2015 NASCAR Thread - And then there was 1

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jahgee
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GTPorsche
Very true. After years of driving for lower teams with Hendrick supplied components, he's now finally getting a chance to drive a full-blown Hendrick race car for Dale Jr. It's a step down in terms of race series, but overall it's a step up in car quality. Hopefully this is his window of opportunity to take advantage of the situation and show what he's capable of.
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That same path hasn't exactly provided any bigger and better opportunities for Regan Smith.
 
ukfan758
Does anyone have the data of what it costs for maintenance of the venues and the costs of those gigantic screens that SMI is adding to their venues? Those could take a chunk out of the budget but I think just a one time expense for getting walls wouldn't be that bad in the long run.
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If they can afford to add these giant television screens, with are nothing more than an ostentatious luxury, they can definitely afford to spend money on a safety necessity.
 
I've written this before, I'll write it again- in 50 years our grand children will go "They raced without SAFER Barrier? That's insane!" like we do with helmets or seat belts.
 
IforceV8
That 31k figure is missing a few 000's. $31 mil in net income for 2014 and $110 mil cash and equivalents on hand.


207,369,000 TV revenue for 24 Cup and Xf dates and 8 truck dates = $6.48 mil per event.
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I should've put in thousands on the top, but you could expect that from a large corporation.

Even with that amount of cash and equivalents on hand, the tracks are still loosing money. NASCAR Broadcasting fees make up almost 43% of total revenue, more than 200% of the admissions revenue. NASCAR has no intentions of saving tacks, only paying out what they have been payed... As seen with North Wilkesboro Speedway...
 
Swagger897
I should've put in thousands on the top, but you could expect that from a large corporation.

Even with that amount of cash and equivalents on hand, the tracks are still loosing money. NASCAR Broadcasting fees make up almost 43% of total revenue, more than 200% of the admissions revenue. NASCAR has no intentions of saving tacks, only paying out what they have been payed... As seen with North Wilkesboro Speedway...
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The reason tracks like North Wilkesboro and Rockingham went away is because the track owners got greedy. The owners wanted to expand out to larger tracks in untapped markets away from the rural southeast, so that they could build larger tracks with more seats, to sell more tickets at a higher cost per ticket. The race dates from Rockingham (60k seats) and North Wilkesboro (40k seats) went to Texas (137k seats), New Hampshire (96k seats), and California (92k seats).

That worked at first, because of the newness and novelty of having NASCAR Cup series races in places they had never been before. However, it alienated a large portion of the core fan base in the rural southeast. The fans felt abandoned by NASCAR when all of the local tracks started losing Sprint Cup race dates and closing. Once the newness wore off in the new larger markets, the track attendance started falling, and attendance went down everywhere.
 
MustangRyan
The reason tracks like North Wilkesboro and Rockingham went away is because the track owners got greedy. The owners wanted to expand out to larger tracks in untapped markets away from the rural southeast, so that they could build larger tracks with more seats, to sell more tickets at a higher cost per ticket. The race dates from Rockingham (60k seats) and North Wilkesboro (40k seats) went to Texas (137k seats), New Hampshire (96k seats), and California (92k seats).

That worked at first, because of the newness and novelty of having NASCAR Cup series races in places they had never been before. However, it alienated a large portion of the core fan base in the rural southeast. The fans felt abandoned by NASCAR when all of the local tracks started losing Sprint Cup race dates and closing. Once the newness wore off in the new larger markets, the track attendance started falling, and attendance went down everywhere.
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And now those two venues would work just fine with their capacity :).
 
Neither of those racing venues are in any condition to hold a race. Not to mention both are in less than desirable locations in regards to hotels and businesses to support a race weekend.
 
GTPorsche
Neither of those racing venues are in any condition to hold a race. Not to mention both are in less than desirable locations in regards to hotels and businesses to support a race weekend.
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As if Atlanta is? It's in the middle of the woods, no where near from Atlanta...
 
GTPorsche
Neither of those racing venues are in any condition to hold a race. Not to mention both are in less than desirable locations in regards to hotels and businesses to support a race weekend.
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Had these two tracks collected 10-15M per year for two Cup races each over the last ten years instead of being abandoned, they probably could have expanded and renovated the facilities as needed over time.

They could have added seating, repaved/reconfigured the tracks, expanded pit road, added safer barriers, built larger garages and press boxes, etc.

With enough economic stability from Cup/Xfinity/Truck and more localized grass-roots racing events, hotels and amenities would have shown up over time to accommodate the increased demand of race fans.

Bristol is a tiny half-mile track out in the middle of nowhere. They have built lots of extra seating over the years, and circled the track in safer barriers. They have more than enough hotels and restaurants that serve very little purpose for 48 weeks per year.
 
This tier of the Chase for the Cup- the "Eliminator 8"- has a good bit more diversity than the previous one. We got Martinsville, Texas, and Phoenix in this tier of the Chase. That's a short oval, an intermediate oval, and a one-mile oval. I still want to eventually see a road course (or maybe two or more road courses) get added to the Chase schedule. Eight drivers have been good enough or lucky enough to make it this far. But after the Phoenix race, and because life is unfair, only four can advance to the Championship 4 tier with the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Good luck to the remaining championship contenders.
 
GTPorsche
It's not even 30 miles away from Atlanta.
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Here's AMS when I went flying in March:
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And here's the very bottom edge of Atlanta, directly over the track. If you know Atlanta well, You can make out the airport, and further behind that, Kennesaw Mountain (A better lens than the kit would be nice to have though):
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A straight shot to the airport.. You can even see highway 41 which goes straight to Atlanta. Now, like you say, if taking highway 41 it's only 24 miles to the airport. However, most people don't fly in from Atlanta to see the race. In fact, most people who fly in at all use Tara field, right beside the damn oval.

But in the 12 years that I used to attend the race year after year, people from all over the state and bordering Alabama and Tennessee would come to visit. For me, it's an hours drive away, and it's still less than 30 miles. I75 is a nightmare, and those who do take it on race events are going to be stuck for hours.

Talk to people who live down by me, it's no where near Atlanta...
 
Atlanta was one of the big winners of the five year deal along with Dover and Pocono. If I'd of guessed before what would of been the next track to go it probably was going to be Atlanta for another Vegas date.
 
So those of you tweeting that don't plan on watching any NASCAR races for the rest of the year, right?
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
Nope you saw my anger after my driver got screwed over. The feels are real
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See, at least you're committing. The people who go "This is stupid, I'm never watching NASCAR again!" and then they're back next week are what I have a problem with :lol:
 
Jahgee1124
See, at least you're committing. The people who go "This is stupid, I'm never watching NASCAR again!" and then they're back next week are what I have a problem with :lol:
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Nah I agree with you, I'm one of those people who once I say I'm doing something it's a done deal. As I said when this all happened wake me up with February gets here and I'll give NASCAR another chance. But I aint about to support something that is a total falsehood.

The only thing NASCAR I'll follow is this thread, cause I like you guys...well all but the yearly ICEYOU replicas.
 

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