CNN-SI NASCAR writer Brant James has an interesting column on the demise of a small racetrack in Florida, and what it may or may not mean for local racing nationwide.
Read it here: (CLICK HERE)
I’m going to say it again: NASCAR can — and should — do more for local racing. Yes, the insurance coverage is a big plus, and so is being able to use that rainbow-sherbert logo.
But you can’t say you’re investing in the “future” of the sport without actually … well, investing in the people. There has to be a better approach to finding and cultivating the next generation of drivers.
Too much of it right now is left up to the drivers themselves … and a driver with family connections and/or money is always going to have an edge. I’m not suggesting those are bad things, just that the playing field is not level.
Somewhere in the United States right now is a 16- or 17-year old kid, boy or girl, with the skill and ability to someday be a Cup champion. And the odds are stacked against that kid making it.
Unless that kid gets lucky and is seen by someone who knows someone, or his/her parents decide to plunge into debt up to their eyeballs, the best racer in the nation may get no farther than being the best racer at LocalTrack Speedway in PickaName County, U.S.A.
The other part of the equation — and James hits this well — is that more tracks are going away than are being built.
When I talked to NASCAR head Brian France earler this year for an article on outgoing Evergreen Speedway promoter MIckey Beadle, he pointed out that the competition for land — between businesses, private citizens and the government — has made getting a new track built too expensive and too difficult.
And the tracks that we do have are not always getting the care and upkeep they need. Not a good recipe for the long-term health of the sport.
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