And while we wait for Bruton Smith's next big play.....

 Chasing away the summertime blues. Hey, 29 -- wasn't that Nelson Stacy's old number? (Photo: Harold Hinson)
 

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   JOLIET, Ill.
   Bruton Smith likes 'big.'
   Big races, big tracks, big deals, big news.
   Well, he also likes small....like in grassroots.
   But he even does 'small' big.
   "The purse is $1 million," Don Hawk, Smith's right-hand-man on this particular promotion – the three-day Legends Million, July 15th, 16th and 17th at Charlotte Motor Speedway's short-track.
   It's an off-Cup weekend, and Smith isn't letting it go to waste. Hawk says as many as 500 teams may descend upon the Charlotte track for this event.
   "There's no other short-track race like this in the world," Hawk says. "The only other series with a purse this big are Cup, Nationwide and Indy-car."
   A 'grassroots' race, with the A-main winner taking  $250,000.  Second place is $100,000.
   "There are some Cup races that don't pay that much to win," Hawk says.
    "It's our versions of Short-track Powerball. We're trying to grow grassroots racing in America."
    Maybe they should try this at Winston-Salem's Bowman Gray Stadium next.....
   Remember "Madhouse", the History Channel series ( http://bit.ly/9OBUke ) about NASCAR grassroots racing at Winston-Salem's legendary Bowman Gray Stadium?
   The big picture here is not just three days of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but rather the concept of grassroots racing.
   Grassroots racing is not just important for NASCAR itself, it's in a large sense key to NASCAR's success. R. J. Reynolds sensed that, and hotly promoted its Winston Racing Series, at weekly tracks around the country, tying that promotion into its Winston Cup marketing.
   Surprisingly Sprint has not taken that same approach, even though it's so highly cost effective. And it's surprising that NASCAR hasn't pushed Sprint to add that to its big-league Sprint Cup tour game plan.
  
  

    Nope, this isn't Danica Patrick. Just a Legends fan getting into the summer spirit of it all (Photo: Harold Hinson)
  

   By just focusing on the big Saturday/Sunday events, this sport has missed a lot.
   Yes, NASCAR, with well-traveled George Silbermann, has been trying to play catch-up here for over a year, and some things are working.
    And the impact of the Madhouse series shows just how effective grassroots marketing can work: when Bowman Gray opened this season, three bus loads of fans came all the way from Phoenix to see just what all the hoopla was about. NASCAR's media arm considered trying to extend that program, but it has apparently been dropped.
   However grassroots stuff is something that has come fitfully for this sport ever since R. J. Reynolds pulled out. And grassroots stuff – or rather the lack of a coherent, strongly promoted national marketing program – may be one reason for NASCAR's current slump.
   That's the big picture.
   Down in the trenches....well, while we're all waiting to see what Smith does with Kentucky Speedway – and NASCAR is apparently holding up the 2011 Sprint Cup schedule while he works out his game plan – and what Smith does with Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a possible second Cup date there, maybe even the tour's season finale, what else is Bruton Smith doing right now?
   He's just finished up a run of four Cup events in the past six weeks, and his next  Cup weekend doesn't come till mid-August at Bristol,
   So he's promoting some of his own basic grassroots stuff, Legends Car racing.
  
  

   Now Geoff Bodine in a Legends car? A real ringer? Wonder what he can really do? (Photo: Harold Hinson)
  

   You know the Legends cars: those 5/8ths-scale replicas of 1930s and 1940s racers, with a motorcycle engine (1200 cc, sealed) under the hood, an inexpensive ($13,000) hobby series with events around the world....a Charlotte Motor Speedway-based series (with its annual weekly Summer Shootout) now nearing its 20th anniversary...a series with between 3,000 and 4,000 cars worldwide...
   Some 300 to 500 cars or more are expected at the Charlotte track. The entry list includes racers as young as 12 and as old as 74 (Will Cagle).
   The tagline for the three-day series: "a great example of how Bruton thinks big and puts his money where his mouth is."
   "Some people don't give Bruton enough credit for helping grow this sport," Hawk says. "We build these cars, we sell them, and we pay the purse money ourselves. Bruton puts his money where his mouth is."
   Of course there are a few headline ringers, like Geoff Bodine, the 1986 Daytona 500 winner, and current Sprint Cup star David Ragan...maybe Kyle Busch too.
   But then Hawk points out that the Legends series – the cars themselves are built and sold by Charlotte Motor Speedway, out of a shop on the backside of the track, near the Wood Brothers' shop – has helped produce some of today's NASCAR stars: "Joey Logano, David Ragan, both Kyle and Kurt Busch, and Reed Sorenson have all come out of that series. In fact Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won at Charlotte in a Legends car.
  

  

  Charlotte's Don Hawk...the non-Elvis here (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

  
"We're trying to stir up grassroots racing...because we need the next Logano, we need the next Ragan, the next Junior, the next Kurt or Kyle...
   "We've got to be out there investing in them.
   "We've just decided to ratchet it up, with a $1 million purse. And we have entries shipping cars from six foreign countries and 29 states – as far away as Portland and Seattle and California.
   "And we've got good tech....."
   What, no cigarette filters stuffed in the engine cylinders...no hidden nitrous oxide canisters.....no Toluene-soaked tires?
   Sacré bleu!
   Wouldn't that be some real grassroots stuff?
   Maybe a run-whatcha-brung race might be an interesting follow-up.....

      [Note: You can use Twitter as an easy headline service for mikemulhern.net stories, with our instant Tweets to your mobile as soon as our newest NASCAR story is filed. And mikemulhern.net is mobile-friendly for viewing. You can also use the orange RSS feed button as a quickie headline service on your laptop or home computer for mikemulhern.net stories, by creating a Live Bookmark RSS feed on your web browser's toolbar. Or you can create a Google Alert for mikemulhernnet.]

    

 Hey, Bruton...wonder what those Modified guys at Bowman Gray Stadium would do if you put up a $1 million purse for the Madhouse? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)