ron.brown11

PPV sounds good when viewing it from that prospective. However, NASCAR is already reeling from the loss of viewership this season. Some of the races have had viewership numbers drop by double digits, compared to last season. If they went strictly to PPV, I would expect to see those numbers get to the 70% or more in falloff. Now you get to the supply side. Can NASCAR get enough people to sign up for PPV? As I said above, I don't see that happening. So then NASCAR will need to sell commercials to air on these PPVs. Somebody always has to foot the bill, oh and feed the beast. In this case you don't have 1 beast to feed, you have 4. NASCAR, the teams, the tracks, and the drivers. Yes, the drivers are under contract with the teams. But if teams can't afford to pay what a driver wants, what's the solution? They will hire a cheaper driver. We just watched that happen with Kyle Busch. M&Ms left, Gibbs couldn't/wouldn't absorb the driver's salary, and the grandson gets into grandpa's ride. As I've said before, this is one of two things happening here. The obvious one, is that the RTA is trying to force NASCAR into giving a bigger percentage of the new TV contract to the teams. The current contract is set to expire next season. Currently it's divided up as follows: 65% to the tracks; 25% to the teams; and 10% to NASCAR. The teams really only have 1 way to expand their income, and that is through sponsorship. Well, how is that going? The easiest way to measure that is to simply look to see how many teams operate with a single sponsor adorning a car. Is there a single car that runs 1 major sponsor for an entire season anymore? I guess you could say the #41 for SHR. But I'm pretty sure that Gene Haas isn't really happy footing the bill as a sponsor to his own team. So it's safe to say that huge sponsors aren't willing to singlehandedly to foot the bill anymore. That said, if the teams aren't making money, why do they all have these huge palatial shops? Tracks however do have other options. They can sell the naming rights to a race. They make their most money however in the concessions, during a race weekend. But they also have the ability to hold other functions at the track; concerts; drifting; car shows etc. NASCAR too has other ways to generate income. They can sell sponsors for the "official" toilet paper of NASCAR etc. Oh yeah, and they own half the tracks that host those races. If there is a shift in the new tv money deal, I think it will look something like this: 60% tracks, 35% teams, and 5% NASCAR. I think that would make most parties happy, except for 2. SMI is not going to be happy at losing 5%, but they could afford it. The other is a track like Pocono. I don't know if a track not owned by either SMI or NASCAR could survive. Option 2 is that the RTA is trying to force a split from NASCAR. But seeing as how that there isn't an RTA owner that owns a race track, they would need a partner that does. Bruton Smith may be gone, but Marcus isn't. SMI & NASCAR have never been best buddies, but they did learn how to coexist. If SMI wanted to be a partner with the RTA, I could see that split happening. Plus, SMI has all but secured the required city/county blessings in Nashville to operate that track. They haven't spent all of this time and money there, and not have a plan for it. The same for North Wilksboro. SMI has actually spent the last 2-3 years spending money on things, that at first glance, don't make sense. Bruton always wanted to have his own racing series to rival NASCAR. Marcus has learned everything he knows about racing from that guy. A split is not that far fetched of an idea. Unfortunately it wasn't either with Indy car racing, and look at how that turned out. As Nick said above "Big money breeds big problems". I hope that they can sort this all out. But 2023 could be a watershed moment for stock car racing. And if it turns to shit, always remember this, shit rolls down hill. It would have a tremendous effect on the Sat night racers & tracks alike.

Well, things are trying to get more interesting at the Cup level. Today all of the Charter Holding team owners boycotted the quarterly meeting with the powers that be in Daytona. And they are not trying to hide the reason why. They are wanting a larger slice of the pie with the next TV contract. They've been dancing around it for a while now. so I guess today the gloves came off. I'm curious if we're heading for an IndyCar type of split, or just trying to blackmail NASCAR? I'm guessing the later, but there's still that SMI connection to the charter holding team owners group. I was already expecting this, just wasn't thinking it would start this early in the season. It could be a rough summer..

I was not able to see the truck race today, but Kaden Honeycutt did run 15th. I don't know if he had trouble, or if that's all the truck had in it. I wish that he could get a better funded truck team.

I found the finishing order for the Super Late Model Rattler 250, at South Alabama Speedway. I'm not sure what the specifics were for Chris, but he finished 25th. John Aramendia finished 15th in the Sat. 125 Pro Late model race. Again, I don't know any specifics. Rough day for our Texas drivers. Bubba Pollard won both races. Sat's pro late model race he drove a Jett Motorsports car. Sunday he drove his own car, beating Ty Majeski. Ty has darn near been unbeatable in the Rattler over the past 5-6 years.

Haden had a really good run yesterday, in the Cars Tour race at Southern National . He started I believe 12th, ran in the top 10 nearly the entire race. Finished a strong 3rd. I haven't see a lot of the Cars Tour races in the past, but plan on watching as many of them this season as I can. According to the entry listing, he drove for Mike Darne Racing. I don't know the name, and didn't see many sponsors' decals on the car. From the stuff that I've read, Kaden isn't one of those silver spoon guys, and only races when they can get financing put together. He absolutely has the talent, so I hope he can get into a well funded ride soon. I know that he has some truck races this season. but it doesn't appear that the team that he's going to drive for, falls into that category unfortunately.

Yeah, I will add that street race to my list of NASCAR races I won't watch. I can still remember bits of the Budweiser 200 race from WA state. I can't remember if it was on ESPN or TNN, but it sure was hard to watch. I'd be willing to bet that over half of the laps were under yellow. Reminds me of the Clash. I half heartedly asked my brother if he wanted to fly in for the COTA weekend in 2022. He said "I don't think so". Said that doing another road course wasn't something he wanted to do again. He was pretty happy when I said the same thing. We both agreed that the Lamborghini race was the best of the weekend at COTA in 2021. The truck and Xfinity races were decent, as was the weather for them. There was a little rain for the trucks, with none for the Xfinity race. Now we're looking at putting something together to do a weekend at Phoenix.

My brother and I attended the first weekend for NASCAR at COTA. I had been out to the track a couple of times prior, to look at where to try and get good seats. I settled on the tall grandstands at the top of turn 1, for having the best view of about 1/3 of the track. Restarts into turn 1 were exciting to say the least. However, waiting 2+ minutes to be able to see any cars again was frustrating. Friday & Sat were good for seeing what could be seen from that location. Sunday, not so much. Between the low ceiling & the rain/tire spray, we could only see about 150 yards. You've got it right 24nomo, road course races are made for tv if you really want to see a lot more of the racing. Josh42, this isn't NASCAR's first attempt at a street race. The Southwest Tour ran 4 street course races in Washington state area, from 1986 to 1988. Over half the field failed to finish most of them. Some of the driver interviews after crashing out, or after the race weren't pretty. Most openly saying that they wouldn't do another street race. Destroyed a lot of equipment. I was surprised that they were able to have a halfway decent field of cars after the first race. But it was getting pretty thin by the third. I was surprised that they even tried the forth one. Having concrete walls around an oval can be hard on equipment. Having concrete barricades on street courses tend to have really bad impact angles, making them even worse. Two of the races were run in Tacoma, and the other 2 were in Spokane. I just hope that nobody is killed in a drive by shooting, when they go to Chicago..

Mike, as much as I love Irwindale, they just don't have the room. The racing would be great though. NASCAR has said in the past that they need 40-50k seats to make any money. That part is doable for a truck or Xfinity race. Unfortunately that won't help a Cup date, where they want 75k or more. Kern is by far the best option for everything, but NASCAR doesn't look at Bakersfield as a place close enough to LA. Evergreen (the big track) would also have the room, but would have to install a lot of temp seats. But it rains there way too often. I don't think they'd do it for that reason alone. That is unless the real want to try out those rain tires on a very fast oval. But if NASCAR don't mind half the field not finishing, then a street race will do. I just don't think that it would work for more than 1 race. Street races are worse than road course races. A street race fan will see the least amount of track area where they're standing. When half the field has crashed out. it can get pretty boring, waiting for the next car or two to get back to you. If NASCAR doesn't do the 1/2 track at Fontana, I get the feeling that NASCAR may be done in the LA area. What a shame..

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunate for all involved..

Here's the latest on Fontana's land sale. MARCH 1, 2023 AT 3:15 PM UPDATE: Corion Properties, Inc. announces the completed sale of phase 1 of 433 acres in the highly sought after Inland Empire West submarket of Southern California by Auto Club Speedway (“Seller”) to Dallas-based Hillwood Investment Properties and CBRE Investment Management (“Buyer”). Phase 1 included 364.2 acres. Total consideration, which included a recorded transaction price of $559 million and ongoing Buyer obligations for future development, maintenance and use of the parking area for a proposed new short track, exceeded $800 million. Phase 2, encompassing approximately 69 acres, is scheduled to close on or before December 31, 2026. Located on the Auto Club Speedway property at the juncture of the I-15 and I-10 Freeways in Fontana, CA, the ACS Logistics Center is fully entitled for up to 6,600,000 square feet of modern logistics facilities. Situated at the heart of the Inland Empire industrial market, which includes 632 million square feet total inventory and a 1.1% vacancy in the Inland Empire West, the ACS Logistics Center will include abundant features programmed to mitigate environmental impacts and appeal to sophisticated logistics tenant ESG requirements. This was from Jayski's site today. So it will take a little over 3 years to complete the second phase. I like that they included the blurb about the shared parking, so that at least still gives the short track a chance.

Two different writers not related to NASCAR, said that Fontana sold approximately 430 acres for $920 to $945Mil, leaving them around 90 acres. It's all like play money for these people. Either way, I think that SoCal racing is probably dead there. I sure hope not though. The best I can tell, looks like SMI might have gotten he short stick on their sale/auction on the Rock. Hopefully they made it back with profits for those new race dates.

You are correct Rails, NASCAR bought it from Penske, who had acquired it from the original ownership group. After the lawsuit against NASCAR, over the Texas Motor Speedway date, NASCAR sold it to SMI. SMI then moved the dates to their tracks. Andy Hillinburg bought it at auction from SMI. I had forgotten about Penske buying it, probably because Penske wasn't one to do a lot of publicity over things back then. Fontana was very public mainly because it was a new facility, you can't gloss over that, plus he needed to drum up support for it. Then there was the lawsuits over a Texas race date the was "promised". As I said above, "If memory serves me", and it didn't lol. At least I got the Hillinburg part right. I didn't think back far enough. My bad!

Again, if my memory serves me, Rockingham was bought by Andy Hillinburg. I can't remember if it was from a bankruptcy auction or from former owners. Andy tried to revive it a couple of times, hoping to attract a truck or Xfinity date. He ran some late model shows, I think an ARCA show, but it didn't work out. I can't remember if he was able to sell it, or if it was foreclosed on. I don't recall Penske ever having anything to do with Rockingham. I do believe that Nazareth was involved in the Fontana deal, but not because NASCAR planned any racing there. The writing was already on the wall for racing there. As in it was going to go away. CART had already taken it off their schedule. I think NASCAR only ran a couple of races after acquiring the property. I believe NASCAR bought it because they were desperately trying to get Penske out of the track ownership business (or Penske wanted out of the track owner business, and NASCAR was the perfect buyer). That's also probably why NASCAR also ended up with Michigan. Until Penske bought Indy, he's been out of the track ownership since the sale of those properties. NASCAR was sitting on mountains of cash at that time. So they could afford to buy Nazareth, and not race there. Taking a big tax write-off in the process, as the track that hasn't got a Cup or INDY car race date is losing money. By waiting to sell, the price just went up, due to encroachment around the track. I agree Rodney, the cost looks beyond impossible. If NASCAR sold 80% of the current land at Fontana for approximately $940mil, once that industrial park is under construction that remaining 80 acres will be worth 3 times what it's worth right now. NASCAR gets paid again. With NASCAR selling off pieces of property at current race tracks, it makes me think of a couple of things. The RTA has already spoken publicly about holding "exhibition" races at non NASCAR owned tracks in the off season. Well, if the RTA made that public in Nov, is NASCAR building a war chest to try and combat that? I assure you that if the RTA was willing to go public about that, NASCAR knew about it before that Nov announcement. I'm sure that the RTA is trying to use that threat to force NASCAR into increasing the team's percentage in the next TV deal. That's normal labor union tactics. So Is NASCAR trying to offset that loss of revenue? Or is NASCAR thinking about life without NASCAR? Between the tracks owned by SMI, and independent tracks that NASCAR now races on, a new racing series could emerge. Plus, there are smaller tracks around the country that would be happy to host a big league stock car race, ie Kern County, Berlin in MI, Langley VA, Stafford Speedway. Those are just 4 really good facilities around the country. The France family isn't poor by any stretch of the imagination. Jim France is not young. Lisa France Kennedy is independently wealthy from her ownership in NASCAR, plus her husband was a pretty good businessman. I certainly assume that he also had a good amount of life insurance when he died. So that leaves Brian France & Ben Kennedy. I don't see the powers that be allowing Brian anywhere near the helm of NASCAR again. Ben's a young man, that would be stupidly wealthy if all of NASCAR's assets were sold. Would that be enough to close the doors of NASCAR? I don't know, but there was a reason why NASCAR bought back all of their outstanding stock shares, and merged ISC into NASCAR. Now no outside entity has their fingers in the NASCAR pie. I think that the next 18 months could be 1 of 2 things. The emergence of a rival racing league, or a big nothing burger. It could get interesting!!

Josh42 I don't think Irwindale has enough space for a Cup date. They could fit the haulers etc in, but don't have anywhere to park cars. I'm sure that it is possible to set up a remote parking/busing location & service, as they already do some of that for the LA race. They also don't have space for all of NASCAR's tech equipment, so that would have to be figured out. So that just leaves fan seating. If memory serves me, I think they have seating for about 8-10k, if they haven't removed any. They would have to remove a lot of billboards and palm trees around the track to install temp seating. I won't say that it's impossible, but it surely be a large challenge. Kern County is an amazing facility, and probably the best short track facility in America. I would love to see a Cup race there, as the racing there is fantastic. There would be no problems logistically for the equipment, and race teams. Parking and seating would need to be expanded, but that's doable, as the track owners (also the SRL owners) have land around the track. Here's the only real drawback to Kern. NASCAR doesn't look at Bakersfield as the LA market. If they did, it sure would have cost a lot less for NASCAR to hold the Clash there, instead of all the millions they spent to put on just the first Clash race in LA. Now the construction needs weren't nearly as bad for this year's race, but all the rest probably cost more. 24nomo the LA market is large, and NASCAR really wants to be there. But the trick to having a permanent track has been, and will continue to be where the track is located. As long as there are residential areas anywhere near a permanent location, that track will like a football player's career in the NFL, Not For Long. And any suitable land locations near the freeway system already have or will soon have houses. We are not the only ones that don't think that the 1/2 mile track will be built. Mike Joy made a closing comment yesterday. He basically said that Fontana will be missed, and HOPES that the short track will be built. That was not a ringing endorsement for the very murky plans from NASCAR. I'm certain that he has more inside info than all of us put together, and he sounded like it wasn't really going to happen. I hope that we are all wrong, and that track will be built. But as I said above, I can't think of a single time in the last 20+ years, where NASCAR announced a new project plan, that didn't come with just a start date, but also a completion date too. Here's another thing that NASCAR is trying to keep quiet. Fontana is not the only track that they are selling off land from. They are doing it through second and third party companies. That's usually done when either the buying company or the selling company are trying to hide those transactions. Time will tell..

Rodney, I like you, do not see racing at that site again. I remember driving past that location when it was still the old Keiser steel mill. The fact that Mr. Penske was able to remediate it, and build that beautiful speedway for only $125mil, still amazes me. NASCAR has sold ($940mil)off about 83% of the land mass around the track, leaving about 80 acres. I have no idea what ISC paid Penske for the track, but I'm betting that NASCAR will be making a tidy sum. I saw some of the maps of the proposed facilities that are going to inhabit that land. Also included in these maps is the 1/2 mile track. My understanding is that NASCAR is shooting for the track to holding 50 to 75 thousand fans. From just looking at those plan maps, I simply don't see enough room for the track, pits, parking & the grandstands. But there was one thing that I think could offer a bit of hope. Nowhere in those maps showed any residential housing. Everything was tagged as industrial. Plus, there were parking areas adjacent to those industrial areas that may be dual use, for the track and other occupants. I won't say never, but SoCal has not been good for stock car racing. Attendance at Fontana hasn't been great. It started out great, but the racing was bad. Once the pavement got worn out, the racing was good, but there wasn't anybody there to see it. If you repave it, the racing will suck again for at least 8-10 years. Ontario Motor Speedway was literally a speed palace. It lasted 10 years. Yes, the land became much too valuable to remain a race track, but there wasn't a fight to keep it either. That was because the fans weren't attending like in the beginning. Riverside was able to hang on longer, not because of attendance, but because it was out in the middle of nowhere. Then nowhere disappeared, and there was housing almost completely surrounding it. I truly hope that they build that track at Fontana though. But here is something to think about. Every time that NASCAR has done a major facelift or reconfiguration at a track, they've ALWAYS given out completion dates for all construction, before they even started. They aren't even giving out a start date for Fontana, and 80% of the land is under contract for sale. That right there, is why I don't think that new track will be built. Again, I hope I'm wrong.

Hey Rodney, I know that it won't mean anything to him, but please let him know that it was a pleasure to watch him run this week. I sure wish he hadn't had that flat tire in the first race. It's obvious that he is a good wheelman. Hopefully I'll get to see him run in person. Thanks!

Yeah he drove away on every restart, and after a couple of laps, he'd be between 2-3 seconds ahead. He should be running those Jett cars all the time. They're fast and he can wheel them. Like I said above, if not for that flat tire, he would have won the championship.Jones' first win of the week was the one that Ryan was running 2nd, then cut that tire, Ryan out pointed Jones in all other races. And I never saw him rough anybody up. I was amazed at how consistant he could keep his lap times when he wasn't stuck behind slower traffic. He's very smooth. Also, he was in the top 3 in lap times to set the grid for every race, 2 of which were pole wins. I was very impressed with how clean he races. Jones on 3 of those restarts tried using Ryan up a bit. I was expecting him to return the favor. He did not.

Ten minutes after Ryan Luza won the Hart 100 race, it started drizzling. Then a bit harder, and finally they canceled the race for this year. Big Money Matt Hirshman won every tour modified race this week. Making him the only driver to ever do that. All of the races except 1 were 35 lap mains. The John Blewett III race was 76 laps (John's number). But tonight's race was the one that Matt was looking forward is the Evans 100 lap event, as he loves the longer races. Over the years he's won 4 or 5 of the Blewitt races, and 5 or 6 of the Richey Evans races. But Matt is the only driver to ever sweep the week in the tour mods. Matt also won the championship !! Great week Matt!!!

What a shame that Ryan had that flat from second place, in the opening race at New Smyrna. He started 3rd for the 100 lapper, took the lead on lap 4, and lead the rest of the race. They had 6 restarts, mostly during the middle laps. Conner Jones was very strong on a couple of them, but wasn't ever able to complete the pass. Jones ended up winning the championship, and was strong all week. He won 2 and Ryan won 2. The difference for the championship was that opening race. Great week Ryan!! It looks like John Aramendia finished 16th, but I'm not positive on that. They pulled the leaderboard off the screen with 2 to go. If that stands, then this was his best finish all week.

I don't know if Jett Motorsports has changed all of their cars, but the car that Ryan has raced all week is a Mustang.

Ryan started 4th, and finished 2nd. If he had 5-7 laps more, I think he could have won. The winner was Katie Hettinger. She's 14 or 15, and runs for the Anthony Campi race team, and teammates with Casey Roderick. Casey won last night in the super late models. Katie is from Michigan, but races at Hickory Motor Speedway in NC. She's already has the most wins for a female there in the Pro LateModels. She just might be a female driver that has a future in say the Craftsman Truck series, or possibly the Xfinity series. And I'm not talking the other failed female drivers we've seen, A la Danica and that chick in the truck series. Hettinger looks like a pretty good wheelman.At the start of Monday's feature, she ended going airborne over the nose of another car do to a stack up. Pitted, fixed it, and started in the back. Finished 8th, but was running 3rd and got turned. She ran I believe 2nd last night. John Aramendia finished 18th, but it was a short field.

One of these days, God Willing, I'm going to FL for the derby, and stick around FL for a couple of months to see the 9 days of nightly races at New Smyrna. Just think, 4 days in Pensacola , the 9 days at NS. We shall see...

It was the Governor's Cup race that Ryan smoked the field. But I can't remember if it was last season or the year before. It was a 150 lap event.

I haven't seen him race in person. I can't remember if it was last year at NS, that he simply smoked the field. As I have said numerous times on here, I try to highlight TX racers that are racing out of the area. When I posted how well he did, I got some posts questioning his abilities. Asking if it was an I Racing race. Every time I've seen him race, if the car stayed under him, he finished well or won. So other than what I've seen online, I have no idea what those posters were talking about. I don't recall ever seeing him out of control, racing over his head, or tearing up his equipment. Seems to be a pretty smart racer. It took me a bit to reply, I was watching the Tour Modifieds run the John Blewett III Memorial. Matt Hirshman has won 3 of the 4 shows. The qualifying got rained out for Sat's race, and he isn't a Tour competitor all season. So the started using last year's points standings. I think he started like 19th. Finished 3rd. That guy is a wheelman! John Aramendia ran the Pro Latemodel feature earlier tonight. He finished way back near 20th. He's driving Ben Kennedy's car. I really expected better, because Kennedy usually has good stuff. But he has looked awful all week. I'm hoping that it's been the car. Ben is Lisa France's son. I'm sure that he isn't short on cash. Hopefully it will get better for him this week.

Nice!