Loudon ~ Bruton Is Sitting on a Gold Mine
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I
just finished watching the Camping World Truck Racing Series race from
Eldora. I’ve been looking forward to it
all season. Love the trucks. To me the only thing better than a truck race
is a truck race on dirt. Eldora did not
disappoint as ThorSport teammates Chase Briscoe and
Grant Enfinger banged door to door through the
overtime, with Briscoe coming out with the dramatic win.
It
was some kind of finish.
As
I multi-tasked through the race, keeping one eye and as much ear as I could,
all things considered on the race and one eye working on this week’s Fantasy
Racing postings from Loudon, I couldn’t help but think about the how exciting
Eldora was tonight versus how nonplussed our Fantasy racers seemed to be about
Sunday’s race at Loudon. You won’t find
that hardly anyone’s favorite track.
Channeling
my inner Humpy Wheeler, I asked myself “if that track was mine, what would I
do?” and the answer was crystal clear...
Cover
it with dirt and make it the first Cup race on dirt in modern times.
Tony
Stewart, Eldora owner and promoter has seen the success of the trucks at his
dirt track and has asked fans to put the pressure on NASCAR to bring the
Xfinity series to his track. Humpy
Wheeler, who gave the command to start engines at Wednesday’s race said the
time is right to bring them to dirt.
Just add more seats and you’d be in business.
If
I were Bruton Smith, I’d beat them to the punch and fire up the loaders, dump
trucks and graders and turn Loudon into a one mile dirt track for a Cup and
Xfinity race weekend. Leave the trucks
at Eldora, but bring the cars to race on dirt at Loudon for the first Cup dirt
race since 1970.
Before
you say you can’t do that, ARCA races on one mile dirt tracks at DuQuoin and
Springfield now and those tracks have less banking than Loudon. Besides, Bruton knows how to move dirt and
convert tracks. He’s done it before at Bristol.
With those high banks that was no small task-but he did it. A flat track like Loudon would be a piece of
cake for him. Heck, if he can change
Charlotte into a road course converting Loudon to dirt would be child’s play
for him.
He
has a track that needs serious help. The
racing is far from ideal and attendance is on an unfavorable trajectory. Viewership is on a similar path. Dirt could help turn that.
Bruton
has the track. He has the infrastructure
already in place-no seats to add. More
importantly no parking to add or rest rooms to construct or bring in. Most importantly he already has a Cup
date. The fan interest is apparently
there... all he needs is dirt.
The
marketing opportunities and publicity from being the first one to bring Cup
back to dirt would be huge. This could make SMI’s Charlotte ROVAL efforts pale
in comparison. Such a move would further
secure Bruton’s position as the sports leader-first
to bring lights to the track, first to convert an oval to a ROVAL, first to
bring Cup back to dirt.
ISC
isn’t going to do it. This would be too
extreme for them. The only way I can see
that happening is if they bought Eldora.
Even then, they would have to take a date from their tracks to give to
Eldora. Can you see that happening?
Tony
might be able to pull it off. He has the
dirt. He has some stands, not enough,
but some. He may be short on
infrastructure but most importantly he doesn’t have a date. That could take some time... time Bruton
could use to set up and get a dirt race or two under his belt.
If
I were Bruton I’d do it and do it now. I’d
play off of Tony’s media push and Eldora’s buzz and announce it this weekend
that next year’s Loudon race will be on dirt.
Then I’d fire up my marketing machine and earth-moving equipment to make
it happen.
Think
about it.
So
when you are watching the race this weekend, think about this and ask yourself
would this racing be better on dirt?
The
best thing about all this is that if it isn’t, what have you lost? You can always take the dirt up, clean things
up and give the fans what they have right now for 2020. But you can only be first to do this
once. Now is the time to take that
chance. Bring Cup to dirt in 2019. Do it at Loudon.
Instead
of a boring track known for bad racing, Bruton may just be sitting on a gold
mine. All he needs to do is just add a
little dirt.