A pleasant afternoon with Bruton: Is NASCAR, in 2011, retreating, retrenching, advancing in a different direction....or simply missing key opportunities?

  Cowboy to cowboy, what's the real deal, Bruton? (Photo: Harold Hinson)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   BRISTOL, Tenn.
   Bruton Smith and I were talking here the other day, just before Kyle Busch completed the sweep by winning Saturday night's 500.
   Not sure if either of us were listening to the other. Bruton and I are like that: we like to talk....but listening, well, that's another matter.
   Bruton and I have been talking at each other like this, sparring, jabbing, thrusting and parrying, for years. He loves it. I do too.
   Wish I could go at Brian France and Mike Helton and Jim France like this. It's fun. And sometimes enlightenment strikes.
   I told Bruton that I thought moving a NASCAR Cup date to Kentucky Speedway looked like a mistake. There's no 'there' there, as Gertrude Stein once said, I said.
   To which Smith took exception.
   I also told Bruton he should have fought harder for that second Cup date at Las Vegas. If Kansas City deserves two NASCAR weekends....
   To which Bruton eagerly agreed.
   I also told Bruton if the France family couldn't make a go of it with the Los Angeles track, then he ought to buy it from them and make it work. (I think I made it his patriotic duty: 'Bruton, your sport needs you to volunteer for this dangerous but critical mission....')  Hey, 25 million people is a heck of an audience for Target, Wal-mart, Home Depot, Lowe's.....'So Bruton, if you're so good at this game, show us your stuff. Make California's Auto Club Speedway work right. Fix the track, and fixing the racing.'
    To which Bruton gave me a blank stare like I was using the alien side of my brain. I think he was just stalling for a time, because it's a really good question, and he still doesn't have a really good answer, even though I've been asking him this for a couple years now. "That part of California has never been enthusiastic about NASCAR. Riverside Raceway never drew very well...." Smith said. To which I should have retorted -- if I were as quick-witted as he -- 'Hey, man, you made Sonoma work! Talk about a tough crowd to win over...'
  
  

  The August night race at Bristol: Must-see NASCAR. Can Bruton Smith match that with his new night race at Kentucky? (Photo: HH for Bristol Motor Speedway)
  

   I also told Bruton that cutting a NASCAR weekend from Atlanta was flat wrong.  I pointed out that that new hole smack in the middle of NASCAR's 2011 March calendar not only looked bad but was bad for the sport. And I pointed out the weather issue in mid-March was clearly an issue...since the France family couldn't find any takers to move a date there.
    I also told Bruton that having an off-weekend on the NASCAR calendar this week simply busts momentum. And I told Bruton that if Montreal is so important to the sport, then the August 28th Nationwide race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ought to be part of a big Sprint Cup weekend too, with all the Cup stars out there framin' and bangin'. Remember Carl Edwards chasing down Marcos Ambrose to win last summer's Montreal event? These Cup drivers are on the beach in Aruba or running Trucks around Chicagoland....put 'em on the grid in the heart of that Canadian city of four million. Talk about missed marketing opportunities....
    I also told Bruton that having the championship chase opening at Chicagoland Speedway, down in Joliet, an hour from the heartland downtown Loop, didn't look like a very wise move. Not to take anything away from Chicago boss Craig Rust...
   And not to take anything away from New Hampshire boss Jerry Gappens, and Boston is only 75 miles south of that track, but the championship chase needs a major makeover. Kicking off the NASCAR playoffs on Week Two of the NFL (which will play 15 games, from 1 p.m. till late evening, on Loudon Sunday), well, sports entertainment is as much about image – and location – at times, as much as what goes on down on the field. And 'New Hampshire,' though Gappens and Smith will likely again have another crowd of 100,000 or so in that picturesque setting, doesn't quite have the national cachet of Las Vegas or Los Angeles, to attract big TV audiences and catch America's eye. 
   I also told Bruton that, for the good of the sport (he likes using that phrase, so I like to throw into our conversations too, since he's got the clout to make things happen, and mikemulhern.net just has to sit and watch it all and scream and shout into the wind), he should have moved that championship playoff opener – while he had it, before giving it up to the Frances, for that Chicagoland race – straight to Las Vegas.
  
  

  A beautiful evening for racing in the Blue Ridge (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   This sport needs a shot in the arm in September – Loudon, N.H., Dover, Del., Kansas....they're all nice places, but against the NFL and college football and high school football and all the new fall TV shows, NASCAR needs a kickass playoff series. The way it's set up now (essentially the same way it's been seven years now, along with less-than-rousing TV ratings), by the time the NASCAR gang hits LA in mid-October – for what should honestly be a big, big event, if the track had the right banking and decent racing, instead of so much follow-the-leader – it's time to wake up the national audience again.
   Now Michigan, Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond, hey, that's a run -- even if Kyle Busch did stink up the Bristol show and most of the chase contenders rolled over just for the points, because for them, as Denny Hamlin points out, the NASCAR point system is set so that at this point in the season if a chase driver doesn't win, it doesn't matter if he finishes second or 42nd. That's something we need to change....put points on leading each lap, for example. The sport doesn't need drivers stroking through a hot stretch like this, just to make sure they don't fall out of the chase.
   If the last few events of this race-to-make-the-chase are just Stroker 500s, something needs to change.
     
  

  When Bruton Smith puts on his game face, he's all business. (Photo: Harold Hinson)
  

   Well, that's what all I told Bruton.
   And this is what Bruton told me....
   Yes, Smith bought the $152 million Cincinnati-Louisville area track (in year 1999 dollars) for a song, because he was the only one who could get those previous owners a Cup weekend. But.....
   "We're going to add 50,000 seats for the race (Saturday, July 9th, 2011), because we need at least 120,000 seats to accommodate that market. I think 120,000 seats will give us something to build on," Smith says confidently.
    Wait a minute. In this economy, 120,000 seats? Isn't Smith overbuilding? Haven't he and the Frances both had to physically remove seats from some tracks because they've got too many?
   "No, no, no," Smith protests. "I never say I built too many.
   "I just got back from Texas, and we had a huge crowd of media for that announcement. Huge, large, humongous....
   "We're making more money from what we've got now down there (after cutting seats and replacing them with RV spaces), from the RVs, than we got from the seats. That's where the demand was."
   But the Indianapolis Brickyard crowd was down to about 140,000, half-filled for last month's 400. And Kentucky Speedway is less than 150 miles away, and with fewer big-city amenities, so why shouldn't the Kentucky track face just as tough a sell?
    Well, if anyone can sell tickets, it's Bruton's bunch. Saturday night Bristol was jammed.
   
  

   Kyle Busch sweeping Bristol: One, two, three (Photo: Harold Hinson for Bristol Motor Speedway, and Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   But why give up the opening race of the chase, at Loudon, N.H., to the France family's Chicago track?
   "That's not Chicago. That's Joliet," Smith insists. "That's way down south....
   "In fact I looked at that property myself, and decided it wasn't worth it."
    But giving up the chase opener?
   "It was a trade."
    A good trade?
    "I think so.
   "I really don't think that the chase sells tickets for us, so I don't care," Smith said.
    "If we can make the event worthwhile, the chase is not that important to me.
   "We like to sell tickets. That's what we're in this business for."
  
    Hmmmm.
    Well, that is an interesting point – the France family traditionally has played more toward the TV media, while Smith has played more toward the print media. Just their different approaches.
    Of course print media today is all but in its death throes, and how to deal with that void is another interesting topic....
    And the TV thing, well, the sport was fortunate that Brian France pulled off that second big TV deal (in late 2005) for eight years, 2007-2014. So that money is in the bank, regardless of the ratings (TV men have only themselves to blame to that oversight).
    So maybe NASCAR should simply get rid of the chase...
   "Oh, I'm not suggesting that," Smith insisted. "I think it's great for the media; the media watches it. The chase generates a lot of publicity.
   "But me today, if I were running a speedway, I would not care one way or the other.
    "Now if the last race of the season were in Atlanta or Las Vegas, that's be fabulous – we'd have no problem selling tickets for that."
   
   

   Is it time to scrap the chase playoffs? What is the sport gaining from this thing? Or maybe the NFL ought to take a page from the NASCAR notebook and have its Super Bowl teams engage in a pie-throwing contest too in downtown New York City? Is it ever time for someone in this sport to say 'No'? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    But, wait, Smith himself gave up that Atlanta finale when Homestead-Miami opened....
   "We'd draw 180,000 to Atlanta for the final race, year after year. We sold everything we had. That was the biggest crowd we drew all the year."
    (Point of clarity here: The France family has six of the 10 playoff races, Smith has three, Dover has the other one. Clearly it would appear there should be more pressure on the France family to perk up the chase, since it has more skin in the game, as Daytona's new catch-phrase goes.)
  
    So why didn't Smith push harder for a Las Vegas finale?
    "NASCAR is not going to give me a date....unless God tells them to, that's about the only way," Smith says.
    But Smith has been negotiating the past several weeks with NASCAR over moving dates. Did he ever raise the possibility of the finale at Las Vegas? "Well, I might have casually mentioned that, but not really," Smith insists. "I'm not going to talk them into that.
   "No....because who am I going to talk to about that?"
   Well, how about the Frances, Brian, Lesa and Jim?
  "Am I going to ask them to give up a date at one of their speedways and bring it to one of ours? I don't think so," Smith says with a wince.
   "And we can't add more dates to the schedule. I think our schedule is enough."
   But that brings up the California Speedway issue. In 2011 this sport will have only one NASCAR Cup stop in Los Angeles and one in Las Vegas (a scant three hours up I-15). That's the second-largest market in the United States (to repeat a point)...and it is the third-largest economic center in the world, behind only Tokyo and New York.
   NASCAR is simply giving up on that market? And Smith is acquiescing?
   At this point I am beginning to agree with those who see this sport as being run by two sides that play at it – and play may be the operative word here – like siblings, more so perhaps than like cool-headed businessmen looking out for the best interests of the sports-business as a whole.
   I think I told Bruton that.
  
  

  In Vegas, baby, Elvis is always in the house (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   I know I told him if California Speedway doesn't work right now, the Frances ought to simply give Smith that California Cup date and let him either run that track himself or move the date to Las Vegas.
    For the good of the sport.
   "I agree with you 1000 percent. Yes, they should do that," Smith says.
   "I did talk with them about some things that would be 'morally right,' that there are some things they ought to do because they are 'morally right.'
   "But I like Brian; he and I get along, and that's good."
   Better than Smith and Bill France Jr., whose battles were epic....and sometimes fun to watch...although this sport was a lot smaller back then, and easier to manage.
    While the Frances can be rightly criticized for giving up a Cup date in Los Angeles, Smith too can be rightly criticized for giving up a Cup date in Atlanta.
    Those two markets are much larger than the two markets taking their place....in what some might consider an ill-advised NASCAR retrenchment.
   Atlanta? Now there's a big, gaping hole in the opening weeks of the 2011 NASCAR season....
   Atlanta in March, yes, Smith is right when he waves his hand and says "Weather, weather, weather...March was never very kind to us."
   For T. S. Elliott April may seem the cruelest month, but for NASCAR and its fans it's March: Where to play this game?
   (Mexico City, at the time, in fact was perfect, though it should have been a Cup weekend, with better marketing and promotion. But that was then, and this is now.)
   Why did Smith take away from Atlanta anyway?
   If NASCAR figures Kentucky Speedway will be a big plus for the sport, just give it a date.
   This artificial debate about '36 races is plenty' begs the real issue – that the TV contract is already signed. Yes, 36, or 38, races is too many for this sport; a 30-race tour or 32-race tour would be nice. But reality check: the Cup tour has this weekend off – and where are all these drivers (the ones who boast about being home for breakfast Bristol race morning before flying up to the track, the ones who boast about being home Sunday evening before the sun sets, while race crowds are still stuck in traffic)?

   With good weather and a good race date, Atlanta can indeed draw a nice crowd, like last Labor Day weekend. So by shuffling Cup dates around, are the France family and Bruton Smith really doing what's best for the sport, or just what's best for their businesses? When do the fans get to weigh in on all this? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    Smith says, in his long talks with Georgia governor Sonny Perdue over NASCAR and its economic impact and all, he got the sense that the governor thought he was bluffing about taking a Cup weekend from Atlanta.
   "I went down to see him on two occasions, and we talked and talked....and I asked for a few little things, and thought we were going to get them," Smith says. "but we didn't.
   "Then the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the house flew up to Charlotte, and we had a meeting for two hours and 15 minutes. It was a great love fest. The governor even brought me a tie, which I thought was great....
   "He never promised.....but he said they didn't have any money. We were looking for certain things – let him tell you. I don't think he thought I would move a date.
    "We had a two hours 15-minute love fest, and they told me how much they loved me, how much they loved the (Atlanta) speedway. And I had not made a decision until that meeting was over.
   "It ended at 6:15. And I didn't make a decision until 6:20."
   Touché.
   Got to love these poker games.
  
    Not that Bruton Smith can do much about all these big issues. He's got to play the hand he's been dealt. And after all, even though he's the second-biggest stockholder in this sport, he's still only the second-biggest stockholder in this sport.
   But at least he was here, sitting in a debating chair next to me and listening.
   Maybe the Frances ought to have just such a debating session with the media, face to face, coffee cup to coffee cup, Red Bull versus Red Bull.
   Wish feisty journalist Maureen Dowd would drop by and throw in her two cents too.

  
  

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  When it comes to politicians, Bruton Smith (R, here with Texas governor Rick Perry) knows how to play the game. And call his bluff at your own risk (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)