All Purpose NASCAR Thread

It's all a conspiracy on Bruton Smith's part.

 

I'm not sure this is a NASCAR issue as much it is a public tax dollars issue. It seems the trend of publicly financed stadiums has dropped off recently, IIRC

 

From Jayski this morning. Sounds like BP ain't doing too well.

 

Speaking of speedways in the west, it was stupid from a racing standpoint to nuke Pikes Peak. What a great racetrack that was. People could run side-by-side, and the layout kind of reminded me of Rockingham. I guess expansion there would've been an issue, but I wish they could've made that their northwest "base," not Seattle.

 

It's not completely nuked. ISC very quietly has PPIR for sale --- as long as you can live with a one-mile oval with a 1.3-mile road course that has only 4000 seats and no real equipment (when ISC bought the track, its subsidiaries cannibalized the place).

Oh, and you have to agree not to hold nationally-sanctioned (AMA, IRL, CART, NASCAR, ARCA) events there after you buy it.

Remember when Penske owned racetracks and he wanted to put one in Denver? When ISC bought Penske's track operations it bought his business plans and doesn't want any future competition.

 

Didn't know about Penske's Denver plans. All I know is that ISC was looking to build out there somewhere, perhaps where the drag strip is. If they wanted to make a real entry into that market, they had a wonderful track at which to do it. Doubt they could draw jack out there now if they were to rebuild it, given how ISC screwed the community when it bought the track.

 

Is there even any interest for this kind of thing in this part of the country? I don't know what part of Washington state Derrike Cope is from but I read that when he won the Daytona 500 in 1990 his local CBS affilate wasn't televising the race due to what it figured would be a lack of viewing interest.

 

I thought ISC sold PPIR with the ultimate intention of building a Denver-area track. Isn't that the plan?

 

More like "ISC is trying to sell PPIR with the ultimate intention of building a Denver-area track," Jeff. The sale is going about as well as any sale of a race track that's been pretty much gutted.

JJ, I think a better question is, "Can ISC get some real estate on the Front Range that's decently located but won't be a development target in the next 20 years?" Given that's it's reduced PPIR to the bare necessities and wants potential buyers to agree not to have major events there, it's a hard sell.

 

You're right, I should have said, "I thought ISC closed PPIR with the ultimate intention..."

 

Apparently Parsons is in ICU. Not looking good.
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=2&id=2721713

 

I wouldn't say it's necessarily a D_B since no one replied to my posting, but...

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/35952/