I don’t want to say I knew it was going to happen, but I knew it was going to happen. And I wasn’t the only one who predicted that traffic would be terrible heading into the Kentucky Speedway on Saturday evening, numerous friends of mine told me the same thing.
Joe Danneman and I even discussed it last week while at FOX19. Joe said, “I just hope that all those people see the beginning of the race.”
I responded, “They won’t, I guarantee it.”
Last August, right after Bruton Smith announced that the Kentucky Speedway would be holding its first ever Sprint Cup race, I wrote about the horrible time my dad, brother and I had on the trip down to Sparta before the first-ever NASCAR sanctioned race at the track in Gallatin County.
“My first thoughts of Kentucky Speedway are of anger and resentment,” I wrote. “We scored free tickets for the track’s first race in 2000 and left Cincinnati around 3:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. event. We never made it.
“Stopped three miles short of the exit for the track, we shut off the van and played football on the highway around all the other stopped vehicles. When we got back in the van to get turned around and head back to Cincinnati (because the state police had told us to turn around because the exit to the speedway had been shut down) the van wouldn’t start.”
“Stopped three miles short of the exit for the track, we shut off the van and played football on the highway around all the other stopped vehicles. When we got back in the van to get turned around and head back to Cincinnati (because the state police had told us to turn around because the exit to the speedway had been shut down) the van wouldn’t start.”
Friends and family said, “Well obviously you didn’t leave early enough.” My dad said, “We don’t even leave that early when we got to Indianapolis, and we get there with no problem.”
Last night’s Quaker State 400 will not be remembered for Kyle Busch’s dominating performance in the No. 18 car. Nor will it be remembered for all the pomp and circumstance that comes with the sport’s biggest names descending on a track in the Bluegrass State to race for the first time since 1954.
No, this race will be remembered in the same vain that the 2008 Brickyard 400 will be remembered by. And that is unfortunate.
But I just knew it was going to happen.
‘You don’t get it,’ I’ve been telling people. ‘You just don’t understand how big of an event this is and will be. This is a big deal.’
Kentucky Speedway officials knew it would be, but they somehow failed to make it all work.
National writers have been lambasting the speedway all day, some of them even took to Twitter (along with myself) last night to tell the tales of those who were stuck outside the track.
But their words can only go so far.
David Caraviello of NASCAR.com wrote, “Saturday brought the big show to a venue that had been expanded to 107,000, and the result was automotive apocalypse so bad that at one point Interstate 71 -- the main artery to the race track -- eventually backed up for 20 miles.”
The Gaston Gazette’s Monte Dutton wrote a column, saying, “At 4 a.m., I was trudging into a hotel elevator at the same time as a man and his wife. The man was wearing a Mountain Dew cap that looked as if it might have dated back to Darrell Waltrip instead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. I didn’t have to say a word. The woman looked at me and said, simply, ‘Never again.’”
I take pride in my city and knew this could be a fantastic opportunity to see NASCAR big stars in and around Cincinnati. Folks in Cincinnati had to pay attention to NASCAR now. Unfortunately, many in Cincinnati my never pay attention again.
“What really hurts is that many of these fans were relatively new to the sport…and some families with kids,” wrote Mike Mulhern of MikeMulhern.net.
“Kentucky has been staging races for 11 years,” wrote ESPN’s Terry Blount. “Surely they have learned something about traffic flow during that time, even for crowds half as large.”
Jeff Gluck of SBNation.com wrote, “Places like Daytona and Talladega routinely see crowds of way more than 107,000 without this kind of backup. It was simply a matter of poor planning.”
Blount called the race a black eye for the sport. Mulhern agreed.
“This was to be a shining hour for this sport. A new market, with new fans, new potential sponsors. And a market that seems filled with solid, bedrock NASCAR fans. Alas, it may have been all but thrown away. Repairing the damage may take a while. This debacle was on par with the 2008 Brickyard 400, in terms of negative impact on fans. And Indianapolis is still struggling to recover from the fallout and disenchantment from that mess.”
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| FOX19's Joe Danneman interviews frustrated race fans in traffic |
They are, and I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. That 2008 race was rough, but I feel that Indy and Goodyear, along with NASCAR did their best to make up for it. It’s an uphill battle, but it’s a battle that Kentucky speedway is about to fight.
“As far as earning back people’s trust, we have to earn people’s trust every single day,” said Kentucky Speedway GM Mark Simendinger (as reported by Bob Pockrass of Scene Daily). “We have to earn their business every single day. … Obviously this will be something that will get a lot of attention over the next 12 months. I’m confident we’re going to earn people’s trust.”
“It sounds simple but I’m not sure it is because there are many fans that have likely already decided they won’t return to Kentucky Speedway. And no doubt there are many more who are thinking seriously about it,” Pockrass wrote.
And Indianapolis Motor Speedway even announced that come Monday they will be tweeting information to fans of the race that didn’t make it in for a special ticket deal to the Brickyard 400.
It didn’t stop there. Talladega Superspeedway issued a statement from their track Chairman, Grant Lynch.
“After hearing how rough the fans had it at Kentucky this weekend,” the release stated, “I wanted to let them know that we're ready to show how a race weekend is supposed to run. We put fan experience at the forefront of everything we do. That's why we allow coolers in our grandstands and provide hundreds of acres of free camping.”
It forced Kentucky to issue a statement, around 7 p.m. on Sunday evening.
“Kentucky Speedway regrets the traffic conditions surrounding the 'Quaker State 400.' We're committed to working with NASCAR, state and local officials and traffic experts to assure that this never happens again. The details of these improvements will be announced over time as they are formulated.
“We also recognize the traffic problems resulted in some fans not being able to attend the 'Quaker State 400.' We are gathering information on this and will announce a policy for these affected fans within seven days.
“Our 'Quaker State 400' ticket holders are invited to share their experiences with us through fans@kentuckyspeedway.com. We thank all our fans for giving the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series such a great welcome to our venue."
Nowhere in that statement did Kentucky Speedway or Speedway Motorsports Inc. say the two words that NASCAR fans across the country have been waiting to here: we’re sorry.
Gluck issued five things that Kentucky Speedway needs to do to improve their situation. Number one on that list was apologize to fans.
NASCAR issued their own statement around two hours after Kentucky’s statement.
Chairman Brian France said, “While NASCAR was thrilled by the incredible response to our inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in Kentucky, we also are extremely disappointed by the traffic problems and inconveniences endured by fans who wanted to be part of our races at Kentucky Speedway.
“NASCAR will be in close communications with Kentucky Speedway and Speedway Motorsports Inc. to see that they work to resolve the issues. This situation cannot happen again.”
A fan from LaGrange, Ky., wrote to the Charlotte Observer with his tale of how he finally gave up and headed back home after nearly seven hours in traffic. (Read it here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/10/1335400/one-fans-kentucky-traffic-tale.html)
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that a race fan, “camped in neighboring Sanders, which is typically a 10-minute drive from the Speedway. On Saturday, it took him two hours.”
Kentucky’s Governor, Steve Beshear, who gave the command to fire engines on Saturday night, also issued a statement on Sunday.
“There is no question that the entire week at the Kentucky Speedway was a big success, but it's also clear that there are issues, such as traffic flow, which must be addressed before next year's event. We will work with track officials to determine what can be done to address these problems, so that next year's NASCAR event will be even bigger and better.”
“NASCAR Sprint Cup race No. 1 at Kentucky Speedway was a complete, unmitigated disaster,” wrote SPEED TV’s Tom Jensen. “Immediate action is required to fix the damage.”
It may take years before everything is resolved completely around Kentucky Speedway though. On Thursday, right as the Sprint Cup teams were preparing for their first practice session of the day, I ran into one NASCAR team official, who was angry about the state of the track’s media center.
“This place is totally unprepared,” she told me.
No matter what Bruton Smith promises, fans in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, and those that came from other parts of the country will always remember this first time they came down to Sparta.
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| We were at the track so late the lights were turned out on us |
The track’s former owner, Jerry Carroll, stated this weekend that he was still bitter toward NASCAR for not giving him a Sprint Cup date when he owned the track. I wonder what he thinks of the traffic meltdown that besieged his former track on Saturday night?
It’s going to be another year of improvements, another year of headaches and another year before the big boys of NASCAR descend upon Sparta again. If the fine folks at Kentucky Speedway learned anything last night, it’s that they were totally unprepared for a Cup date, no matter what they said before the event.
I could have predicted that a year ago.
I never wished to say ‘I told you so,’ to all those people who were frustrated, ticked off and missed the race. But I’ve been in their shoes. As much as the Kentucky Speedway has won me over, this event has once again made me believe that the track located 40 miles away from me may not deserve a Cup date after all.
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I had a fantastic weekend (traffic aside) at Kentucky. One track official noted that he loved seeing my stuff online, which was awesome to hear. I attended the Jeff Gluck tweetup (and Jeff even blogged a link to it!) and got to ride in the pace car for a lap with Brett Bodine. Both of those stories are on FOX19’s NASCAR page. However, I will blog about those experiences as well as talking to Larry Mac on Thursday.
I will have more photos, more stories and more memories as the week progresses. I can finally get into my favorite time of the year, the Brickyard 400 countdown too.
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