoubtedly knows and has likely used this weekend to his advantage at the bargaining table.

Charlotte Track Sponsor Future Unclear originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 07:23:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint Cup at Kentucky? No Thanks

Geoffrey Miller — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:47:00 EST

Filed under: Speedway Motorsports Inc., NASCAR Tracks

Consider the effort to get NASCAR Sprint Cup racing in the Bluegrass State officially underway.

Monday, Speedway Motorsports Incorporated's Bruton Smith talked at Lowe's Motor Speedway about how he's revamping his recent Kentucky Speedway purchase, and more importantly, his plan to lobby NASCAR for a Sprint Cup date at the track in 2010.

But, come on, does NASCAR really need another 1.5-miler on its schedule -- even if it likely replaces another cookie-cutter track?

I say no, if for no other reason than to look at the last two outings that NASCAR's top division has made at Richmond and Talladega.

Talladega, if I remember correctly, had a little bit of controversy thanks to a pair of multi-car wrecks, plenty of close racing (does anyone really care if it's artificially good?) and that Carl Edwards crash injuring a few fans. Sure, the race had a few major flaws, but it was something NASCAR hadn't had at such a level in a long while: lots of things for fans to talk about at the water cooler the next day.

And Richmond on Saturday night, of course, was just good ol' Richmond. Kyle Busch may have stunk up the show at the very end, but there was on-track action, passes for the lead and drama in the pits.

Now think back for a second to NASCAR's first three visits to 1.5-milers this season -- the "cookie-cutters" because they are all the same length with either a dogleg or sweeping curve frontstretch and similar corner banking -- at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Texas, and tell me what the most compelling storylines were.

Kyle Busch grabbed a hometown win in Las Vegas, Kurt Busch dominated Atlanta and Jeff Gordon finally found victory lane again in Texas. In between? Few incidents and a healthy dose of yawns for spectators at home.

And still yet to come this year in the 1.5-mile department are two visits to Lowe's Motor Speedway, a stop by Chicagoland, a visit to Kansas and returns to Atlanta and Texas

Tell me again why NASCAR fans need more of the same at Kentucky in the Sprint Cup schedule?

Kentucky won't be vastly different from any of those other venues, except that its banking is moderately lower than most. It has not been a track known for its consistent side-by-side racing during Nationwide Series races there.

Smith didn't elaborate on how he plans to secure a date for his new track in 2010, other than to say he's looking at swapping a date from one of the other SMI-owned properties. And because nearly the entire SMI portfolio is in the cookie-cutter style of track with the exception of Bristol, New Hampshire and Infineon, the swap wouldn't make a dramatic change to the complexion of the NASCAR schedule.

A lack of change, honestly, would be somewhat of a disappointment.

Racing at Kentucky would probably have a nice honeymoon period, but just like Chicagoland or Kansas, the luster of a downforce racetrack is starting to wear thin in this sport where the best shows are nearly always on a track with actual character.

Sprint Cup at Kentucky? No Thanks originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Mon, 04 May 2009 23:47:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says No to 'Circus'; Tells Tracks to 'Get Back to Work'

Geoffrey Miller — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:35:00 EST

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Speedway Motorsports Inc., NASCAR Tracks

Friday afternoon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. graced the web pages of Sports Illustrated after writer Bruce Martin hung around with the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for a day's-worth of commercial work recently.

The piece was mostly centered around Earnhardt Jr.'s status as a commercial icon and previewed an ad for sponsor GoDaddy.com that will feature fellow Hendrick/JR Motorsports driver Brad Keselowski, but as we've come to expect from Earnhardt Jr., the driver didn't hold back when asked about some comments made during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Media tour just a few weeks back.

Those comments centered around Speedway Motorsports, Inc., chairman Bruton Smith claiming that the drivers need to do a little more to help sell tickets in the struggling climate that faces the 2009 season.
Earnhardt Jr., ever the guy to give a straight answer, fought back in a fashion that seemed like he was getting pretty tired of being told to get more emotional or physical on-track.

Upon hearing that during a break in his commercial shoot, Earnhardt fired back with a message of his own.

"The race track owners want drivers to do more? Yeah, right. They need to go back to work," he said. "They forgot what it's like to sell tickets. That's their problem. They ain't had to sell tickets for a long time and none of them remember how or knew how or ever learned how.

Sure, there's quite a few race track employees that came on when NASCAR experienced its massive boom in the 1990s and 2000s, but there are more than a few folks in the industry that have worked through much leaner times. Regardless, Earnhardt Jr. carried on.

"They need to get back to working hard and doing their promotions and putting packages together for race fans. They don't want to cut the ticket price but they probably should and get these hotels to quit gouging these people. They can dump that responsibility on drivers all they want but the responsibility really lies in their hands to sell race tickets and they have to get creative in doing it. We already do a lot. We do [bleeping] plenty and they are full of [bleep]."

For the most part, I can't help but agree with him. Ticket prices for many events have skyrocketed in the past 15 years and unless you're staying an hour or more away from the track, it's tough to find a hotel without a 3-night minimum and a $200/night rate.

And its certainly hard to dispute that the drivers already put on the best show they can because, let's face it, mailing in a race simply doesn't win a championship.

Have drivers gotten too meda-saavy and become experts at managing their reputations? At times, that's a hard dispute to make, but can you blame a driver who's hotter than a volcano after a race but won't talk to the cameras because of the scrutiny he'd receive over the next week for commiting such an act?

I find that a tough one to pull.

NASCAR has a lot of changes in store for its sport in 2009 thanks to the ever-worsening state of affairs afflicting entertainment industries as a whole, but I don't foresee any drastic reputation changes making a huge difference in ticket sales.

It is indeed time for both the tracks and the sanctioning body to step up and make sure they offer the single-best show a race fan could get at any given tracks. And if the drivers add to that with some spice of their own, well, that's just a nice topping.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says No to 'Circus'; Tells Tracks to 'Get Back to Work' originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:35:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TMS to Offer $20 Seats, Trackside RV Parking

Geoffrey Miller — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:28:00 EST

Filed under: Speedway Motorsports Inc., NASCAR Tracks, Sprint Cup

Texas Motor Speedway's Eddie Gossage has figured out a way to slash the prices on some tickets, remove 21,000 seats and still be in a position to make more money in 2009.

Perhaps we need to put ol' Eddie in charge of this seriously fun economic situation. And by seriously fun, I mean, well something a whole lot different.

Anywho, Gossage announced that -- count 'em -- 21,000 backstretch seats will be eliminated over the next 75 days and replaced with a nice, hopefully level, viewing mound that will accomdate the parking spots of 74 motorcoaches who will pay $15,000 per year for the most luxiorous accomodations a speedway could offer.

Wireless internet, pre-race pit passes, a dedicated concierge/assistant and a plethora of other offerings one would probably expect after dishing out $15k for a few race weekends are included, as well as passes for 10 people to the motorhome area, pit area during pre-race and a access to the track's Speedway Club.

So, if any of you NASCAR highballers out there need a know-it-all blogger to indulge in the fruits of your hospitality, I'll gladly make my way to the Lone Star State to help you out.

For the rest of us, TMS also announced a pretty good deal some of the remaining seats along the backstretch, or what is now dubbed "burnout alley".

If you're looking to see a Sprint Cup race, I'd bet you're not going to get in any cheaper than the $20 promotion TMS is running for some 1,080 seats (and yes, that 1080 thing might have something to do with Samsung sponsoring the April event) along the backstretch.

The seats aren't even close to being the greatest at the speedway, but they'll certainly get a race fan in the gates for a much cheaper than usual and seat will be plenty close to the cars as the race by.

All in all, the moves by Gossage could potentially increase revenue by close to $400,000 at the track by taking away seats and lowering some prices. Not a bad move, if I say so myself.

TMS to Offer $20 Seats, Trackside RV Parking originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:28:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LFL: Kentucky Purchase Means Major Moves

Geoffrey Miller — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:50:00 EST

Filed under: NASCAR Tracks, Sprint Cup, Speedway Motorsports Inc.

Geoffrey Miller is in Concord, N.C. for Sunday's Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He'll aim to eat as many elephant ears as possible while blogging away "Live from Lowe's" throughout Memorial Day weekend.

Generally, when Bruton Smith says he'll do something, he's gonna do it.

So when Smith promised both the ownership group of Kentucky Speedway and the world at a news conference on Thursday confirming his purchase of the facility that Kentucky would have a Sprint Cup race date in 2009, you've got to believe it will happen.

But at what cost to other race dates?

The only obvious answer I've got is that next season, at least one race at a current track will be eliminated in favor of the event in the Bluegrass State.

There are now three race tracks left on the Sprint Cup schedule not owned by either International Speedway Corp. or Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. Those tracks are Indianapolis (one race), Dover (two races), and Pocono (two races).

The final two in that list are both on Smith's radar for purchase with the primary goal of moving one of those race dates to Kentucky. If such a deal can't happen, Smith may move a race date from one of his current race tracks, though the track presidents from Atlanta and New Hampshire Motor Speedways have released statements that they are signing agreements with NASCAR for 2009 race dates on Friday.

Being from the Indianapolis-area, a race at Kentucky would be the second-closest race to me, however, a history of parking issues at the facility might keep me away -- especially if Smith puts up the 50,000 seats he claims he can add in a matter of months.

I'm hoping, though, that SMI can make some differences there, as Kentucky is already a tremendous facility to watch a race.

LFL: Kentucky Purchase Means Major Moves originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Fri, 23 May 2008 10:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Live from Lowe's: The Humpy Plot Thickens

Geoffrey Miller — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:51:00 EST

Filed under: Lowes Motor Speedway, Speedway Motorsports Inc.

Geoffrey Miller is in Concord, N.C. for Sunday's Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He'll aim to eat as many elephant ears as possible while blogging away "Live from Lowe's" throughout Memorial Day weekend.

As I left Indianapolis Wednesday afternoon, I read that NASCAR's penultimate promoter, H.A. Humpy Wheeler of Lowe's Motor Speedway, was retiring effective after Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

Humpy has long been the most recognizable track president on the Sprint Cup tour, and with that, he has been a fan favorite. His retirement, to say the least, was a shock.

Thursday the Charlotte Observer offered a little bit more into why Wheeler is exiting his role and it definitely helps affirm how big of a surprise his move is.

It turns out that Humpy is retiring, but not completely on his own terms.

H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler said Wednesday his retirement as president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway and as president and chief operating officer of Speedway Motorsports Inc. did not come entirely on his own terms.

"Some of it is," Wheeler said in officially announcing his decision. "I won't say it all is. We'll just leave it at that."

The "that" Wheeler is referring to is a rift between himself and the owner of SMI, Bruton Smith.

In the article, it cites Smith as saying a few instances in which Humpy didn't agree with decisions made by SMI involving LMS -- including building condos in Turn 1 and the new drag strip going up across Highway 29 on the property.

Additionally, the article also hints at Smith's son taking over the reigns of LMS, though that isn't official by any means yet.

To me, it seems pretty disappointing to know that Wheeler was ultimately forced into his retirement. There's so many things he's done for both the speedway and for NASCAR in general that its definitely sad to see him walk away from an influential spot in the sport under these terms.

I think LMS and NASCAR as a whole will miss a character like Humpy, even if Bruton & SMI never do.

Live from Lowe's: The Humpy Plot Thickens originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Thu, 22 May 2008 11:51:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fanhouse Predicts Top-5 2008 Stories: No. 2 Schedule Changes for '09 Could Be Major

Geoffrey Miller — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: NASCAR Tracks, Sprint Cup, Speedway Motorsports Inc.

Friday afternoon, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gets down to business at Daytona with the first round of practice for the Budweiser Shootout, scheduled for 8:30pm/ET Saturday night on FOX. NASCAR Fanhouse will countdown the days with a look at the five stories that will rule the sport in 2008.

Towards the end of the 2007 season, a major announcement concerning the ownership of two-date race track in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was made.

Bruton Smith, the owner of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., had purchased New Hampshire International Speedway from the independent Bob Bahre. Quickly renamed in line with SMI tracks to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, many felt that dates would be transferred away from the New England race track.

After all, Smith had originally started the idea of track-swapping after his purchase of the track North Wilkesboro, N.C. that soon found a new home at Texas Motor Speedway.

A lawsuit then changed North Carolina Speedway's last remaining date to a second one at the Texas track.

More changes could definitely be in store before the end of 2008.

Smith for years has tried to lobby NASCAR to find a second race-date at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Now, with two more race dates within his ownership, the rampant speculation after his purchase of New Hampshire was that he would immediately find a way to relocate at least one of those dates to Las Vegas.

That idea was quickly quieted when Smith acknowledged that he wasn't looking to move the races for 2008. A big time factor of that, though, was the fact that NASCAR had already set its 2008 schedule in motion by announcing the dates and securing dates with the individual tracks. Those wouldn't be easy to change.

Although there hasn't been any new news or information concerning whether or not there would be be change in the schedule in 2009, the facts involved really point to track shuffling being a real possibility.

New Hampshire has been a track known for selling out for a many years now, but Smith might see Vegas as a bigger, better market that can not only attract more sponsorship, but also grow the sport as a whole.

If I had my choices, a date taken away from New Hampshire wouldn't be all bad, and a date taken away from Pocono wouldn't be the worst, either.

I say let's try out some new venues before Las Vegas becomes a twice-a-year stop for the Sprint Cup. Another road course? Kentucky? Darlington on Labor Day?

It'd make some interesting changes for 2009, but I'd doubt they would actually go as far as trying new venues.

Don't be surprised, though, if Las Vegas boasts two dates in 2009.

Fanhouse Predicts Top-5 2008 Stories: No. 2 Schedule Changes for '09 Could Be Major originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Controversial Drag Strip Plans Laid Out

Geoffrey Miller — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:44:00 EST

Filed under: Lowes Motor Speedway, NASCAR Media Watch, NASCAR Tracks, Other Racing Series, Speedway Motorsports Inc.

Just a few months ago, the Concord, N.C.-area was facing the prospect of losing on of the nation's premiere racing facilities. Thursday, it was announced that the area will instead get another top-notch locale for a different form of racing.

A brand-spankin' new top-of-the-line drag strip temporarily named "The Drag Strip @ Lowe's Motor Speedway".

With an initial capacity of 30,000 and the option for double that, the NHRA already has an event on the 2008 schedule at the yet-to-be-built drag strip in September for the Carolina's Nationals. The area is already well-known for its support of the stock car racing community and seemingly another form of motorsports is a great fit in a relatively untapped market -- the exception being the Bristol Dragway a few hours away.

Plans for the controversial 1/4 mile track were officially given out by Speedway Motorsports head Bruton Smith in front of the NASCAR media tour audience.

The design is definitely not going to make this venue "just another part" of the Lowe's Motor Speedway complex. A part of the 125-acre development, the main tower at the starting line of the drag strip will offer 34,000 square feet of suites, scoring, a press box, and broadcast booths.

Tunnels will be constructed underneath of the race track to allow for spectators to access both sides easily, as well as easier access to the NHRA pit area widely known for its unrestricted access to all fans.

All of that, of course, will need to be finished by September. Wow.

Frankly, the track is going to be beautiful and very, very well done and I'd be the first one to be completely shocked if Bruton doesn't sell out the eliminations day for the next five years of the venue.

Controversial Drag Strip Plans Laid Out originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:44:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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