2015 NASCAR Thread

[93henfan]

Damn, I didn't know they were going to take it down to 85k..
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/st ... g-capacity" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah basically they are removing that odd looking remaining upper level in turn 3 that is covered with billboard tarps after the September race. No real change to the usable seating you saw yesterday.

Daytona just removed almost 50,000 seats.

This time next year, Daytona will be a 100,000 seat venue, down from 147,000.

Dover will be a 85,000 seat facility, down from 135,000. Prior to 9/11 and before infield camping en masse was eliminated and before they built a second garage area for the Nationwide series, Dover Downs was reported to have nearly 175,000 on the premises on race Sunday.

[93henfan]

Here was a Busch series race in 1995. Track was still asphalt. Earnhardt stands not yet complete. Union 76 still the gas supplier. If you squint, you can see the Winston Cup Series banner on the turn 1 media center. No second garage area in turns 3 and 4. No VIP-level RV area for drivers and teams - they all stayed at the Sheraton. Campers already starting to pack in the infield and the apron of turns 3/4 on Saturday. Many more to arrive on Saturday night. Private homes still right across the street behind the frontstretch. We parked in the same man's yard there for decades until they bought him out and leveled his house. The good old days.

[BDKJMU]

"Financial reports provide insight into seating capacities for tracks that host NASCAR races
Mar 9, 2015

Each year, publicly traded companies that own race tracks must list their grandstand seating capacities.

International Speedway Corp., which owns 12 tracks that NASCAR races, issued its report in January. Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns eight tracks NASCAR races, and Dover Motorsports Inc., which owns one track with Sprint Cup races, issued their reports last week.

With those reports, a list of seating capacities can be compiled for the NASCAR circuit. Only Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway – both privately owned – do not release such information. The Indianapolis Star has reported the seating capacity at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as 235,000.

Among tracks that report seating capacity, Daytona International Speedway remains the largest at 147,000 – but that won’t last much longer.

Once the Daytona Rising project is completed, Daytona will have about 101,000 seats. That project is set to be completed in time for next year’s Daytona 500.

Six of the top 10 tracks that report seating capacities are owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc., including Bristol Motor Speedway, which is set to take over the No. 1 spot next year with its seating capacity of 146,000..."
http://nascartalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03 ... car-races/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zht ... rol-irhome" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I included former peak capacities. Bristol, Dover, Charlotte and Atlanta have had a series of reductions, and Daytona will have.

Indianapolis: 235,000 (257,325).
Daytona: 147,000 (101,000 by 2016) (160,000).
Bristol: 146,000 (158,000).
Texas: 137,000
Las Vegas: 123,000
Kentucky: 107,000
Dover: 95,500 (85,000 by 2016) (135,000).
Charlotte: 89,000 (135,000)
Loudon: 88,000 (96,000).
Talladega: 78,000 (108,000).
Pocono: 76,812
Kansas: 72,000
Atlanta: 71,000 (98,000).
Richmond: 71,000 (91,000).
Michigan: 71,000 (84,000).
California 68,000 (81,000).
Darlington: 58,000 (60,000).
Chicagoland: 55,500 (69,000).
Martinsville: 55,000
Phoenix: 51,000
Sonoma: 47,000.
Homestead 46,000 (56,000).
Watkins Glen: 33,000 (was 41,000).

[93henfan]

North Wilkesboro: 0
Rockingham: 0

[DSUrocks07]

Working overnights now at the hotel, I could see that the whole "Race Weekend" environment has completely changed.

Om the bright side, maybe now DMI will continue to modernize the facility (enclosing the outer shell, adding some sort of cover for the stands, building a "Monster Mile HOF" that's open all year round and give the history of the track in a central location) like they should have been instead of wasting a decade being hellbent on increasing capacity.

Soon Firefly and Big Barrel will be larger events in Dover than NASCAR, unless the powers that be pulls their heads out of their asses and does something constructive about it.

[93henfan]

Working overnights now at the hotel, I could see that the whole "Race Weekend" environment has completely changed.

Om the bright side, maybe now DMI will continue to modernize the facility (enclosing the outer shell, adding some sort of cover for the stands, building a "Monster Mile HOF" that's open all year round and give the history of the track in a central location) like they should have been instead of wasting a decade being hellbent on increasing capacity.

Soon Firefly and Big Barrel will be larger events in Dover than NASCAR, unless the powers that be pulls their heads out of their asses and does something constructive about it.

I think they said Firefly has already sold 120,000 tickets for 2015, and that is AFTER they eliminated single day tickets. It has already passed the single day NASCAR event.

[clenz]

Pretty soon iowa won't need to add very many seats to get a sprint race.

Still needs a ton of infrastructure around it though

Looks like a cool track to watch a race at- 7/8 mile, similar to Richmond. Wiki says 30k capacity/25k permanent. Still would have to about double that. And looking at the 6 tracks west of the Mississippi that currently have a Sprint race, they're all in/near a major metro area with a large airport.
-Texas (north of Fort Worth, 1/2 hr from DFW)
-Las Vegas
-Kansas (Kansas City)
-California (less than 10 miles from Ontario & within about an hr from 4 more commercial airports in LAX, Long Beach, Orange County/John Wayne & Burbank
-Phoenix
-Sonoma (35 miles outside of SFO)

Quick look at Google maps and Iowa Speedway is almost smack dab in the middle of Iowa showing over 3 hrs from KC, close to 4 from Minneapolis, and about 4 from Chicago. Don't see it ever getting a Sprint race...

You're less than an 45 from Des Moines with an international air port. For connectors it's an hour form Chicago, MPLS, KC and St Louis... Des Moines sees about 2.3 million people come through that air port every year...or good for about 55th busiest in the nation. It's not like it's in the middle of no where.


NASCAR own the track. It isn't going to happen short term, but discussions are in place in the Iowa legislature to generate funding to improve the infrastructure to make it more accessible and increase seating while working with NASCAR on it.

Couple that with it being a driver favorite and how young it is, there will be a sprint race there in the next 10-12 years.

[89Hen]

Rockingham: 0

Great track. I've been there a couple times to watch SCCA races.

[93henfan]

Rockingham: 0

Great track. I've been there a couple times to watch SCCA races.

Was always one of the most exciting tracks. Right up there with Bristol and Talladega on white knuckle driving factor.

[BDKJMU]

Looks like a cool track to watch a race at- 7/8 mile, similar to Richmond. Wiki says 30k capacity/25k permanent. Still would have to about double that. And looking at the 6 tracks west of the Mississippi that currently have a Sprint race, they're all in/near a major metro area with a large airport.
-Texas (north of Fort Worth, 1/2 hr from DFW)
-Las Vegas
-Kansas (Kansas City)
-California (less than 10 miles from Ontario & within about an hr from 4 more commercial airports in LAX, Long Beach, Orange County/John Wayne & Burbank
-Phoenix
-Sonoma (35 miles outside of SFO)

Quick look at Google maps and Iowa Speedway is almost smack dab in the middle of Iowa showing over 3 hrs from KC, close to 4 from Minneapolis, and about 4 from Chicago. Don't see it ever getting a Sprint race...

You're less than an 45 from Des Moines with an international air port. For connectors it's an hour form Chicago, MPLS, KC and St Louis... Des Moines sees about 2.3 million people come through that air port every year...or good for about 55th busiest in the nation. It's not like it's in the middle of no where.

NASCAR own the track. It isn't going to happen short term, but discussions are in place in the Iowa legislature to generate funding to improve the infrastructure to make it more accessible and increase seating while working with NASCAR on it.

Couple that with it being a driver favorite and how young it is, there will be a sprint race there in the next 10-12 years.

FAA FY 2013 (released in Jan) has Des Moines 85th busiest with under 1.1 million "enplanements" :
http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_ca ... ements.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-Yeah people flying to see a race there would mostly have to connect through ORD, MSP, MCI, or STL.
-Of course your overnight/campers will be willing to drive those distances, but those 4 metro areas, ranging from about 3+ to 5 hrs drives, plus Omaha (I see its about 2.5 hrs) are too far for most day trippers, who would have to come from Iowa.

Looking at the tracks drive times to major metro area & airport:
-Indianapolis: 48th busiest airport in U.S.
-Daytona: about 45 min from Orlando, 14th busiest airport in U.S.
-Bristol: less than 3 hrs from Charlotte, NASCAR epicenter with major American/US Airways hub airport, 8th busiest. (Also has tiny Tri Cities airport (179th) about 10 miles from track).
-Texas: less than 20 miles from DFW, 4th busiest airport in U.S. (+ have Dallas Love, 44th busiest).
-Las Vegas: 9th busiest
-Kentucky: about 45 minutes from Cincinnatti, 53rd busiest.
-Dover: 1 1/4 hr from Philly, 19th busiest.
-Charlotte
-Loudon: 1/2 hr from Manchester, 83rd busiest, 1 1/4 hr from Boston, 18th busiest.
-Talladega: 1.5 hrs from Atlanta, U.S. & world's busiest airport.
-Pocono: 1.5 hrs from Philly.
-Kansas: Kansas City 35th busiest.
-Atlanta
-Richmond: 10 miles from Richmond International, 67th busiest, 1.5 hrs from Reagan, 25 busiest, less than 2 hrs Dulles, 23rd busiest.
-Michigan: Less than 1 hr from DTW, 17th busiest.
-California: 10 miles from Ontario, 61st busiest, within about an hr from LAX, 2nd busiest US
-Darlington: less than 2 hrs Charlotte.
-Chicagoland: Less than an hr from Chicago, 3rd busiest airport in U.S. (+ have Chicago Midway, 24th busiest).
-Martinsville: about 2 hrs Charlotte.
-Phoenix: 10th busiest
-Sonoma: About 45 min from Oakland & San Fran, 7th busiest.
-Homestead: About 45 min from Miami, 11th busiest.
-Watkins Glen: About 1.5 hrs Rochester (81st busiest), less than 2 hrs Syracuse (87th busiest), about 2.5 hrs. Buffalo/Niagara Falls (55th busiest).

If Iowa got a Sprint race becoming the 24th track with one, and you ranked them 1-24 in terms of accessibility, it would rank 24th or close to it.

The ? is, would will NASCAR feel that Iowa could get 60-70k to attend, and will they either add a race or take a race from one of the current tracks (I believe currently 10 tracks have 1 race and 13 have 2).

[clenz]

You need more up to date numbers.

http://www.dsmairport.com/about-the-air ... stics.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2.4 million last year.

Already 3/4 million this year through the slowest season of the year and a LARGE increase over the year before....something like 25k more.


The current numbers put it in the 50s for busiest.


Iowa has race fans like you wouldn't believe. Des Moines has well over 1 million people. The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City metro is just over an hour east with another half million, and is home of one of NASCARs drivers - Landon Cassill.

The tracks on Friday and Saturday nigh draw tens of thousands of fans and are packed every single week.

60k would be easy. It's not like it'll looks any worse than the 80% empty tracks on the circuit niw

[BDKJMU]

You need more up to date numbers.

http://www.dsmairport.com/about-the-air ... stics.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2.4 million last year.

Already 3/4 million this year through the slowest season of the year and a LARGE increase over the year before....something like 25k more.


The current numbers put it in the 50s for busiest.

FAA 2013 rankings lists ONLY enplanements (again Des Moines 1.1 million in 13)'. If counted both enplanements and deplanements would be double that, 2.2 million.

Des Moines #s count BOTH enplanements and deplanements, and lists 2.4 million in 14'. Which means enplanements only = about 1.2 million.

To be in the 50s for 2014 (again the rankings haven't been released yet) using 2013 rankings Des Moines would have to get up to between 2.3 and 3+ million enplanements, or about 4.6 million and 6.1 million combined enplanements and deplanements. Their listed 2.4 million isn't close. My guess is for 2014 they will move up a few spots from 85th. They are growing for sure, but no one in the top 100, even top 200 (are 559 airports listed) jumps 30 spots in a year.

[BDKJMU]

Iowa has race fans like you wouldn't believe. Des Moines has well over 1 million people. The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City metro is just over an hour east with another half million, and is home of one of NASCARs drivers - Landon Cassill.

The tracks on Friday and Saturday nigh draw tens of thousands of fans and are packed every single week.

60k would be easy. It's not like it'll looks any worse than the 80% empty tracks on the circuit niw

In addition to Cassill from Iowa there's Brett Moffitt and Michael Annett.

-Moffitt, from Grimes, IA, is 32nd in points with starts in 11 of 13 races for Front Row Motorsports. 29 of the 31 drivers in front of him have 13 starts, only Kurt Busch has less with 10. If Moffitt had 13 he would be well in the upper 20s in the standings. Pretty good for a rookie (well, he did run 7 Sprint races last yr, but to count as a rookie you have to run in 8 of the 1st 20). He will likely win rookie of the year in a weak rookie class. The others are Matt DiBenedetto, 35th in the standings, starts in 10 races, Jeb Burton, 38th, starts in 9 races, and Alex Kennedy, 39th, starts in 6 races.
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/drivers/brett-moffitt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-Michael Annett from Des Moines, is 34th in points with starts in all 13 races for H Scott Motorsports. He is dead last among the 30 drivers who have run all 13 races.
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/drivers/michael-annett.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cassill is running full time in both Sprint and Xfinity. Looks like he's the only driver to run all 13 Sprint races and all 12 Xfinity races, where's he's currently 16th in points. In Sprint, where's his points aren't counted in the standings since he's running full time Xfinity, he's not doing too well. Zero top 20s, and 3 DNF last place 43rd.
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/drivers/landon-cassill.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All these Iowa drivers are driving Sprint for small budget teams. Hard to say if one of them will ever get on with 1 of the depending on how you look at it 8-10 or so big budget teams that field about 27-29 teams in cup.

[BDKJMU]

Iowa has race fans like you wouldn't believe. Des Moines has well over 1 million people. The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City metro is just over an hour east with another half million, and is home of one of NASCARs drivers - Landon Cassill.

The tracks on Friday and Saturday nigh draw tens of thousands of fans and are packed every single week.

60k would be easy. It's not like it'll looks any worse than the 80% empty tracks on the circuit niw

The Des Moines paper said about the Xfinity race a couple of weeks ago:
"NASCAR does not provide attendance figures, though the crowd was on par with last year's, with grandstands about half full."
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/ ... /27499925/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If that's around a 1/2 full of a 30k capacity track that doesn't sound too bad considering they don't have a Cup race to piggy back on to.

No one is THAT bad-yet. If anyone ever gets close to 80% empty for a Sprint race (excluding massive rain delays/postponements) they should have their race yanked.

If Iowa does ever get a race I hope its in place of one of these boring 1.5 mile cookie cutter tracks..

[BDKJMU]

Working overnights now at the hotel, I could see that the whole "Race Weekend" environment has completely changed.

Om the bright side, maybe now DMI will continue to modernize the facility (enclosing the outer shell, adding some sort of cover for the stands, building a "Monster Mile HOF" that's open all year round and give the history of the track in a central location) like they should have been instead of wasting a decade being hellbent on increasing capacity.

Soon Firefly and Big Barrel will be larger events in Dover than NASCAR, unless the powers that be pulls their heads out of their asses and does something constructive about it.

Night racing:
"Light it up: Imagining night races at some of your favorite tracks

The energy. The excitement. There's something special about night racing. But not all NASCAR tracks are equipped to handle a race after dark.

Last month, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made waves when he thought he saw foundations for light poles being installed in Dover. Turns out, it was a false alarm. But that got us thinking.

What if Dover did add lights? Or Martinsville? Or Talladega? Or even a road course like Watkins Glen? What would night racing look like at these iconic tracks that currently only run in the daylight?

Thanks to the miracle of Photoshop, we can take a guess.

http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/shake-a ... len-102214" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Been articles for the last 2 years about NH trying to get a night race for their July date. In 13' and last year they were trying to get it for this year, but it didn't work out.
http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... in-summer/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I was at their July 13' race when it was mid 90s, near record hot for July in New England, and absolutely baked in their aluminum bleachers. Way worse than Dover was on Sun. They had a lot of heat related issues with fans that day.

Plus a Sat night race makes it easier for fans driving long distances to get back on Sunday without getting home in the late PM or early AM hours Mon before work, so they don't have to go in tired or late Mon or take Mon off.

[93henfan]

A night race in June would be the ticket at Dover. It's almost always a brutal weather day when the body is not quite used to that much sun and heat. A 7pm start would be so much nicer and you have the built in postponement date for rain on Sunday. I've been a proponent of this for about 20 years.

[BDKJMU]

Iowa has race fans like you wouldn't believe. Des Moines has well over 1 million people. The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City metro is just over an hour east with another half million, and is home of one of NASCARs drivers - Landon Cassill.

The tracks on Friday and Saturday nigh draw tens of thousands of fans and are packed every single week.

60k would be easy. It's not like it'll looks any worse than the 80% empty tracks on the circuit niw

In addition to Cassill from Iowa there's Brett Moffitt and Michael Annett.

-Moffitt, from Grimes, IA, is 32nd in points with starts in 11 of 13 races for Front Row Motorsports. 29 of the 31 drivers in front of him have 13 starts, only Kurt Busch has less with 10. If Moffitt had 13 he would be well in the upper 20s in the standings. Pretty good for a rookie (well, he did run 7 Sprint races last yr, but to count as a rookie you have to run in 8 of the 1st 20). He will likely win rookie of the year in a weak rookie class. The others are Matt DiBenedetto, 35th in the standings, starts in 10 races, Jeb Burton, 38th, starts in 9 races, and Alex Kennedy, 39th, starts in 6 races.
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/drivers/brett-moffitt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-Michael Annett from Des Moines, is 34th in points with starts in all 13 races for H Scott Motorsports. He is dead last among the 30 drivers who have run all 13 races.
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/drivers/michael-annett.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cassill is running full time in both Sprint and Xfinity. Looks like he's the only driver to run all 13 Sprint races and all 12 Xfinity races, where's he's currently 16th in points. In Sprint, where's his points aren't counted in the standings since he's running full time Xfinity, he's not doing too well. Zero top 20s, and 3 DNF last place 43rd.
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/drivers/landon-cassill.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All these Iowa drivers are driving Sprint for small budget teams. Hard to say if one of them will ever get on with 1 of the depending on how you look at it 8-10 or so big budget teams that field about 27-29 teams in cup.

I just looked at the driver standings and hometowns. ESPN lists 67 Cup drivers, but they include anyone who has run a single race, and a couple who haven't run any. If you look at the full time Cup drivers, basically those who have run at least a majority of the 13 races, plus Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers, who would have if not for injury and illness, I count 39 drivers from 19 states. Of those CA is the run away leader with 9. Tied for a distant 2nd are NC, AZ, and IA with 3 each. Then 5 states with 2, and 11 with 1. Only 8 drivers from the south (how things have changed).

Pretty impressive for Iowa to have 3 full time Cup drivers.

[BDKJMU]

A night race in June would be the ticket at Dover. It's almost always a brutal weather day when the body is not quite used to that much sun and heat. A 7pm start would be so much nicer and you have the built in postponement date for rain on Sunday. I've been a proponent of this for about 20 years.

Yep. Most races June-Aug should be night. Doz races June-Aug. 9 during the day, 3 at night. That should be flipped.

[dbackjon]

How many races has Danica won this year?

[BDKJMU]

How many races has Danica won this year?

Zero. Heck in 95 Sprint races (2012 10, 2013 36, 2014 36, 13 so far this season) she has ZERO top 5s.

[BDKJMU]

I don't watch much Camping World. Looks like Jennifer Jo got all pissed off after she wrecked herself at Dover. Tried to blame it on a kid half her age. Course she got fined for getting out of her truck before the safety crew arrived and walking onto the middle of the track (a big no no after the Tony Stewart incident last year).
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwqq05l8-tI[/youtube]

Over the last 8 years she has run some ARCA, Camping World, and Xfinity. Not bad for 41 (probably an older pic):

[93henfan]

Danica just needs to go back to Indy. Look what it did for JPM. Women and faggots don't do well driving stock cars. They need cars with remote tuning so smarter people can dial the car in to counterbalance their limp wristed driving.

[BDKJMU]

Danica just needs to go back to Indy. Look what it did for JPM. Women and faggots don't do well driving stock cars. They need cars with remote tuning so smarter people can dial the car in to counterbalance their limp wristed driving.

[BDKJMU]

This weeks race hub highlights from Dover. Of course you're usual array of bleeped out f-bombs..
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBezSeIqZ-Q[/youtube]

[93henfan]

This weeks race hub highlights from Dover. Of course you're usual array of bleeped out f-bombs..
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBezSeIqZ-Q[/youtube]

I love Kurt Busch talking about the track and the Dover judicial system, in light of his domestic abuse hearings over the winter here.