Who to watch

[sickofpc]

Do you think that the loss of a lot of fans might possibly, partly be because of the political things they have done...pretty much abandoning their identity?....

[kantwin]

NASCAR started going downhill for me when ESPN lost the broadcast rights.
Ned Jarret and Benny Parsons were broadcast booth gold.

[Shotgun Jeremy]

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Do you think that the loss of a lot of fans might possibly, partly be because of the political things they have done...pretty much abandoning their identity?....

Absolutely. NASCAR has done a lot to kick themselves in the butt. Some of the cars they've run, some of the politics that have happened, the shenanigans with Bubba Wallace as well.


Another thing that doesn't help is the lack of local race tracks. Racing is bigger than just the NASCAR Cup Sunday race. There are layers and layers of racing that you can watch instead if you're upset at NASCAR. And there's some freaking awesome modes of racing out there. If we had local motorsports that were promoted more (can we get high school/college auto shops in some competition???), I feel like that would feed up just like NFL starts with local football. I'm not saying a track in every town, but maybe county tracks? Or a county track near all the bigger cities at least? Every NASCAR Cup driver I know of that's currently racing started at a local track.

I think it'd be great to get a small asphalt oval about the same size as Heart O Texas Speedway in the area that could handle go cart racing. There's plenty of people wanting to drive - just go look at any go-kart rental track anywhere. I bet out of all those people wanting to drive, there's gearheads that would love to take a shot at building their own and putting it on a track. I know it's not likely to happen anytime soon. One can wish.

[Rick]

There was a small track in Killeen, but the people preferred the area be transformed into a Wal-Mart and fast food joints.

My problem is with the name. They haven't been "stock" cars for years, so they shouldn't be allowed to call them stock cars.

[Ricky]

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There was a small track in Killeen, but the people preferred the area be transformed into a Wal-Mart and fast food joints.

My problem is with the name. They haven't been "stock" cars for years, so they shouldn't be allowed to call them stock cars.

The Strictly Stock cars were used until 1966 when NASCAR ordered its first significant competition change to the Grand National Division.

[Shotgun Jeremy]

Losing Texas Thunder Speedway was truly a loss for the community. Right there with losing Putt - Putt. I don't think I ever saw the stands at TTS empty by the time the sun went down.

I was looking into the demolition derby rules the other night to see about potentially entering in one at some point. They still have a class that is mostly stock. That's probably where I'll have to start out just to dip my toes in the water.

[gnatsum]

Texas Thunder closed because the LAND OWNER under that track (he only leased it to the owner of Goode Towing, who actually ran the track) wanted the money selling out to Walmart would bring...
Besides, the track would eventually HAVE to do something about the noise (exhaust pipes on all race cars?). Heck, I could tell when the IMCA Modifieds hit the track, as I could hear them from my parents' house, and they lived over TWO miles away!
HOT Speedway in Elm Mott, north of Waco (just...) is, last I heard, still owned by Goode Towing, or whatever the owner's name is.

NASCAR used to run commercials, extolling the virtues of watching LOCAL racing action at NASCAR-aligned short tracks. Do they still run the ads (HOT Speedway used to be NASCAR-sanctioned, but I forgot if they still are).

Putt-Putt died around the same time as the whole chain. The Putt Putts in the Dallas/Fort Worth area are closed, I think (the one in Hurst might be open, but Fort Worth AND Arlington are both gone).

[Shotgun Jeremy]

They revived North Wilkesboro with some money via a show thats in production.The show is being hosted by Dale Jr, and from what I'm hearing it seems like the idea of the show (Race Track Revival) and starting with North Wilkesboro was in large part his idea. Then the plan was to race it for a month to raise money via ticket sales, rip up the old asphalt, run dirt races for a month, and then lay down asphalt. The opening races have been packed houses, which is great for raising money. Come to find out, the driver's all love the track surface. So the repaving has been scrapped and they will move onto the next upgrade.

[Shotgun Jeremy]

The racing has been such a hit, they're moving the All-Star race to Wilkesboro and word is it'll be NASCARs version of "Field of Dreams".

[kantwin]

We did the Putt-Putt and go-carts quite often when we were in Killeen.
There's a mini-golf and go-cart place just east of Dothan, AL that is still in business.
And a relatively new mini-golf in Enterprise.
I have not been to either of them, though. Kids are gone.