2009 NASCAR running thread

Mmmmmmmmm Penske hospitality. Goddamn I miss that tent.

 

They got 56,000 for the Nationwide Series race there this year. I don't think the NASCAR people were very happy that the Iowa Speedway people kept pointing out that was more people than the crowd for the Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway a few weeks earlier.

For a track that is still young, getting a Nationwide Series, Truck Series and IndyCar is a good deal. There's no way they get a Cup race there any time soon.

Nationwide cars put on a good show, IndyCar races have been good. I don't know how the CoT would do on the track, though.

 

I got no problem with the $25 concept, except it will be for AmeriCrown food, and that means they should be paying me.

 

I miss the random cheesesteak things they'd serve where the cheese looked like glue.

 

It's the mere thought of pulled pork BBQ sandwich that sends me running to the john as I type.

 

Iowa Speedway could easily get 80,000+ people in. Right now there are no stands along the backstretch, to let people with RVs park there. You could even leave the backstretch with no stands, put in more stands around the turns and probably get close to 80K I would guess.
The stock car races I covered while living in Newton were pretty good, track is definitely more short track than big track. Several IRL drivers who had raced at Pikes Peak said Iowa was more like that track than Richmond, but most stock car drivers compare it to Richmond.
Iowa has some rabid race fans. The track has something like 54 dirt tracks including the dirt track mecca of Knoxville. NASCAR knows how big racing is in Iowa, and not just because of Rusty "We could seat 10 million fans here, yep, no doubt" Wallace talking in their collective ear. Point is, the Iowa fans (and fans from surrounding states) would fill the stands for a Cup race, no matter how many seats were built.
I think it's just a matter of time before Iowa gets a Cup race, but on the other hand there are several important factors like the Midwest saturation and NASCAR giving second dates to tracks that don't deserve them (especially Yontana) and keeping two dates at track that are snoozers at best (i.e. Pocono, Dover).
Personally, I wouldn't mind Iowa getting denied simply because of some of the key people at the track. If I had been with a TV station or the Des Moines Register, I would have been treated like royalty, but I wasn't so I was treated like dirt.

 

They've been talking with Peter Karmanos, haven't they?

 

Go one step further and bring back a dirt track, speaking of things that won't happen.
Short tracks are the best racing. Saturday night local short track racing is the best of the best, from my perspective at least.

 

As long as you're not getting the mystery meat from the concessions tents with the "Philly Cheesesteak" banners.

 

Stop buying from Concessions.

 

Shit, if anyone in the media PAID for Americrown food, I pity them.

I paid $5 for soft pretzels at Daytona each year. That's it.