ABC’s broadcast of Sunday’s Dickies 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway earned a 3.6 overnight Nielsen Media Research rating, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports. The figure is 10 percent lower than the 4.0 NBC earned overnight for the race in 2006. This report came from AutoRacingSport’s newsletter.
Tracks are going to have to work harder if they hope to maintain or increase attendance figures, Speedway Motorsports Inc. President H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler said Wednesday. Briefing financial analysts about the company’s third-quarter results, Wheeler said the October Nextel Cup race in Charlotte did “quite well,” the Atlanta race was down and last week’s Texas event saw an increase in revenues. “Admissions are going to stay stable at most of our race tracks,” Wheeler said. “But we’re going to have to work harder to keep those same dollars in ’08. I think a significant part of that is due to the increase in gasoline prices.” While admissions have not risen, corporate spending keeps going up, Wheeler said. SMI – which owns tracks in or near Charlotte, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Bristol (Tenn.), Sonoma (Calif.), Dallas-Fort Worth and soon will own New Hampshire – has signed sponsors for all of its 2008 Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series events, all but one Sprint Cup race next year and two of its truck events. This came from stockcargazette.com. Wheeler is taking a realistic look at the current downturn and knows what he has to do to get more business. We have not heard from ISC yet in this regard. We wonder what that companies strategy will be?
To see Krista Voda cover NASCAR for SPEED, you’d never know she grew up on football, basketball and baseball; anything but auto racing. Although she was strictly a “stick-and-ball sports” reporter and fan until a few years ago, Voda, who hosts NCTS Setup and has been chronicling the epic points battle in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series recently, is often mistaken for a lifelong follower of the sport. “When I moved from football, basketball and horse racing over to motor sports, I had to work really hard to learn the background of the sport and its teams and drivers,” Voda said. “After a while, people assumed I’d been a NASCAR fan all my life or had been covering it my entire career. That is the greatest compliment because at that point, you’ve won over and earned the respect of the diehard fans and the people who are loyal to the sport.” This one came from truckseries.com.
Walgreens and Carl A. Haas Motorsports launched the “Racing Against Diabetes” sweepstakes, giving fans a chance to drive home in a new 2008 Ford Fusion. The “Racing Against Diabetes” enter-to-win sweepstakes is a unique opportunity combining one of the nation’s fastest growing sports and one of the most serious medical problems facing the country today. November is National Diabetes Awareness month, and in an effort to promote and support diabetes research, Walgreens created the “Racing Against Diabetes” sweepstakes to help educate those who may be at risk for the disease.
Serving as co-primary sponsors for the Carl A. Haas Motorsports No. 14 Lilly/Walgreens Ford Fusions driven by Kyle Krisiloff, the Lilly/Walgreens’ “Racing Against Diabetes” campaign is a driving force in raising awareness about a disease that affects more than 20 million people in the United States. Along with in-store promotions and sponsorship of the No. 14 Lilly/Walgreens NASCAR Busch Series entry, Lilly/Walgreens Motorsports and the “Racing Against Diabetes” campaign have been selected to appear in the November 5 issue of People magazine in the special section, “Heroes Among Us.”
“Nearly six million people in our country are unaware they have diabetes, and we are proud to be part of a program that is doing so much to bring awareness about the disease, as well as leading the search for better treatment options. It is an honor for our team to carry this very important message and it will be our pleasure to hand the winner the keys to a 2008 Ford Fusion,” said Carl A. Haas, President of Carl A. Haas Motorsports, LLC.
Walgreens has partnered with the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, with sponsors such as Ecotrin, Colgate, Roche Accu-Chek and Nature Valley, to build support for the Joslin Diabetes Center and the race to find a cure for diabetes through the cause-marketing program.
As part of the “Racing Against Diabetes” enter-to-win sweepstakes, the grand-prize winner will be presented with the keys to a 2008 Ford Fusion. The second-place winner receives a trip to the 2008 Daytona NASCAR race to serve as an honorary team member, and 100 third-place winners will be given “Racing Against Diabetes” team hats.
To enter, stop by any Walgreens location before November 24th to pick up the EasySaver Catalog, or visit http://www.walgreens.com or http://www.FordRacing.com and click the sweepstakes logo.
F1 brass were unable to develop an American driver in their series. Scott Speed never had a shot because he wasn’t in a front line car. Lewis Hamilton, the African-English racer, is F1′s Poster Driver due to his phenominal success. Now comes this word about Karun Chandhok of India has been announced as test driver for Formula One’s Red Bull Racing for next week’s postseason test session in Barcelona. In spite of their problems, no US event in ’08, that series has developed two minority competitors that new fans from Third World countries can relate to.
Speedway Motorsports Inc. reported record revenues for its third quarter but said losses from its share of Motorsports Authentics led to a loss of $13.6 million, or 31 cents per diluted share. In the same period last year, the track operator had reported net income of $4.7 million, or 11 cents per diluted share. The company blamed the reversal of fortunes primarily on losses at Motorsports Authentics, which it owns jointly with International Speedway Corp.
Excluding those losses, SMI said it earned $4.4 million, or 10 cents per diluted share, in the latest quarter as revenues increased to $87.6 million from $84.8 million the same period last year. “Our record third quarter 2007 revenue shows strong increases in admissions and most event-related revenue categories, including particularly strong increases in sponsorship, radio broadcasting, luxury-suite rental and other corporate revenues,” said H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, chief operating officer. Besides not buying expensive tickets to the NASCAR events, the fans are also cutting back on collectables, racing clothing and the like.
SMI owns and operates Atlanta Motor Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, Infineon Raceway in California, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway near Fort Worth. The company agreed last week to buy New Hampshire International Speedway for $340 million. This report came from SceneDaily.com and Stockcargazette.com.
Yes, He REALLY Said That-Robert Clarke, president of Honda Performance Development, who will retire next season.
“I don’t see us doing NASCAR.” From the Valvoline Track Talk Newletter.
We can see Honda’s point because arch-rival Toyota did pretty well in the Craftsman Trucks before venturing into the Cup and the Busch Series where they fell flat on their face. But, Toyota seems to be rebounding and may very well be in good shape in time for the ’08 season.
Let’s check to see what’s on TV this weekend as the 2007 racing season crosses the finish line. Friday gets it all going at 10:30 a.m. with Speed’s coverage of CTS Practice at 10:30 a.m. from Homestead followed by Cup Practice at 11:30 a.m. ESPN2 kicks in with Busch Qualifying at noon. Speed returns with Busch Practice at 1 p.m. with The Duce coming back with Cup Qualifying at 3 p.m. The coverage continues at 5 p.m. with CTS Qualifying on Speed. Speed continues on with a Season Review of the CTS at 6:30 p.m. and then the NASCAR Truck go gets the green flag at 8 p.m. also on Speed. Saturday starts off at 11 a.m. with NASCAR Cup Practice from Homestead on Speed followed by Busch Qualifying from that same venue. At 3 p.m. it’s NASCAR Final Practice on ESPN2 followed by the Busch Series on that same channel at 4:30 p.m. For Sunday Wind Tunnel offers a Special Edition at 11:30 a.m. on Speed followed by RaceDay on that same channel. ABC kicks in at 3 p.m. airing the final Cup race of the season.
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES AND NOTES.
No matter what the facts are , we can always count on the spin doctors to turn them to their own advantage . Believing that the huge fall off in attendance and tv viewership at all Nascar races this season is due to fuel prices is a quaint thought , but not acurate . I wonder how long it’s been since Humpy , or Bruton have actually talked face to face with one fan at a time to find out what is really going on , instead of relying on the underlings in their marketing research departments . If they ever decide to , the issue of high fuel prices will certainly come up , as well as outrageous motel and food bills , and the wildly overpriced concession food at the tracks . Not to mention the ridiculous prices of t-shirts and memorabilia at the trailers .
But as anyone that really knows racing can tell you , there are more serious problems afoot here . The racing is not very good . The constant and in many cases un-needed cautions , make a boring race a doubly boring race . The COT has been a total failure in the eyes of the fans . The Chase idea was , as is the case with most Nascar decisions lately , not very well thought out .
I agree with mike c. Like I told my wife last year when they were talking about the COT, I told her it was going to be just like the IROC races when all the cars alike it’s going to be follow the leader, that’s not racing, we are all going to tire of this sooner or later. Why do you think the IROC is no longer with us?