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Some interesting reading here for sure. Cost containment in pavement racing is definitley the key to it's survival in my mind. Bannning private testing at USAC sanctioned tracks would be a huge step in that direction. The amount of tires it takes to run on pavement vs. dirt automatically makes it more expensive. Not sure if there's a way around that, would limiting the teams on the number of tires they can use per race help? Kevin Miller has gone on record in the past stating that he has no interest in taking any kind of steps to reduce the costs associated with USAC racing. Not exactly forward thinking in these economically challenging times. I see a lot of room for improvement in USAC as a whole. Money is the bottom line, racers need more of it and USAC needs to do a better job of finding it. The two areas they need to focus on in order to achieve that is 1. Promotion and 2. Marketing. Promotion to fill the stands and Marketing to generate sponsors. On the Promotion side USAC races shouldn't just be races, they need to be events. Think outside the box on this but do something to reach out to people who have never been to a race let alone a USAC race. Autograph sessions, fireworks, driver intros, give people a show! On the Marketing side if your filling the seats you'll give sponsors a reason to look at sponsoring USAC racing as a viable means of marketing there products and selling them to consumers. Again be creative and think outside the box. Lucas Oil is a great example of a company that uses Motorsports Marketing through there involvement with a number of sanctioning bodies as an excellent vehicle to reach consumers and sell products. Plus they have there own TV production company! A company like Lucas would be a perfect fit with USAC. USAC seems like it's loaded with plenty of Chiefs but maybe not enough Indians. Surely with the staff they have in place they could make some positive changes in house without the need for "Town Hall Meetings" to generate ideas for the direction it needs to head. I'll climb off the soapbox now...
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