Brickyard ticket sales down?

[Lee Roy]

This race continues to decline in popularity. The weather forecast for Sunday the 31st has a high of 86. That shouldn't hurt the walk-up crowd. If the weather was to be like it is this weekend . . . . .

Jayski's® NASCAR Silly Season Site - NASCAR Sprint Cup News Page

Brickyard ticket sales down? There have been rumors that ticket sales for next week's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway were again off-pace from last season, but an internal NASCAR memo obtained by ThatsRacin.com and The Observer seems to confirm the problem. In the memo, which was distributed by email on Friday, team public relations representatives were thanked ahead of time for their drivers' participation in a Sprint Cup Series autograph session at the track. The memo said, "ticket sales are significantly behind from previous years" at IMS. Since sales have been dramatically down since the 2008 tire problems at the track, another significant decline would appear ominous. The memo goes on to say, the track believed there would be a large walk-up crowd for the July 31 race and hoped the autograph session would be well received by race fans.

[DavePI2]

as a previous hater(that's not to say I'm a fan) this is sad too see. It is good for everyone when nascar is doing well. Afterall nascar is the ultimate blue collar sport and the problems are consistant with a still bad economy. Many on my side of the racing fence like to talk about the problems in 08 but at least nascar did everything they could too put on a race. F1 did not. Hopes for better times in the future. Good chance I will be back too indy at least for practice next year with the rolex series running there.

[00steven]

It's surprising to me that Crown Royal would be in talks to sponsor the cup race with this sort of news. Maybe they are banking on a rebound.

[call_me_andrew]

Many on my side of the racing fence like to talk about the problems in 08 but at least nascar did everything they could too put on a race. F1 did not.

If I were buying tickets to the race and tires were that much of a problem, I would much prefer the F1 outcome. At least then I get a refund and free admission to a Champ Car race. There's no point in racing otherwise.

[Lee Roy]

How to revive Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Bruce Martin - SI.com

An SI article titled "How to revive The Brickyard 400".

I don't think any of the ideas put forward in the article would work, even if they were to try them.

[call_me_andrew]

How do they bring the apron back to the Brickyard 400 when it wasn't there in 1994?

I was thinking that if Daytona and Talladega got rid of their aprons we wouldn't have to discuss that yellow line rule anymore, but that's a matter for a different thread.

[bennybigb]

The USGP F1 outcome was MUCH better than the 2008 Brickyard outcome for the fans.

I got to watch a 6 car "race" (practice session more like it) for free and got free tickets to the fantastic Cleveland Grand Prix Champ Car race.

I would have been horribly upset if I had bought tickets to the 2008 BY400. No wonder they can't sell tickets anymore.

Thanks Goodyear!

[DavePI2]

it is hard to argue with you benny, I was at the 05 cleveland race also and it was a good one. Tracy won a very good race on a great circuit.