Daley Blames - Who Else? - The Media For Oprah-geddon
Chicago Gets Googled
Friday Flashback - Old School Oprah
Today's Transgender Day of Remembrance Honors the Dead
Review: Paramount Room
Nighttime NASCAR racing is coming to the Chicagoland Speedway next summer. Matthew Alexander, President of the Joliet-based speedway, announced yesterday that they are installing lights for their 1.5 mile D-shaped oval track. "Traditionally, our NASCAR races have taken place during the time of year when excessive heat can become an issue for our fans ... by adding lights to our facility, we hope to make the guest experience a more comfortable one." Comfort, huh? We thought that's what the coolers of beer were for.
The change was likely affected more by television programming than the concern over fans tradin' sweat in the stands. The 2008 USG Sheetrock 400 is the last of six races that TNT will be covering during the 2008 season and their second night race. The track is the 10th NASCAR-affiliated track to add lights for evening racing.
The Busch series race will run on Friday night (July 11, 2008) with the NEXTEL Cup race on Saturday night. It has not been decided whether qualifying will be moved to night as well. The Indy Racing League will continue to race during the day, though they will have access to the lights should a rain delay require the race to run into the evenings.
Image from puskunk.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
No Lights At Chicagoland Motor Speedway!!
How could they desecrate such an historic venue with lights, blasphemy!
Has anyone thought about just installing lights on the cars?
USG Sheetrock!!! Yeah!!!!! AWESOME PRODUCT!!!!
The world just continues to get more and more pathetic with each and every day that passes.
NASCAR's statement can be boiled down to: "No matter how much we try to pretend otherwise, no matter how many special sections we purchase in the two dailies, no matter how many celebrities we drag into town, Chicagoans *still* don't care about a bunch of Southerners driving around in a circle 50 miles south of the city and the ratings for NASCAR in the Chicago market are still abysmal, so we might as well try to boost our national TV numbers by moving the race to prime-time..."
I can't say I blame them. The race was never going to be any higher than the #4 local sports story on race weekend (behind the Cubs game, Sox game, and countdown to Bears' training camp), so why keep spending money to double-down on a bad hand?
I've been to a few races out there, and yes I'm a rabid NASCAR fan... the heat out there when the current USG race is scheduled is completely unbearable. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the race under the lights!
Guest #3, I'm curious where you found the ratings for NASCAR race broadcasts in the Chicago market?
guest #3; despite your thoughts, you are simply wrong. Crawl outside your 'cultured' hole of Chicago and you will find another place. Nascar is a bigger draw to more people around chicagoland than any other sport. Just try to go to a race there.
"Nascar is a bigger draw to more people around chicagoland than any other sport."
Yeah, because a car race that runs in front several thousand empty seats at a 75,000-seat venue for it's *lone event of the year* certainly outweighs the 5.5 million people our local baseball teams draw, the 63,500+ that are at Soldier Field ten times per year (come rain, sleet or snow), the sellout crowds at the United Center every night for the Bulls, the 81,000 at ND six times every fall, etc., as well as the local TV ratings for those sports that dwarf the numbers locally for NASCAR.
Give us a break already. We're not downstaters. We don't like NASCAR. Which is fine. Most of us don't want to live in the South.
Guest #6: You really don't know anything about this speedway or NASCAR, do you?
Chicagoland Motor Speedway has three major races there (IRL, NASCAR, and ARCA), and the NASCAR event has always been sold out with every seat filled. Coupled with weekly events at the attached Route 66 Raceway, they have racing going on there pretty much every weekend. And great attendance at all events.
I agree it's probably not the biggest attendance draw in the Chicagoland area (the Cubs just set that mark this year), but I think you'll find the TV ratings are substantially higher than you'd like to imagine.
I know it must be hard for you to accept that a NASCAR fan may actually live nextdoor to you, or be your boss, but deal with it.