Pre-Race Report for the Tropicana 400

The thoughts of Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into the
Tropicana 400

ATLANTA, GA. July 07, 2004 -- 'The guy in the grandstands'

“We went through a period a few years ago where we started adding tracks. That
was about the same time as a pretty good growth spurt for NASCAR racing. I don’t
think that’s a coincidence.

“We need to run near cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, just like we need to
take a hard look at what we’re going to do to run closer to Seattle and Denver
and New York City. These are major markets with a lot of fans, and there is
potential for even more new fans. But we have to actually be there – or be
pretty close to there – to get their attention and create some excitement.

“Is Chicago another mile-and-a-half track? Yes. Do we have enough
mile-and-a-half tracks? Probably. Is it a ‘cookie cutter’ deal? Somewhat but it
offers some differences too. It’s more different than you might think from
Charlotte to Chicago to Kansas but, yeah, those tracks are closer together in
styling than Chicago and, say, Martinsville. That’s pretty obvious.

“But for the race fan who lives in downtown Chicago and gets to go to one NASCAR
Nextel Cup race a year, do you think he cares whether Chicagoland is a
mile-and-a-half or not? The main thing that is important to him is he gets the
chance to go to a race, to actually be there, to actually experience it.
Chicagoland this week versus New Hampshire in a couple of weeks versus Pocono
after that means something to the drivers and the people who race week to week
to week . . . but to that guy in Chicago who just wants to go to a Cup race, who
maybe wants to take his kid and experience it, man, that is one happy guy.

“Chicago is different because every race is different. The track might look a
lot like other tracks out there but the race is going to be different. If Jimmie
Johnson runs away with this one like he did at Charlotte, well, then the guy in
second and the guy in third are going to have to run different races. If cars
racing inches apart at 180 miles per hour can’t keep your attention, I’m not
sure what can.

“You hear, ‘Yeah, but they should have built a Bristol up there,’ or ‘They
should have built a Rockingham up there.’ That’s kind of the track du jour, I
know, but they are selling all their seats with a mile-and-a-half track now, and
the television ratings have been pretty good. What would they have gained with
building a Bristol? Rockingham had some great races but there were some races
there, too, that were snoozers. Those kinds of races are going to happen from
time to time, whether it’s Chicago or Sonoma or Daytona or wherever. Rockingham
built a Rockingham, and they couldn’t sell all of the tickets. Why would
Chicagoland be better off with a Rockingham than with what they have?


“There have always been ‘You shoulda builts . . .’ out there. At one time,
Daytona was the epitome of the great race track. If you were going to build
something, you would want to build at Daytona. OK, restrictor plates . . . you
wouldn’t build a Daytona now. Then Dover was the track everyone wanted to model.
They had problems with asphalt there and had to go to concrete. Then Michigan
was the track everyone should build. But you don’t have enough cautions
sometimes at Michigan so the field doesn’t get bunched up enough, so you end up
with some fuel-mileage races. So then it has become ‘Build a Bristol.’ Bristol’s
fine, but in 10 years, it will be another place.

“Nobody wants ‘cookie cutter’ but there isn’t as much appreciation for
innovativeness either, not as much as you might think. Try building a road
course – now that’s different – and see what people think. Look at the criticism
Texas got, and Las Vegas got. They were different and were criticized. Chicago
and Kansas are like a lot of other tracks, and they get criticized. What do you
do?

“As far as me and these Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge guys, we’re more than fine
with running Chicagoland this weekend, and we’re looking forward to it. That guy
who lives in downtown Chicago, the one you’ll see up there in the grandstands
with his kid, that guy is looking forward to it too. When it all comes down to
it, let’s face it. That guy and his kid are the ones we have to please anyway.”




"It's just been our life that I
always end up being the man in
the middle." Dr. Maurice E. Gibb
www.victoryjunction.org












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