Opinions abound on Kentucky Speedway attendance and traffic

The fallout from the Kentucky Speedway traffic debacle is still ongoing. On Wednesday, Reid Spencer of the Sporting News said Kentucky should give up its 2012 Cup date and revamp facilities for another go around in 2013.

Sports Illustrated released an article counterpointing that, saying, “The first Sprint Cup event at Kentucky Speedway was overflowing with fans – a welcome sign for a sport eager to regain its momentum.”

Eleven months ago I said Kentucky would not be ready for a Cup race. I wasn’t spouting off an unworthy opinion. I sat in snarled traffic as a youngster waiting eagerly to attend the 2000 Craftsman Truck Series race—the inaugural NASCAR event—at the Kentucky Speedway.

Mark Story, columnist for the Lexington Herald Leader, commented on the traffic from that race in a story he wrote on Monday.

“In 2000, for the first major event at the then-brand-new racetrack, some 63,000 people showed up, it rained furiously, and traffic got backed way up way out on I-71…Amidst the massive traffic snarls outside the Quaker State 400 on Saturday night, I kept thinking back to that first night when former owner Jerry Carroll's track opened.”

But Jerry Carroll, the track’s former owner, thought his facility was Cup ready when he built it in the late 1990s. Carroll hasn’t been heard from since the race, but I’d love to hear his delusional reasoning behind why traffic was so bad on Saturday night.

In a 2003 Cincinnati Enquirer article, former track General Manager Mark Cassis said, “As far as the facility itself, everything's in place. All we need is a date.”

I would have loved to have seen that. Could you imagine how interesting a 2004 traffic jam at the track in Sparta would have been without Twitter?

But not all opinions have been terrible. Spencer’s thoughts about skipping 2012 were counterpointed by the Evansville Courier and Press.

“Although the next year’s NASCAR schedule won’t be released until later this summer, rarely do events leave the NASCAR schedule after one race weekend — especially ones that can sell out 107,000 seats more than a week before the race,” wrote Jonathan Lintner.

And I’m not 100 percent Mr. Negative either. I agree that selling out was a huge deal, especially for the sport of NASCAR, which has seen a decline in TV ratings and ticket sales in the past few years.

But there’s no way that 107,000 people saw that race from the stands.

SceneDaily’s Bob Pockrass estimated about 95,000 fans saw the beginning of the race. But, Pockrass noted, “The 95,000 or so fans who made it in to witness the track’s first Cup race were incredibly enthused. As crew members walked into the track, fans cheered. They were vocal in driver introductions. The atmosphere was one of the best of the season, for sure.”

Track owner Bruton Smith said 15,000 to 20,000 fans with tickets were turned away, although some folks have suggested that Smith’s estimate was a little high.

Skirts and Scuffs.com (NASCAR from a female perspective) writer Amy, who has been a race fan her entire life wrote, “Other than the tire debacle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple years back I do not remember the fans complaining this much about any race. From comments made through the media, by drivers and fans on Twitter, and Kentucky Speedway it looks as if this was much worse than the 2008 Brickyard 400.”

I remember the ’08 Brickyard quite well. At one point I got up and walked toward the bathroom. My dad grabbed me when I got back to my seat and said, ‘What was that about?’

I responded, “I knew there was going to be a competition caution so I went to the bathroom.”

While my dad says NASCAR did the wrong thing by throwing those cautions (“Let ‘em race,” he said. “They’ll figure out real quick going 190 mph won’t work. Make them slow down to 150 and actually race.”) no one denied just how bad, just how painful that race was.

Phil Bengel, a NASCAR fan from Cincinnati, and the guy who dropped the green flag on the Jeff Byrd 500, agreed. “I just don’t want to see Kentucky get hit like IMS did after 2008,” he tweeted to me on Wednesday night. “Lost about half attendance. Not good for KY, the state, or NASCAR.”

We actually made it to that 2008 Brickyard 400. So did nearly a quarter of a million other race fans, Phil Bengel included. Think of not being able to even sniff the facility where the race was being held. That’s what many fans encountered on Saturday at Kentucky Speedway.

I can sit here and write and post more opinions about the traffic debacle that was Saturday night, but I think you can read for yourself. If you were stuck in it, you know just as well as I do how painful it was.

The book will never be closed on Kentucky Speedway’s traffic issues until next year, and we’ll see if they can change anything. Because if they can’t, next year, the press surrounding Kentucky Speedway could be, and will be, a whole lot worse.