[Stevensville Mike]

If we roll the clock back a few decades, 767, it might be a little clearer:

When the 500 was older school and NASCAR was up and coming, that was the marquee event everyone was headed to Florida to see. The various series that ran dirt took that as an opportunity to promote their sport. Draw NASCAR fans away earlier in the week and maybe, just maybe, make get those fans to start following their dirt series. Most fans went south for Daytona. After that, why stick around? Head back north. Besides, as the 500 approaches, motel prices start getting jacked up. Two weeks prior to the 500 you could get a room for a song and save some cash.

As time went by, though, NASCAR and Daytona have lost some luster, as by evidence of the grandstand removals and sparse crowds for the undercards, and the people who pretty much go south to watch USAC and the winged stuff are just those fans - dirt fans. Most could care squat about the 500.

Now New Smyrna is a tad different for they run a whole bunch of different classes and on asphalt to boot. Some of the runners there are your NASCAR drivers. So that track is like a cross-pollination of NASCAR/Modified fans who are just looking for stuff to do when the big track is not running. Once the 500 is done the pavement fans are gone. New Smyrna s smart the way they run, and when they run, to make a nice buck.

But you have an interesting point. If I am correct in my analysis of the fans heading south and most NASCAR fans could care less about the dirt, why NOT run the dirt tracks a little more, spread the dates out a little more, or a little LATER when the weather gets a tad warmer? Hell, the coldest race I ever went to in my LIFE was a WoO race at Volusia some 15 years ago.

Good post, 767.