The NASCAR 2010 tour schedules are out!

Ah, the Truck series, the best racing in NASCAR…and some of the best guys in the sport.
So NASCAR and promoter Bruton Smith, who has some key venues for the tour, and some of the most exciting events, deserve credit for keeping things going.
Alas, NASCAR's Truck tour, like the Indy Racing League, appears to be on life support.
And the best thing to happen to the Truck series could be Danica Patrick…if she does decide to show up in NASCAR, as appears likely. Let's put her up against Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday and Johnny Benson and see just what she's got.
However, a few points:
– The Truck series has gotten too far away from its roots. When Bill France Jr. first organized the tour, it was to be a low-cost, easy-entry point for promising new drivers and new team owners, and a training ground for crewmen. Then NASCAR and its promoters – and some of its teams -- got greedy and scheduled the tour into larger, high-buck arenas, with expensive hotel rooms and transportation and all. And instead of quickie one-day in-and-out shows, Trucks teams have too frequently been saddled with expensive race weekends.
– When it lost Sears' Craftsman title backing, the Truck tour lost a critical promotion/marketing angle, image and national continuity.
– Most Truck teams have long been under-sponsored, for the expenses necessary to run a full schedule. Detroit car makers have carried much of the freight (and they complained privately about that for years); now Detroit has cut its backing, and that has hurt some of the top Truck teams. In 2010 it appears there will be no significant Detroit sponsorship of the Truck tour, an ominous situation. When Chevrolet joined the other car makers in abruptly pulling support for the Truck tour this summer, things looked pretty dismal.
– Plus the new mood in the country toward 'green' vehicles, and pushed by President Obama (who effectively owns majority interest in General Motors now), would seem to run counter to the general truck image of macho horsepower and damned the MPG, full speed ahead.
– NASCAR itself appears to have too many national touring series now, perhaps diluting things. The future would seem to lie in part with the Grand-Am series (which I think might work well in some type of 'merger' with the Nationwide series, thinking creatively, particularly since the Nationwide tour has just about as many Detroit sponsorship holes and general economic problems as the Trucks).
– Foremost, though, the Truck series, for all its enthusiastic action and colorful characters simply hasn't caught on with the American public, even now nearly 15 years on. Why, is worthy of study: I would suggest a more standard starting time, to boost the TV audience. Sometimes Truck promoters have been their own worst enemy – starting a race at 5:30 p.m. or so on a Friday afternoon in Los Angeles? More creative promoting perhaps might help; different venues; better marketing. And consider the markets. And the size of teams.
The cost of running any major race team is outrageous. Trucks too. When Kyle Busch, a big Truck series winner, considered starting a Truck team of his own this season, after sizing up the investment stake it would take -- $8 million or something he said – he quickly gave that up.
That's too bad, because NASCAR racing was built on owner-drivers, and NASCAR executives should do their best to support owner-drivers…while at times it appears otherwise.
So who's watching the show? The typical Truck event this year is averaging about 665,000 television households, up slightly from last year, and the kickoff Friday night Daytona Truck event hit 1.4 million households.
But still not enough to create much sponsor support.
And the Truck tour hit a very low point in June, at Texas ironically, which is one of the tour's best venues. Expenses held the 'real' field down, and there were nearly a dozen start-and-parkers. Danica was at the same place the same weekend, and she probably wasn't impressed with that.
That came after tire issues at Dover. And then came the embarrassing financial problems surrounding the Milwaukee weekend. Then defending series champion Johnny Benson abruptly lost his ride (and that after his 2008 championship car owner had to bail out of the sport at the end of last season).
After all that, 2010 can only be up for the Truck teams and drivers. We hope.
Because, as one top engineer noted it's one thing to schedule a race, another thing to have a good field and exciting action: "If they give a party, and no one shows up, is it still a party?" as he put it.
Let's hope for the best.

I read Dave's stuff....he's on top of it. Curious how NASCAR isn't saying much about its behind-the-scenes dealing with the Milwaukee track...after it made such a stink of the deal back in June. Guess NASCAR figures the Milwaukee market is pretty important after all....perhaps as 'partner' with the NASCAR-ISC-owned Michigan track, where selling tickets has been an issue. Thanks for the links. And, gosh, someone saying 'thank you,' that's music to my ears. Thank you!

And I've not been the only one worried about the Truck tour:
Here are two other stories I've written, with Ron Hornaday and Rick Crawford, at the start of the season....

http://bit.ly/3NIWYu

http://bit.ly/HDwgo

and you might check out the comments too; the people commenting here have been quite astute during mikemulhern.net's first eight months on the air....hey, have you really read all 707 stories we've filed on mikemulhern.net this season?

OBTW, to put it all into perspective, reread this

http://bit.ly/2q7K1Y

thanks.
mm

From 'my people' Danica has written a clause into her proposed new IRL contract that lets her drive other stuff too. I'm hoping that means she can run something this fall, at least after the October IRL finale...hey, think she could do the commute between Homestead-IRL and Rockingham-ARCA and get in some hot laps at the Rock? I'd drive over for that.