What an Amazing West Coast Swing!
By Kent Whitaker:
This weekend the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to California and Auto Club Speedway. It’s the final race on the schedule for the “West Coast Swing.” Following the Daytona 500 the series visited Atlanta Motor Speedway before jumping across the country.
The Swing was started several years ago when NASCAR was booming. An effort to solidify the sport on the west coast was undertaken. The idea being that having a series of race dates in row would help build an audience and fan base outside of the traditional “southern” market. It worked!
The sport has defiantly grown a fan base on in Las Vegas, Southern California, and Phoenix. In addition, the racing has been good as well. If anyone feels the desire to argue the point they only have to look as far as Vegas for solid proof of the popularity NASCAR has out West.
Las Vegas – the city and Speedway – worked together a few years ago to lure the NASCAR banquet to the city. They did, and the fans love it. There are events, parties, media coverage, and people coming into town. People in town spend money!
It worked so well that the speedway and tourism department landed a second race weekend. Again, more visitors, more people in hotels, more people spending money.
While this is not generally a blog focused on the financial side of NASCAR it’s important to note that the West Coast Swing has paid off for the sport. It also shows that if a community, and its leaders, support the sport then NASCAR returns the love.
Here’s an example from my back yard. Nashville Superspeedway is only a short drive my home. I grew up in Nashville and attended my first race at the legendary Fairgrounds short track. When the superspeedway was built, it offered the latest amenities for fans, tickets included free concerts, parking and leaving the speedway was amazingly easy. But… Nashville race fans didn’t show up.
In fact, it was amazingly clear that local media and their sports department really didn’t care about covering the race until race day. I’m betting that more than half of Middle Tennessee residents never knew a race was going on during any given race weekend. Finally, after hosting NASCAR, ARCA, INDYcar, and other events with half empty stands for several years the track was shut down.
Why the West Coast Swing is Good!
Long story short, the West Coast Swing is building a fan base. NASCAR needs a growing fan base! And – the story lines coming out of race weekends have been exciting. The swing combined with the new segment format has proven to be a winner.
I expect the racing at Auto Club Speedway will be impressive as well as the track has improved over the years. Then, following the race at Auto Club, the series returns to short track racing! The West Coast Swing helps build the fan base, offers exciting racing, and moves spring dates from east coast tracks that often suffer from severe weather early in the season. I’d be hard pressed to come up with a reason why that part of the schedule should change for 2018.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kent Whitaker, often called ‘the Deck Chef,’ is a sportswriter, culinary writer, and cookbook author with fourteen titles. He covers NASCAR, racing in general, Football, barbecue, grilling, and tailgating. You can visit him on www.thedeckchef.com .”