June 9 - 15, 2011
Tidbits of Casper - For Advertising call 307-473-8661 • 161 South Fenway, Casper, WY
Page 13
June 9 - 15, 2011
Home Is Where the Parties Are
CONCORD, N.C. -- It was Memorial Day weekend -- hot but not the 31st of July. The sun was out. The sky was blue. There was a gigantic high-definition message to guard against hiding the view. Charlotte Motor Speedway officials said the CocaCola 600 crowd was better, which was what they said during the Sprint All-Star Race, but the tension is gone from attendance at this speedway and about every other one. It doesn't matter where one goes on the Sprint Cup circuit these days. Good seats are available. I spent a good bit of this warm day among the fans. Each year a group of fans, united in their slightly irrational love of an obscure brand of beer, invites me to their prerace party. I don't materially participate in the shrine, knowing full well that duty calls. I drink one beer, take part in a toast, share some NASCAR stories and play some songs. Payment this particularly Sunday was two bottles of Gatorade, a hamburger and a hot dog. And, oh, yeah, some tortilla chips. Others stopped by. A year ago some of our troops, already on maneuver at the speedway, went foraging through the campgrounds in search of rations but mainly beer. This year my friends -- some from North Carolina, some from Tennessee, some from I don't know exactly where -- provided hospitality to several happy wanderers, but none were wearing camouflage. All season I have been pondering the fall-off. The more I watch, the more I read the mail and the more I talk to fans, the more I believe that a troubled economy is a bit overrated. The fans who cite the price of gas are the ones who don't go anyway. It is sort of their rationalization for not being there. A driver's motor coach can cost $1 million, easy. Most fans don't pay $1 million. But, if a family can afford to drop, oh, $200,000 on transportation, how can a measly $400 stop them from using it to drive from home in, say, West Virginia to a race track in Concord? If anything is crazier than spending that kind of money, it's leaving the investment sitting in the yard. On the other hand, people don't like to admit that they can't afford to do anything. Some of them claim they think the racing isn't the same, it's boring, etc., in part because they have to make an excuse other than "well, I can't afford it." I think most fans still like the races. It's just hard to beat the comfort of home. The fan base is getting older. Each year the comfort of home seems a little more inviting and a lot less expensive. It's not that they can't afford it. A man who loved to "rough it" at 30 is starting to think a high-def TV -- not one as big as his house but one that looks large in his living room -- and grill on the patio is better than pitching tents a half mile from the track. The deficit in the grandstands is almost completely reflective of the deficit in the campgrounds. The people who drive back and forth to the track are the same. The ones who make a vacation of it are the ones deciding to make a vacation of something else.
517 N Lennox Street • 266-6642
What NASCAR needs more than anything else is a young generation of rowdy fans to replace the ones getting a bit older and more willing to do their NASCAR partying in their backyards. ••• Monte Dutton covers motorsports for The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette. E-mail Monte at nascarthi sweek@yahoo.com.
© 2011 King Features Synd., Inc.
A mockup of Tow Mater from the animated flick "Cars 2" lumbers around the track prior to the start of the Coca-Cola 600. Note the empty seats visible in the background. (Scott Hunter/NASCAR photo)
1700 East Yellowstone • Casper, WY
307-265-4111 • extremetruckoutfitters.com