Sports Page Atlanta

Team Roush Fenway Racing driver, and Unidilla, Ga. native, David Ragan, finished the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega on Sunday in the fourth spot, the best finish of his young NASCAR Sprint Cup career. Ragan, the driver of the #6 AAA Ford, started sixth in the race, and picked up 160 points in the Chase For The Sprint Cup. Ragan sits in 16th place in the Cup standings, just 353 points behind points-leader Jeff Burton.

The Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway was won by Kyle Busch. The biggest story line there was that he did it in a Toyota. This was the first NASCAR race ever won by a Toyota. In fact, Toyota finished first and second in the race.

But that is not the only news from Atlanta. Tires became the rage among drivers all weekend long…I congratulate Toyota for their victory, but I believe that their victory got overshadowed by the fact that you had two of the most prominent racers complaining about the tire situations. Both Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhart, Jr. said that they would not run this race again, no matter what amount of money was thrown their way. The tire wars from the past, Hoosier vs. Goodyear has not played a part in the sport for a number of years, but I believe eventually someone will get their foot in the door. I don’t know if it will be Hoosier or Firestone, but I really feel someone will make their way back in.

On Sunday, Kyle Busch became the youngest driver to win a NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch is 23 years and 6 months old. He eclipsed Jeff Gordon who won an Atlanta race back in 1995 at 23 years and 7 months.

Morgan Shepherd is the oldest driver to win an Atlanta Race when he won Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 in 1993. He was 51 years and 4 months at the time.

This Sunday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway the Kobalt Tools 500 will be raced. It is the 4th race of this year’s Sprint Cup Series. Earlier today, I talked briefly with Sean Pragano about this week’s big race. He is the host of ‘Around the Track’ a comprehensive NASCAR show on SportsSouth and on the FSN family of networks…     

Dave McMahon: What makes the Atlanta Motor Speedway so special?

Sean Pragano: It’s fast, super fast. The drivers love the track and when the drivers are happy, everyone is happy. Also it is the place where 3 of the 12 closest NASCAR finishes have happened.

DM: Why are fans so excited about the race?

SP: The fans are super passionate and there are a lot of drivers from the past and current drivers from Georgia so they have drivers to cheer for. There is also not a bad seat in the house.

DM: What is your best memory there (in person or not in person) ?

SP: It has got to be Richard Petty’s last ever race and Jeff Gordon’s first, back in 1992.

DM: What about in person?

SP: The year that Dale Sr. died and a month later Kevin Harvick took over his car and won the race.

DM: Which drivers best fit this track?

SP: Ryan Newman usually qualifies well, but not necessarily races there well. Bobby Labonte has done great. He has won 6 races in Atlanta. Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards are also good.

DM: Who will win the race and who will surprise people?

SP: I think Kasey Kahne has a good chance and look out for Juan Pablo Montoya.

‘Around the Track’ can be seen at 10:00 pm on Fridays and 10:30 pm on Sunday’s on SportSouth in Atlanta and it can also be seen at various times on the FSN family of networks.
photo credit: BiggerPictureImages.com

The past year has been a very busy year for Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc (SMI). Proving that Smith is probably the only person who can actually stand up to the France family and not bow down to kiss the ring of Sir Brian.

His first venture was blackmailing the city of Concord, N.C. to build a NHRA drag strip. When they refused due to a noise ordinance, he threatened to build a new track and leave Lowes Motor Speedway as an ancient ruin of one of the meccas of this sports history. It would sit there much like the Colosseum in Rome, empty, but full of history of great races and one of the birthplaces of the sport. Lucky for us, the fans, Concord realized that this history and that this speedway are both critical to their economy and NASCAR.

The next venture was purchasing New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS). Now it’s been stated by numerous sources that this is a move to take one of their dates and move it to one of his other tracks, Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That is a move that will more than likely take place in the 2009 season. The big question is, what is going to happen to NHIS in general. Is SMI going to pump money into the track to make it better, or is he going to eventually build a new track somewhere else in the country and take that final date from NHIS? Non-the-less, it is showing Smith flexing and now cowering in the corner.

The latest chapter in the SMI ventures is the fight to get the final race of the season back to Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS). This was the last race of the year for many years and was a great draw, but weather made NASCAR want to swap the races with Homstead-Miami Speedway (HMS). But Smith argues that this was an experiment, and he contends that it is a failed experiment. Now that the Chase has been implemented in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the fact that AMS seats 124,000 people vs. HMS seating only 80,000, it only makes sense that the final race of the year returns to its rightful home. Let’s see what the Frances have to say about that, since that move would give an SMI owned track the final race in the chase while currently International Speedway Corporation (ISC) owns that privilege. ISC as many of you know, is primarily owned by the France Family.

Once again this shows that Smith is not afraid to speak his mind and go for what he wants. Let’s see how this all shakes out. I for one would love to have the final race back in Atlanta, having spent many times at that race over the years. One thing for sure, Smith knows how to run a track and he knows how to make his tracks things of beauty.

As Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” For “Romeo and Juliet” that one short line puts in a nutshell the central struggle and tragedy of the play. The central struggle for NASCAR these days seems to be the decline of fan loyalty and interest in the sport of stock car racing.

Fan loyalty being what it is these days in NASCAR; it is hard to pinpoint exactly where the decline began in recent times. Some like to point at the change in leadership, which brought about not only a new point scoring format but a new car as well, while others think that the constant changing of rules has taken the fun out of the sport. Still another group might say that the drivers of today are nothing like the hard-chargers of yesteryear.

In my personal opinion, I think there might be another reason: the loss of racetrack identity. Fans are being driven away because they can’t associate a favorite race with any particular track anymore.

Corporate sponsorship is a very good thing for the sport of racing. Not only does it ease the financial burden of car ownership but it makes for fun competition to see a car with one product brand dueling with another car with a different product brand down the backstretch and the fans of both cars displaying said brands on t-shirts, hats, etc. good-naturedly jeering at one another as their favorite cars cross the finish line. Who cares if it looks like one big commercial on television? The fans will gladly buy the product on Monday whether their driver wins or lose just because they like the driver and want to support the team. Even the commercials themselves, lately, have been fun to watch with the drivers hawking products in some of the funniest ways possible.

In the modern era of NASCAR, the sport survived with the great support received from the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company after the major car manufacturers pulled their support from the sport in 1971. When the races were televised more frequently beginning with the infamous 1979 Daytona 500 race, the majority of the fans hereafter associated the sport with Winston Cup instead of what was previously known as NASCAR Grand National. Even today, the overall corporate sponsorship with Sprint has some good potential with cars “sprinting” down the backstretch to the finish line.

However, part of the fun of attending a race has always been the racetrack itself. Whether attendance is filled due to the locals or by fans from out of town, the racetrack’s identity was always a part of the marketing appeal. This weekend’s race in Atlanta is a prime example. When the track first opened in 1960, the races were called either the Dixie 400 (500 later) or the Atlanta 500 for 20 years! It didn’t matter that the Dixie races didn’t have the name Atlanta in the race name but most fans at the time knew where the track was if the race was the Dixie 500 back then.

Beginning in 1980, corporate sponsorship started to creep in to steal the racetrack’s identity. The spring races in Atlanta became known as the Coca-Cola 500 and the fall races were the Atlanta Journal 500. For the short term at least the sponsorship was local so the racetrack’s identity wasn’t completely stolen. But, we know what has since become of the Coca-Cola 500, it wound up in Charlotte.

It got worse as the 80’s progressed. The Coca-Cola 500 gave way to the Motorcraft 500, the Atlanta Journal 500 turned into the Hooters 500. Eventually, the names got longer in each successive year until at one point the fall race was known as the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500. Two sponsors on one bill!

If you weren’t from around Atlanta or a really big fan, you might not have known where those races were being held because of the name. This weekend’s race is the Kobalt Tools 500. I never even heard of Kobalt Tools until the Lowes home improvement stores started pushing them in recent years.

Atlanta is not the only racetrack that has suffered from this form of identity loss. Daytona of course has the Daytona 500 opener or had the Firecracker 400 in July. Darlington had really great races under the Rebel 500 or the Southern 500 names. Unfortunately, Darlington not only lost the race names, it lost one whole race in the fall. But, that’s another story. There was the Winston 500 in Talladega, the World 600 in Charlotte, the Old Dominion 500 in Martinsville, and so on. It didn’t matter which year you were talking about but if you knew those race names, then most likely you knew what track the race was being held at.

Today, there are a few race names where the track is still readily identifiable. Races such as the Daytona 500, the Dover 400, the Pocono 500, and the Michigan 400. With the exception of the Daytona 500, all the other race names above sound boring. Kansas 400, blah.

Can you identify the race tracks where the following races will be held?

• The Amp Energy 500
• NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 500
• Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola

Or the always favorite

• Crown Royal Presents “Your Name Here” 400

Good race names but I can pretty much bet that all of those race names will not be used again next year, much less 20 years down the road like the Dixie 500!

(Answers to above in order: Talladega Oct 5th, Martinsville Oct 19th, Daytona July 5th, and Richmond May 3rd.)