As industry faces a tough year, ticket packages likely to have more amenities

With 2009 shaping up as a difficult year in motorsports, Lowe’s Motor Speedway president and general manager Marcus Smith doesn’t believe that’s necessarily bad news for race fans.

“I think across all speedways fans are going to get more for their money,” Smith said. “We have been talking a lot internally and with teams, drivers and NASCAR about going overboard on being the most fan-friendly sport, which is what we had a reputation for being, and making good on that.”

BILL DEENER/MCT

NASCAR teams pink-slipped hundreds of workers in the final quarter of 2008. Some teams disappeared while others merged — or collapsed, truth be told — into new affiliations. That’s left the sport’s top series, Sprint Cup, with barely more than 30 fully funded teams in a series where 43 cars can start each race.

Cutbacks by domestic auto makers and other sponsors are being felt industry-wide. At least a halfdozen Cup races don’t have title sponsors signed for 2009, and tracks around the country are girding for lower ticket sales, especially high-end tickets that are part of hospitality packages normally bought by corporations and other groups.

Smith says tracks will have to make more tickets available at lower prices and also try to add value to those tickets by giving purchasers more pit road and infield access and other amenities that might have been part of higher priced packages in recent years.

One thing working in Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s favor is that the 2009 Coca-Cola 600 will mark the 50th running of NASCAR’s longest race. This year’s Sprint All-Star Challenge will also be the 25th running of that event.

“Our 50th season celebration ties in well with rewarding loyalty of the fans who’ve been with us,” Smith said. “We’re not going to take for granted the thousands and thousands of folks who renew every year.

Smith also hopes to build on the success of last year’s debut of the new zMax Dragway, which hosted some of the largest crowds in National Hot Rod Association history at September’s inaugural event. The $60 million drag strip will host several other events in 2009, Smith said, including those that will allow people to bring their own cars to drive the quarter-mile.

     Ray Evernham called “The Morning Drive” on Sirius NASCAR Radio this morning after his name came up Monday while we were talking about the reports that Elliott Sadler will be replaced by AJ Allmendinger in the No. 19 Dodges next season at Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

Evernham no longer has a major day-to-day role in the team he ran after leaving Hendrick Motorsports as Jeff Gordon’s crew chief to help Dodge come back to big-time NASCAR competition. He sold most of his interest in the team to George Gillett and his family, and has scaled back more and more over the past couple of years.

Two seasons ago, on the final weekend of the 2007 Cup season at Homestead, I talked to Evernham in the garage and he spoke about his plans to cut back. On that day, he said he reckoned that he was “burned out.”

     So in talking about what has happened at GEM in recent days, I mentioned that term “burned out” and Evernham wanted to make sure it was clear that he’s not down on NASCAR or racing.

Evernham wants to be involved in racing. But as a team owner, he discovered that was a job he wasn’t going to be able to do at a level he could feel good about.

Evernham doesn’t have a “good enough” switch. You’re talking about a guy whose work as Gordon’s crew chief help redefined the way Cup teams compete. Evernham and his “Rainbow Warriors” changed the game, helping bring specialization and a level of attention to detail the sport had never seen before. By the time they were done, Evernham and Gordon had three championships together and Evernham had established himself as one of the sport’s

greatest all-time crew chiefs.

Evernham said Tuesday that “it will probably always haunt me” that he didn’t win a championship as a team owner, but he’s proud of what he helped build at GEM. He’s not sure he agrees with everything that’s being done there now, but he also said that it’s no longer his call.

As for the situation with Sadler and Allmendinger, there wasn’t much he could say. That’s pretty much what has been going on with that story since it first surfaced over the weekend. Sadler signed a contract extension in May and my hunch is that as lots of people wearing suits and carrying briefcases are discussing that, everybody involved has been told to remain quiet until everybody’s as happy as they’re going to be.

I’ve suspected all along that one day — maybe three or four years down the road —

Evernham will find another driver who he thinks has what it takes to be special and he’ll help that driver get to the sport’s top level. He sort of said that’s what he expects, too.

For right now, Evernham is working on getting East Lincoln Speedway — the short track he recently bought — ready for a new season. He even got denim overalls, which is apparently the official working uniform of that track, for the job.

Originally posted on David Poole’s blog, “Life in the Turn Lane,” available online at turn-lane.blogspot.com.