TBK-Light.com

This makes this year's Indianapolis 500 look like Orange County's recent summers in comparison. Ouch.

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Ducks Angels Sounders Spurs

Well, Valencia was supposed to suck, and look how that turned out.

Just some wishful thinking....

The F1 2012 tast factor does not apply here, NASCAR's been uniformly disappointing at both good and bad tracks this year. Hope you're right though.

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Things that will happen this weekend:

Michael Waltrip is driving a UK paint scheme this weekend.

Hope everyone in the stands are U of L fans and boo the ever loving shit out of him.

The only real way they can fix the traffic issues here is to give the race back to Atlanta.

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-Joe.
Atlanta United FC | Cincinnati Reds | Atlanta Falcons | Tennessee Titans

There's no need to worry. Kentucky and Louisville fans never need an invitation to boo one another.




You've still got one, the other date is gone and will likely stay that way. To borrow a sentiment of which you've frequently shown a certain fondness: get over it.

y can't it be 1991 again?

Oh well, not the end of the world. Not really worth getting upset over.

(I KEED)

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Yikes, guess I touched a nerve.

The problem, Chris, is that there's not a lot of logic involved in the scheduling of NASCAR races these days, and did NASCAR really run any feasibility tests before just allowing a track to have a Cup date? Are the roads properly equipped to handle 150,000 people or however many people are going to this race? Last year showed that it clearly wasn't, and fans were getting to the track when the race was more than well underway - if they got there at all. I can't imagine what it was like after the race ended.

At Atlanta, they've got various strategies for handling race traffic. Highway 19/41, which is directly in front of the track, is a five-lane highway - three going north and two south, but all five go straight towards the track on race day. It's kind of like what you see in hurricane evacuations, where all lanes of the road go inland. There are certain specific lanes where you can turn into various parking areas, or where you can turn to enter the infield, or the NASCAR credential office, or whatever. There's another four-lane highway, Highway 20 (otherwise known, rather egotistically, as the "Bruton Smith Highway"), that also runs contraflow (all four lanes go one way) on race morning. Both of these highways travel from Interstate 75 - 20 from I-75 southbound, 19/41 from I-75 northbound. Entering the track is not a problem. Leaving it, however, is, and rather than actually doing their jobs, the highway patrol leaves the track, and the traffic control is left to the drunk Earnhardt fans that are parked in the wrong place. What does Kentucky have? Is it properly equipped to handle the traffic?

What about parking? Atlanta's got enough parking for as many people that go there as possible, even if you have to walk a ways, which is just fine. People around the track make a killing selling parking slots for $20 a pop, and there's never really a concern about finding a spot. Looking at satellite images (which, hopefully, are outdated) alone, it's clear that Kentucky's got a lot less capabilities for getting everybody parked, which could explain the people parking on the interstate stories.

It's not that Kentucky's not in a good area for NASCAR - it is, and that's obvious - but rather the track is not capable of holding a NASCAR race without considerable - and frankly, needless - problems. Last year was what happened when you give a track that's only capable of a Nationwide race a Cup date. What NASCAR needs to do is grade their racetracks, just like what the FIA does with grading venues across the world. If it's not a grade 1 track, it can't host a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Simple as that.

Furthermore, why does Atlanta have one date and Kansas two? That makes even less sense than Atlanta losing one of their dates to a track that's not capable of holding a Cup date.

I'm not mad, btw, and I didn't mean to touch a nerve, Chris, but that's where I'm coming from.

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-Joe.
Atlanta United FC | Cincinnati Reds | Atlanta Falcons | Tennessee Titans

They've done a ton of work on the local roads and parking areas to improve the issues. I know it's no guarantee that it will be a success but writing off the entire event after one year of (admittedly) terrible problems is ridiculous.

Ignoring the rest of your post, I do have to agree with this point.

Chris, it's not ridiculous at all, and that's good that they've been doing this. But the track was not a Cup-ready venue last year, and the track should not have held a Cup race last year. Changes or not, fans are going to remember what happened, and they're also going to remember Bruton Smith's dickish response to their (very legitimate) requests for a refund after they couldn't make it to the race. The event probably won't be a sellout because of it. Had they run the Cup race after making the improvements, more fans would have likely have wanted to come back, and it might have been closer to a sellout than what they'll have now.

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-Joe.
Atlanta United FC | Cincinnati Reds | Atlanta Falcons | Tennessee Titans

JWT

Truck race hasn't gone far without John Wes Townley having troubles.

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wrexxx

There have already been more cautions in this race than a C fixed race on iRacing.

Jake Crum has crushed the back of his truck.

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Really good racing so far.

It took the issues from last July for them to know improvements were needed. And if not getting close to a sellout is that big of a deal these days, then every event is in jeopardy by that logic.

But it's not your general points that I disagree with. You're completely right that the whole incident and Bruton's response will cause issues with fans' attitudes and ticket sales. It's your conclusion (or apparent conclusion) to write the event off after ONE year that is ridiculous, because that's exactly what it is.