Born and bred in small Southern towns, NASCAR appears to be leaving its roots for bigger cities, bigger money and bigger crowds.
The circuit's current schedule is an unusual mix. Darlington follows Atlanta; Bristol, Tenn., precedes Fort Worth; Martinsville, Va., is held the week before an event in the Los Angeles area.
The Southern 500 in Darlington might be moved from its traditional Labor Day date to early November, replacing a race in Rockingham, N.C., so an event can be added at the California Speedway outside Los Angeles and possibly moved to the nighttime.
And this is not expected to be the end of the changes.
"This could be the beginning of some fairly substantial changes in the Winston Cup schedules and there could be some big surprises down the road," a source close to the NASCAR family told ESPN.com.
The motivation behind the changes is no different than any other sport: money. With the exception of the Green Bay Packers, baseball, football and basketball all have left the small towns where the leagues began in search of bigger cities. Hockey is hanging on in Edmonton, but it's also abandoning its roots in many Canadian towns.
In addition to leaving Rockingham, a pair of races at the North Wilkesboro (N.C.) speedway were bought out in 1996 and were moved to Texas and New Hampshire. Television networks are asking for night-time races and NASCAR is interested in moving into larger markets after more than 200,000 fans attended the race at Texas Motor Speedway.
"It's going to happen," said Texas Motor Speedway general manager Eddie Gossage of a second date at Texas. "You can't ignore this. I really believe it's only a matter of time."
There are several races held within two hours of Charlotte, and sponsors argue its a waste of money to saturate that market, preferring larger markets. A track is being considered in New York , and new speedways near Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Nashville want races.
Both events at Richmond and Charlotte, the summer Daytona race and the fall Bristol race already have been moved to the evening to facilitate larger TV audiences. The NFL's ratings for playoff games that started two hours later than before increased 8 percent, according to The Roanoke Times.
There are no plans to add any dates to a schedule that has 36 points races and two all-star events over 41 weekends from February to November. Among the possibilities are moving one of the Atlanta races to the Dallas area.
"We want to work in concert with the track operators," NASCAR president Bill France Jr. told The Roanoke Times in January of possible schedule changes. "There's a good opportunity to take a place that is under-performing and go someplace else within the company. The shareholders are going to get the enhancement."
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/sports/5882490.htm
The circuit's current schedule is an unusual mix. Darlington follows Atlanta; Bristol, Tenn., precedes Fort Worth; Martinsville, Va., is held the week before an event in the Los Angeles area.
The Southern 500 in Darlington might be moved from its traditional Labor Day date to early November, replacing a race in Rockingham, N.C., so an event can be added at the California Speedway outside Los Angeles and possibly moved to the nighttime.
And this is not expected to be the end of the changes.
"This could be the beginning of some fairly substantial changes in the Winston Cup schedules and there could be some big surprises down the road," a source close to the NASCAR family told ESPN.com.
The motivation behind the changes is no different than any other sport: money. With the exception of the Green Bay Packers, baseball, football and basketball all have left the small towns where the leagues began in search of bigger cities. Hockey is hanging on in Edmonton, but it's also abandoning its roots in many Canadian towns.
In addition to leaving Rockingham, a pair of races at the North Wilkesboro (N.C.) speedway were bought out in 1996 and were moved to Texas and New Hampshire. Television networks are asking for night-time races and NASCAR is interested in moving into larger markets after more than 200,000 fans attended the race at Texas Motor Speedway.
"It's going to happen," said Texas Motor Speedway general manager Eddie Gossage of a second date at Texas. "You can't ignore this. I really believe it's only a matter of time."
There are several races held within two hours of Charlotte, and sponsors argue its a waste of money to saturate that market, preferring larger markets. A track is being considered in New York , and new speedways near Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Nashville want races.
Both events at Richmond and Charlotte, the summer Daytona race and the fall Bristol race already have been moved to the evening to facilitate larger TV audiences. The NFL's ratings for playoff games that started two hours later than before increased 8 percent, according to The Roanoke Times.
There are no plans to add any dates to a schedule that has 36 points races and two all-star events over 41 weekends from February to November. Among the possibilities are moving one of the Atlanta races to the Dallas area.
"We want to work in concert with the track operators," NASCAR president Bill France Jr. told The Roanoke Times in January of possible schedule changes. "There's a good opportunity to take a place that is under-performing and go someplace else within the company. The shareholders are going to get the enhancement."
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/sports/5882490.htm
