Re: NASCAR Nationwide to Road America
The sad part is, if the Mile had done the renovations 10/15 years earlier, it might have gotten a Cup race instead of Chicago or Kansas City, considering the history at the track, etc. Instead they waited and boom passed them by.
According to Dave Kallman, the excellent motor sports writer at the Journal-Sentinel, Menard was the money behind one of the four promoter groups who tried to work out a deal this year with the State Fair Board.
Part of the problem was the last promoter left huge unpaid bills to both the IRL and NASCAR, and the new promoter was going to have to pay those before even thinking about getting a race in 2010. We all know Menard has the cash for that, but there's obviously just something wrong with the entire situation down there.
Yes, the track has been active longer than Indianapolis and just about anywhere else. But let's face it, most of the time the racing is simply booooooorrrrrinnngggg, especially in stock cars.
And, because of the design (the long straightaways) it's really impractical to ask the weekly drivers who race at Madison, LaCrosse, WIR or Slinger to take those cars to TMM and race without blowing up. And since the ASA went away, there's no good stepping stone up in cars to get the state drivers there. I know Kenseth's dad has tried, but it just hasn't worked.
OK, that's the bad. The good news is RA is an outstanding course. Will draw from both GB and Milwaukee, not to mention the automatic fan base the Nationwide Series will bring in. RA has been hurting since the loss of IndyCars (and why they dropped RA I'll never understand; they used to get 70,000 for a race!) and this will be a great addition. Hopefully NASCAR's Grand Am series follows.
I think it would be a great venue for F1, but no one wants to pay Bernie's ransom to make that happen. Maybe, though, the Nationwide race goes well and leads to a Cup race. Many say Watkins Glen is not their favorite track, so who knows.
As for the Mile's future, someone will try again with racing.
