The state of the sport, after the first fiscal quarter

  Kansas Speedway: where will that second Sprint Cup weekend date come from in 2011? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   PHOENIX
   That proposed second Cup weekend at the France family's Kansas Speedway, part of the International Speedway Corp. (NASDAQ: ISCA), is looming larger, and some current track promoters may be getting worried about losing one of their current Sprint Cup dates to the Kansas track next season. And just which track loses that date could well be determined by the size of crowds and TV ratings this season.
   Presumably that second race weekend would come from an ISC track, presumably either Michigan, California or Martinsville.
   But in a quarterly stock analysis conference call this week ISC president John Saunders offered no clues as to what the thinking might be in Daytona. Typically the next season's schedule is announced in late August or early September.
   ISC all but promised Kansas a second Cup weekend if it got the okay to build a casino at the track, and now the casino project is well underway, scheduled to open in 2012.
  

  

  Tough decision ahead for Brian France and sister Lesa, on Kansas City's second Cup date? Move a current ISC date...or create a new one? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  

    Saunders did provide a number of specifics about just how well the family business is going:

    -- So far ISC tracks (Daytona, California and Martinsville) have filled to 81 percent of capacity, down from last season when ISC tracks were running "roughly the low 90s, high 80s," though he didn't offer any specifics about California's Auto Club Speedway. Saunders conceded advance tickets sales generally are down considerably, between 18 and 23 percent, but he said that was partly offset by fans waiting until closer to the race date before actually buying, from three to five weeks ahead of the event.

   -- A number of key sponsors are renewing in the sport, including 3M, Aflac, Bank of America, Carfax, ConAgra, Dollar General and FedEx among them. And there are new sponsors like Bubba Burgers, COPD, HD, Kemp, Showtime, and Lowe's, he said. "It's still a tough environment...and the deals are somewhat on shorter terms. But again the good news is we're starting to see increased activity."

   -- That Daytona pavement – remember the pothole that marred the 500 – is still being analyzed by engineers, in consideration of when to repave the 2.5-mile track, which was last paved over 30 years ago. Saunders said an unusually cold winter, coupled with moisture under the track, led to what he described as "delamination" of the asphalt during the 500, under extreme pounding from race cars bottoming out in that second of the track. That created a pothole he described as nine inches by 15 inches.
   During the race track officials finally resolved the immediate problem by filling the hole with Bondo, a plastic-type material.
   After the race, the hole was patched with concrete, six feet long, 18 feet wide, and about six to eight inches thick.
    "We have every bit of confidence that the patch will work for the upcoming events," Saunders said. The next major event is the July Fourth weekend Cup race. But Saunders says a Nationwide test at Daytona in May may offer a good look at what to expect: "If there's an issue...we will have time to address it.
    "We don't think it will have any impact on the racing coming into the Coke Zero 400."
    Saunders says the entire Daytona track is being studied, "to clearly understand the condition way below the surface. The upper portion...is roughly 32 years old; the base is...over 52 years old.
    "We're awaiting the engineering results to decide whether we need to accelerate planned repaving, which was targeted in the area of 2012. We will have them in a couple of weeks."

    Daytona's John Saunders: on the state of the sport, from the International Speedway Corp. side (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

    

    
Elsewhere on the ISC business front, Saunders said thing appear on target for total revenues this season from $660 million to $680 million.
     One issue – since Sunday Cup events aren't selling out, it is difficult to demand fans buy two-day tickets, including Saturday Nationwide races...which logically cuts into Saturday crowds.
    Attendance revenue, Saunders says, will likely "decrease in the high single digits for the year." That would mean a nearly 10 percent drop.
    Saunders added "While we are seeing signs of renewed spending from our corporate partners, we are forecasting our motorsports-related revenue to decrease to mid-single digits."
    And on the sometimes contentious issue of TV ratings (five of the year's first six races were down in numbers from 2009), Saunders wouldn't make any predictions for the rest of the season: "It is still too early," he said, pointing to the lengthy Daytona red flag, and competition from the Winter Olympics, particularly the hockey finals, as having "a particularly significant impact on ratings."
    Still, he was positive about the sport's general 1 p.m. starts, the double-file restarts, the three green-white-checkered finishing attempts, and even ABC's moving most of its events to ESPN, as all positive for the sport, in terms of boosting TV ratings.
    This weekend's Phoenix race, stretched to at least 375 laps (from last year's 312), will start at 7:45 pm EDT (4:45 pm PDT here), and probably run between 3-1/2 hours and four hours.

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  You see the strangest things at a NASCAR race....Now that NASCAR has put a new rear spoiler on these race cars, maybe it's time for a new nose too (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)