The 2024 running motorsports thread

Yes, there were wait lists, and some tickets were even claimed in divorce settlements.
I'd say a third might be right. Entire grandstands were totally empty, and the parts that had fans were very spread out.
I've been there in the days of two concrete grandstands, and I've been there when it was packed with 160K+ and people without tickets camping in the parking lot.
It's nuts.

 

Massively reducing the size of the place eliminates the "colosseum" feel that Marcus/SMI wants, but the place would still be huge at 120k.

 

Much like the First Great Colosseum, the Last Great Colosseum is a crumbling shell of its zenith.

 

The comparisons are apt. Greed. Avarice. Spending like drunken sailors. Fiddling while the racing burned. Crumbling under the weight of its own poor management.

Remember when NASCAR teams were so flush with cash that they had multiple developmental drivers under contract? That NASCAR kicked the likes of AT&T, Cingular and GEICO out of their series because Nextel/Sprint and Nationwide wanted exclusive sponsorship rights? That everyone was buying mansions on Lake Norman and building Garage Mahals in Huntersville and Cornelius because the sponsors couldn't pay enough money to just get a decal on a decklid or an A Post?

They did it to themselves: NASCAR, track owners, hotels and restaurants. They gouged the average fan to the point where they took their money elsewhere, then wrecked the product so badly that only aging hardcore fans give a damn.

It ain't coming back. But the France and Smith families got theirs and don't give a damn.

Charles Ponzi would be proud.

 

I just got an online ad for Dale Jr. air filters for your home heat pump. That seems about as completely random of a thing for him to be selling as I can imagine. It wasn't that he was pitching for a brand. They were Dale Jr. brand.

 

Ol' D.W. talked so much, scientists believe he's partially responsible for global warming.

 

Not sure what was worse ... the fact that DW wouldn't shut up, or that he tried to do the Ickey Shuffle in Victory Lane.

I suppose that the latter is better - if only because that's a viral video vs. global warming.

 

He owns part of a company that sends them out on a subscription basis. I didn't know he was branding them, though.

Don't forget his "vortex" theory.

 

FilterTime? Yeah, it's brilliant.

 

I don't disagree that it's a good business. Most everybody uses them. It just totally caught me off guard.

 

It's Blake Koch's company, but Junior gives him a nice halo investor.

https://www.filtertime.com/about-us