Quote of the Week
"Except for Indianapolis and Iowa (where the stands don’t hold that many people, meaning it’s not that hard to fill them), attendance at Indy-style oval races is a disgrace.
"Milwaukee was embarrassing earlier this year and New Hampshire was a joke more recently and neither are expected to be on the 2012 schedule. Sunday’s race at Kentucky Speedway, which featured both superb race-driving as well as asinine pit-lane driving, was attended by so few people that they looked lost in the 100,000-seat arena.
"This was the place in July where so many people tried to get in for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race that the traffic jams prevented many of them from even getting to their seats.
"By comparison, so few showed up for Sunday’s IZOD race that organizers should have introduced them to the 29 drivers, instead of the other way around. It would have made for an interesting pre-race ceremony instead of watching the drivers waving to 80,000-plus empty seats (and the idea that there might have been 20,000 people there is being very generous)." Norris McDonald, Toronto Star
[Editor's Note: Spot on Norris, that is what we have been saying for years. Don't force the issue with this notion of a 50/50 oval/road course split. Go where the fans are willing to pay to see you race, be it an oval, a road course or a street circuit. But to put on a race on an oval with huge grandstands where you can't hide the crowd, well that just makes the series look like a loser. Great racing, but NASCAR owns the heart and mind of oval track race fans in the USA.]