I saw somewhere, that ratings for the Eldora truck race were down 20 percent from last year and that's about 50 percent of the first one. (Don't hold me to this, I don't remember exactly where I saw it) But if it's true, do you think they might want to consider another venue to spark interest? If so where would you recommend they go? I kinda hate to talk about it because this is indiana open wheel, and this is fenders, but a lot of you are dirt track afficianodoes, so I value your opinion. I would pick the Terre haute action track, plenty of infield pit room, and they might have to throw em sideways to get around. What do you think?
Ratings being down for the truck race from year to year probably isn't a huge concern to them. They likely look more into how the rating stack up against their regular races. If it's falling behind them they may consider moving it. Having it at terre haute would be cool, 1 major problem would be seating. I believe Eldora seats upwards of 40,000. What does terre haute seat? 5k maximum capacity? Especially if you can't watch from the infield due to pitting. I think it would have to go to a mile. And I think if it did it would basically another pavement race. I personally believe eldora is the prime location for the race. And personally it's the only truck, nationwide, or sprint cup race I watch all year.
That's the first truck race I watched all year also.I think with all the channel changing to watch any kind of motorsports is a huge problem.I also loose interest in any kind of car race when I don't even know the names or background Of the drivers.
I believe part of the reason the ratings were down was due to the network it was on. Not everyone has NBCSN in their channel lineup. I think Eldora is the best location for this race even through it seats nowhere near 40,000.
Illinois has a couple of nice one mile tracks that have been researched with stock cars. They generally run in conjunction with a big open wheel race the day before. Competition has usually been excelent and they do seem to keep um sideways for what seems like forever. And it is a day race on dirt.
It would be cool if NASCAR went to the dirt miles with the trucks. No disrespect meant to the ARCA series but the trucks would bring a lot more attention to these great facilities. I seem to remember shortly after the first Eldora race that NASCAR batted around the idea of a few more dirt races for the trucks and the tracks that were popping up were Knoxville and the dirt tracks attached to the Bruton Smith owned tracks.
leave it at Eldora, but pull the windshields out and do some track prep so its not asphalt by the end of the night. Show it on a regular network (FOX /NBC) and not one of their cable channels, you could keep the quals and practice on the secondary channels but atleast show the heats and main event on a channel everyone gets and maybe some actual advertising on said channel well before the race.
