Has NASCAR found a way to get Indy in May?

[DjDrOmusic]

OK, I swear I haven't been sniffing glue or drinking excessively, today, but I was forced to listen to my father in law talking with my brother in law about a NASCAR race at Charlotte. I don't have a clue when the race was held, I don't follow the cabs at all, I can't even tell you who is winning right now. But they were talking about a lot of blown tires and saying that NASCAR was blaming the Charlotte track because it was ground down the wrong way, and that NASCAR was threatening to cancel any further races there because the track is in such poor condition. That gave me the idea that maybe they have found a way to move the Memorial cab race to Indy, thereby securing the date and the track they truely covet. Of course I know it would cause a lawsuit, but if they proved it was done in safeties interest, and then throw Charlotte a bone when the track is repaired, I could see the Daytona mafia pulling it off. Again I know little about the cabs or what transpired, so if this is way off in left field forgive me. :confused: :saywhat:

[Stu]

Charlotte is being repaved now that the fall race is over.

[devilmaster]

Won't happen, Jerry.

In Nascar, there are two major track-owning factions. ISC Motorsports, owned by the Frances, and SMI motorsports owned by Bruton Smith.

Now Charlotte is owned by Bruton, and his track empire is quite a good chunk of the NASCAR sked.

http://www.speedwaymotorsports.com/subs_line1.gif

Now the politics of the situation. Bruton and the Frances don't get along at the best of times - In the early 90s or so, both groups started to buy up tracks for themselves, Smith by IPO'ing his Charlotte track, the France's by making a deal with Roger Penske for his tracks. (as two examples, there are more) Bruton - through a smaller shareholder - brought a lawsuit against the France's because of a verbally promised 2nd date for his Texas track. And one of the buzz-words from that lawsuit was anti-trust. A deal was made, where a track or two changed hands, Texas got its second date, and Nazareth was no more.

Both of them work with each other, because they know (and if they didn't, they found out when the IRL was started) that you don't kill the golden goose.

If the France's tried to make the Indy a NASCAR race, there would be open war in NASCAR. Bruton isn't going to give up his biggest date. And regardless of how big they are now, it would be damaging to both sides. If for nothing else, that most fans just want to watch the racing. They don't care and don't want to care about the politics. Something I submit that helped to drive fans away from Open Wheel. So the Frances know what would happen if they tried to get the Memorial day race for NASCAR.

I might have some of the details above wrong, and someone like Racewriter could correct any flaws.

[DjDrOmusic]

OK, I understand. Like I said, I don't follow NASCAR enough to know anything, other than the obvious. Just goes to show you what your mind can concoct when you're forced to listen to boring relatives! :)

[coolhand]

charlotte is where all the teams are based.

Having theall-star race and then the 600 on memorial day is very big for the teams because they get to spend two weeks working at home and get to be with their families for the weekend.

[High Sided]

Charlotte is being repaved now that the fall race is over.

i think they are going to change the banking also, top being more banked then the bottom.

[Stu]

i think they are going to change the banking also, top being more banked then the bottom.


you're right, it seems to have worked well at homestead.

[meadors]

Did Texas originally
have dual banking that was supposed to work for champcars and didn't?

[manic mechanic]

Did Texas originally
have dual banking that was supposed to work for champcars and didn't?

The answer to that is no. Las Vegas is the only SMI track to have "compound" banking. The Texas debacle was Raywhore's idea. :shakehead

manic

[Racewriter]

Did Texas originally
have dual banking that was supposed to work for champcars and didn't?

Yes. But it wasn't a 'graduated' banking - it was like two banked corners, butted up against one another. IIRC, the bottom was 10 degrees, and the top was 21. The idea was that the Indy cars would run the bottom, and the stockers would run the top. In practice, the stockers ran the bottom, and the Indy cars ran the top.

[manic mechanic]

Yes. But it wasn't a 'graduated' banking - it was like two banked corners, butted up against one another. IIRC, the bottom was 10 degrees, and the top was 21. The idea was that the Indy cars would run the bottom, and the stockers would run the top. In practice, the stockers ran the bottom, and the Indy cars ran the top.

I stand corrected. Thanks RW :thumbup: