NASCAR, Champ Car and other rumors

UPDATE NASCAR Chief Operating Officer George Pyne said March 6 a decision about the sanctioning body's plans in Canada probably will be made within the next three months and that Toronto and Montreal are the most likely choices for a Busch or Truck event. Pyne said 80% of the Canadian population lives within 75 miles of the border and that NASCAR has a significant fan base in the country. NASCAR Scene While the FOX TV Rating for the Busch Series race was a decent 3.5 in the USA, the final Mexican TV Rating is reported as a 0.4, far below what Champ Car pulls in. The bottom line is that NASCAR has not caught on yet in Mexico despite all the hype by the NASCAR crazed USA media so just sending the Busch Series to Canada and Mexico for now makes sense. 03/08/05 Sources say that the Nextel Cup race at Pocono in June will be eliminated, “replaced by the Watkins Glen Cup race, currently held in early August," and the Busch series will run in Montreal on the “newly opened August 2006 weekend." NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck series will run “a companion event" in Monterrey, Mexico, with a Champ Car race in April ’06 WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 3/7. [Editor's Note: Champ Car owner Gerald Forsythe let NASCAR into Mexico with this past weekend's Busch Series race at his track in Mexico City. Now he is letting NASCAR bring the trucks to his other track in Monterrey. It looks like NASCAR and Champ Car are becoming partners in a number of ventures. And let's not forget the NASCAR/Champ Car doubleheader in Las Vegas in September. We now hear talk of NASCAR bringing the Busch cars to Montreal in August, which is the month Champ Car traditionally races there. Might that be another NASCAR/Champ Car doubleheader weekend? Meanwhile we read rumors of the IRL going to Montreal and Toronto, written by a journalist who has been saying that for years now. He's struck out every time so we'll have to see this time.]