NASCAR Finds Traffic Is Lighter
Attendance Down In Bad Economy

By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 25, 2008

In the go-go days of NASCAR, when gas cost 90 cents a gallon and the U.S. economy was hurtling along faster than Dale Earnhardt's black Chevrolet, sellouts were a given at stock-car racing's major venues.

But no longer.

The advent of $4-a-gallon gasoline has spoiled the party for many hard-core NASCAR fans -- particularly those accustomed to loading up the RV and driving 300 miles or more just to revel in the bone-rattling roar and exhaust fumes of 800-horsepower engines as their favorite driver zooms past.

Increasingly, NASCAR fans are waiting until the last minute to buy tickets -- holding off, as so many Americans have these days, until they see whether there's any disposable income left after the month's bills have been paid. Others aren't coming at all.

Stock-car racing, which has recently seen attendance and television ratings plateau after years of meteoric growth, might be a victim of its earlier success. Flush with the sport's popularity, track owners expanded grandstands at a frenzied pace in the 1990s and built new superspeedways in Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

With 100,000 or more seats to fill, several of the behemoth tracks bundled tickets to multiple races in season ticket packages. But that makes it tricky to discount unsold or slow-moving tickets in today's tougher economy and still be fair to all customers.

So while some track officials have simply closed off sections of their grandstands, covering unsold seats with advertising banners, others are working double-time to gin up novel promotions to coax fans from the low-cost comfort of their living-room couches.

As part of its "Fans Appreciation Economic Stimulus Plan," New Hampshire Motor Speedway paid one ticket-buyer's home mortgage for six months and gave 20 others a $500 gas card at its June NASCAR race.

At Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte, every ticket holder for the Oct. 11 race was invited down to pit road for a two-day test session this week to watch top drivers fine-tune their cars. For a NASCAR junkie, that's the equivalent of getting to hold Jim Zorn's clipboard on the sideline during training camp.

"Race fans have been with the sport of NASCAR for 60 years now, but we need to do a better job of bringing the best possible time to those fans who travel from 300 or 400 miles away," track president Marcus Smith said. "No doubt there is a soft economy out there. But thankfully people still want to be entertained."

And at Atlanta Motor Speedway, promoters hope to tap the presidential-election fervor by tossing a tube of lipstick in with each Family Four-Pack (four tickets, four hot dogs and four Cokes for $159) sold for its Oct. 26 race.

"When you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig -- but when you add it to our ticket package, you get an attractive value," track president Ed Clark said in announcing the deal shortly after the brouhaha erupted over candidates' use of the "lipstick-on-a-pig" cliche.

Said R. Jon Ackley, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth who teaches a course in the business of NASCAR: "It's much cheaper to sit at home and watch -- especially if you're traveling 250 miles -- so the tracks are doing a lot more to get fans there because the cost of everything else is so high. They recognize that they have to sell themselves like a rock concert. They can't just assume that people are going to come because they built it."

Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway trotted out an All-You-Can-Eat section in its grandstands for its April NASCAR race. For its October NASCAR event, fans who buy the top-end ticket (an $800 individual suite pass that includes access to pit road and the garage) will receive a $45 gas card.

NASCAR fans tend to travel farther than do NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball fans. And many of them turn race day into a two- or three-day affair, camping on the speedway grounds all weekend.

About 80 percent of Texas Motor Speedway's fans live within a 60-mile radius of the track, according to Kevin Camper, director of sales and marketing. The rest drive as much as five hours for the two annual NASCAR races, or fly.

While gas prices may have caused some to stay home, it hasn't deterred demand for the 11,000 reserved camping spaces on the Texas speedway grounds, which rent for $75 to $300 each.

As a perk for fans who buy premium front-stretch seats for the Nov. 2 NASCAR race at Texas, track officials are tossing in a $75, limited-edition die-cast car honoring John Wayne and the late Dale Earnhardt.

Virginia's Martinsville Speedway is offering a family-of-four ticket package for $104 for its Oct. 19 race, as well as a military discount.

At Phoenix International Raceway, season ticket holders will get a fast lap around the one-mile oval with a professional driver at 130 mph on race weekend this November. Homestead-Miami Speedway has launched a promotion that allows fans to drive their own cars around the 1.5-mile oval.

And Lowe's Motor Speedway is doing a bit of everything. Track officials negotiated a 15 percent discount at 35 area hotels and the waiver of the customary three-night minimum-stay requirement for their fall race. Like Atlanta, the track is offering a $159 Family Four-Pack. And specific sections of the stands have been designated for fans of particular drivers, such as Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., so the rabid can cheer along with their ilk. The track has also hired former drivers to mingle with fans who buy pit passes for race weekend.

"We've all promoted against other sports for years, but I don't think anybody has ever promoted against $4-a-gallon gasoline," said Adrian Parker, the speedway's director of communications. "Every track should be trying to distinguish itself -- and if they're not, they should be. We're doing our best to make sure when fans are cutting things out, they're not cutting out Lowe's Motor Speedway."