Dayton, Ohio, not Daytona, Florida had the highest ratings draw for the 2011 Daytona 500. Daytona even beat out Greensboro, N.C. for the top spot, and that, according to one NASCAR writer in Daytona, is a reason why the Quaker State 400 will be a, “hit.”
“Dayton forms a third of a geographic triangle that includes two other markets often found in the top 10 of Nielsen's NASCAR ratings -- Indianapolis, Ind., and Louisville, Ky,” wrote Ken Wills of the Daytona Beach News Journal. “Kentucky Speedway, which opened 11 years ago, is located inside that triangle, in Sparta. The track will be host to its first-ever Cup Series race July 9, a week after Daytona's Coke Zero 400, and if viewership translates to ticket sales, it should be a hit.”
***Just a note, this article by Willis, was published on June 27th, days before Kentucky announced the official sellout of the Quaker State 400. (Read Willis’s article here: http://www.news-journalonline.com/columns/hey-willie/2011/06/27/nascar-no-slouch-in-tv-ratings-game.html)
But even though some of NASCAR’s highest TV ratings come from Indy, Louisville and Dayton, the closest, largest metro area to the track is 40 miles away in Cincinnati. According to the 2010 US Census, Cincinnati’s metro area contained 2,130,151 people, Louisville had 741,096 and Dayton 141,527.
Mark Story of the Lexington Herald Leader used Willis’s info in a column he wrote on Sunday (http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/03/1797585/mark-story-sprint-cup-doesnt-have.html).
“It remains to be seen whether the average Joe and Jane sports fans in the commonwealth who are not weekly NASCAR followers will embrace the race simply because Sprint Cup has now come to Kentucky.
“That to me is the question,” says Lachlan McLean, who is the host of the nightly Sports Talk 84 on Louisville's 50,000-watt WHAS radio. “You've got the gearheads, but does it cross over and become mainstream?”
Story also wrote that the sport is “polarizing.” Fans either love it and defend it passionately (that’s me) or hate it and will do anything to make NASCAR and its fans look bad.
“I'm not sure that, after the newness wears off, non-NASCAR Kentucky sports fans will be pulled in to the Cup race in Sparta,” Story wrote. “NASCAR exploded in popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s and has been a national-level sport since. By this time, everyone has pretty well made up their mind, in or out, on stock-car racing.”But the one thing that must continue to happen in order for NASCAR to continue coming to Kentucky and making a huge economic impact (judged at around $150 million according to studies done by the speedway) is for the Quaker State 400 to be a success.
There’s no doubt it will be according to the track’s General Manager Mark Simendinger.
Simendinger was on set for SportsWrap on Sunday night with FOX19’s Joe Danneman (who has declared me a “gearhead”) to discuss it.
“I feel good that this isn’t just an event that [Kentucky Speedway] do well with,” he said. “We’re going to do well with this event obviously. But so will the city of Cincinnati and their hotels and their restaurateurs, so will Lexington, so will Louisville, so the entire region draws off this thing and benefits from it and that’s what gives it so much popularity.”
But even if it doesn’t cross over to the mainstream, stick-and-ball sports fans, it will always be a huge draw for folks around the speedway in Sparta. And that means tickets might be hard to come by, but if they are, just head up to Dayton. I’m sure you can find a TV waiting for you there.
Cincinnati, it’s time to step up to the plate and be the most welcoming center of the NASCAR world you can be this week. It’s up to the fine folks in the Queen City to provide a great atmosphere for folks traveling to and from the Kentucky Speedway.
I have faith in you, fellow Cincinnatians. Prove me right.
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