Dover Motorsports closes another track

J

JGRacing

New Member
Now they have killed off Nashville. Are these people that incredibly incompetent at their job that they have now destroyed 3 of their 4 tracks? Any word on whether Gateway has any leads on a buyer?

From Jayski.com

•Nashville will not host NASCAR races in 2012: Dover Motorsports, Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Nashville Superspeedway, has notified NASCAR that it will not seek any 2012 race sanctions. Vice President and General Manager of Nashville Superspeedway, Cliff Hawks, stated, "Nashville is a tremendous market filled with passionate race fans. We have some extremely dedicated and talented employees who have made this track a great destination, but the reality is, after ten years of effort, we have to face the fact that without a Sprint Cup race and/or a significant change in the operating model for other events, we simply cannot continue." Nashville has a few events left on the schedule for the remainder of 2011 that will not be impacted by today's announcement. Dennis McGlynn, President & CEO of Dover Motorsports, stated, "We deeply appreciate all the hard work that our employees have put into making Nashville Superspeedway such a remarkable facility, and Cliff Hawks will remain to assist us with transition issues. We have also had years of unrelenting support from state, county and local officials and from the racing community  from racing fans and drivers to sponsors, team owners and various sanctioning bodies. We are, however, at a juncture where we must evaluate all of our options for this track, including its possible sale."(Dover Motorsports PR)(8-3-2011)
 
Lets face it without a Cup date these tracks have a very short shelf life.Unfortunately no one is gonna give up there dates.Its a shame i would love to see different tracks on the schedule instead of going back to some of these same places twice a year.Its gonna be interesting to see how Iowa Speedway holds up without a cup date.
 
Wow... Nashville, St. Louis, Memphis, all gone from the NASCAR schedule; including no more Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Indy; seems like something significant would shake out of all this in the future.
 
I think that Iowa is doing fine, but part or that is that they did not build with the impression that they would get a cup race. IRP was able to make a go of it without the cup race (until they had the Nationwide race pulled out from under them). The people at Dover had to be crazy to think that they would get 3 cup races granted to them to cover all of those tracks. With Gateway, it never seemed like they really tried all that hard (at the corporate level) to promote it or make it entertaining for the fans. They acted like the fans should just show up because there is a race. I know that some of the local staff really worked hard, but without the people at Dover willing to invest in the facility, it was just a matter of time. It will be interesting to see how the new owners at Memphis do without having the cost of NASCAR sanctioned races.
 
Also, it will be interested to see where things go with the proposed Branson track. From what I understand, they realize that it will have to survive with a cup date.
 
Get real, the only new tracks that will survive are the ones owned by the France family or Bruton Smith. The Frances control the schedule and they aren't going to close one of their facilities.
 
JG did you ever stop and think, nashville just like Gateway can/will only operate in the red for so long???? Not enuf $$$$$ comming in no more racing!!!! Get it?
 
Wow racing_fan2. I did not think of something so complicated. Thanks for letting me know how a business operates.

A couple of points again. Dover let these tracks die off. They put little effort into their survival when they realized they would not get cup races. The local employees at Gateway, and I am sure at the other tracks, did what they could with what they were given. Other tracks have made a go of it without cup races, and if Dover had these dates at the three tracks they should have been able to pull it off. If they managed to lose money on each race then either their business model was messed up from the start or they were not doing their jobs. I agree with Flying Penguin that they were handicapped by not being owned by Speedway Motorsports or ISC, but NASCAR did want to be in these markets and other tracks have been able to make it work so the deck was not completely stacked against them. It is done now, so all we can do is hope that they find a couple more buyers. I would like to see the oval at Gateway running again, but the drag strip with multiple nights of local racing is a much bigger loss to the area.
 
Several years back, i believe in 2000 when the new bodied monte carlos were coming out, they had testing at gateway since it was a non cup raced track. the response from the drivers there was that they all wanted to come race there. i was told by employees there that nascar told gateway if they built seating to handle 200k people plus that they would be in the running for the new track dates. well, gateway (dover) built the stands required and then poof, chicagoland and kansas was awarded the new dates (ownd by the france's or smith). the reason why i know this is i used to work for a company that dealt with tnt and other channels that televised the races from gateway. i built the scaffolding that was used for the tv cameras. blame who you want or maybe it was a lack of effort on several peoples sides, but it really ****s that now if a person wants to go watch a race, its a 5 or 6 hour drive and we have lost out on several forms of racing, indy league, nhra drags, nationwide, trucks, and the road coarse guys, not including the jobs people lost form it. just something to think about also, but if those big tracks cant keep up and running, how long does the local dirt tracks have before they start closing from lack of support.
 
last night on espn nascar now the ceo of dover openly admitted it back in the days when nascar and the busch series was doing so awesome they bought these tracks.people were in going to the races. he also openly admitted that lack of there support and the economy slowly but surely going into a recession had a lot to do with the tracks closing. anybody that knows the daily operations of any kind of race track knows it's only a matter of time before you go belly up without the support of the town the track is in. and everybody knows saint louis did a piss poor job in supporting the track. hey half the time when the big show's were in town at gateway you never heard anything about it on the local tv. I still think gateway should be turned into a multi functional place for all kinds of racong from dirt to assfault. just like an earlier post how long do you think it will be before the dirt tracks close at the rate economy is now. heyut them all together any night in you still don't have a sellout. going to be a lot more tracks growing grass before this is all over
 
Some good points on what helped seal the fate of Gateway. On the local political side, remember that St. Louis was in final running for the track that Bruton Smith put in Texas. Most of our local politicians of every stripe hardly lifted a finger to even show interest in getting it.
 
SPEEDRACER88 said:
But they (politicians) bent over backwards for a airport nobody use's!!!
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Maybe if they built the track close to Mid_Americe things might have been differnt. Gateway is just in the wrong place. no room. Done deal now anyway. But your right the politicians don't know how to market a town or sport just Fk one up.
 
i think your forgetting gateway is in illinois not st. louis. dover motorsports did a piss poor job if anyone. but as a business owner of 3 different businesses it is not the responsibility of anyone other than the business owner to promote their business and DOVER did a piss poor job. if you are going to blame some one blame who deserves it. it seems their only interested in the track that is on their door step
bryanracing55 said:
last night on espn nascar now the ceo of dover openly admitted it back in the days when nascar and the busch series was doing so awesome they bought these tracks.people were in going to the races. he also openly admitted that lack of there support and the economy slowly but surely going into a recession had a lot to do with the tracks closing. anybody that knows the daily operations of any kind of race track knows it's only a matter of time before you go belly up without the support of the town the track is in. and everybody knows saint louis did a piss poor job in supporting the track. hey half the time when the big show's were in town at gateway you never heard anything about it on the local tv. I still think gateway should be turned into a multi functional place for all kinds of racong from dirt to assfault. just like an earlier post how long do you think it will be before the dirt tracks close at the rate economy is now. heyut them all together any night in you still don't have a sellout. going to be a lot more tracks growing grass before this is all over
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i think nascar owns the tracks that have 2 races,there is no way they are giving any of those dates away,nascar has to be in there pockets or no race,there a freakin joke,and they could care less about me and u.
 
So lets all go to our local DIRT tracks & the heck with Nascar. We went to Tri City & had a good time watching our favorite driver, Jesse Stovall, go from 13th to 2nd. Wish there had been a few more laps....
 
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