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Sprint Cup
JENSEN: What Now, Kentucky?
Traffic ruined the inaugural Kentucky Speedway race for thousands of NASCAR fans...
Kentucky Speedway must find a better way to treat the NASCAR fans than the shoddy mess that happened on Saturday. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
By now, the whole world knows about the debacle at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday.
By Bruton Smith’s own estimate, as many as 20,000 fans never even made it into the track for the inaugural Quaker State 400, which was won convincingly by Kyle Busch.
Eager race fans by the thousands spent six hours or more in traffic only to be turned away when they arrived at the track because there weren’t enough parking spaces to accommodate the crowd. Others simply turned around in frustration.
Those who did get in were only allowed to bring one bottle of water. According to numerous reports from race fans, there was a serious shortage of portajohns in the parking areas, with waits of half an hour or more to use the facilities — this after spending hours in traffic.
From all reports, the scenes in the parking lots were utter and total chaos both getting in and leaving. How bad was it? Kentucky Senate President David Williams couldn’t even get into the track.
Toward the end of the race, the track issued a statement from General Manager Mark Simendinger: “We’ve had an overwhelming response to our inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ‘Quaker State 400.’ We know we had challenges related to traffic. We’re already planning improvements and looking forward to a much better situation for next year’s event.”
Nowhere in that statement did the track’s management apologize for the situation. Nor was any offer immediately made to compensate the fans for their frustration or the cold, hard cash they shelled out. Many of those who never made it in were out the cost of tickets, gas, meals and hotels — in some cases thousands of dollars.
Interestingly, other tracks responded to the woes of fans before Kentucky Speedway did. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which has had its share of problems, said on Sunday that it would offer a special ticket deal for the upcoming Brickyard 400 for frustrated Kentucky Speedway customers. Details were to be forthcoming on Monday.
Talladega Superspeedway Chairman Grant Lynch issued a gut-punch press release that read, in part, “After hearing how rough the fans had it at Kentucky this weekend, I wanted to let them know that we’re ready to show how a race weekend is supposed to run. We put fan experience at the forefront of everything we do. That’s why we allow coolers in our grandstands and provide hundreds of acres of free camping. It’s why we created a $49 two-day ticket and allow kids 12 and under to sit free in the Allison Grandstands on Saturday and Sunday. It’s also why we work closely with the Alabama State Troopers and other organizations to ensure our fans arrive on time to see the race.”
Lynch can talk the talk because Talladega walks the walk. Talladega knows how to stage a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Kentucky Speedway does not. It’s just that simple.
The big question is what happens going forward. I was at the first race at Texas Motor Speedway, a track that like Kentucky is owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc. The 1997 Texas event was also a disaster of epic proportions — I left my hotel at 5 a.m. on race day and got into my parking space at the track at 11:30 a.m. — and that was just to go 35 miles.
To their credit TMS President Eddie Gossage and his staff got things turned around and the Fort Worth track is now one of the premier stops on the Sprint Cup circuit.
Maybe Kentucky Speedway can do the same.
Right now, though, there’s a huge mess to clean up.
NASCAR Sprint Cup race No. 1 at Kentucky Speedway was a complete, unmitigated disaster.
Immediate action is required to fix the damage.
Track owner Bruton Smith needs to quickly say exactly what the track is going to do for the fans who paid top dollar and got nothing.
NASCAR management needs to say exactly how it’s going to hold track operators accountable to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
State and local officials need to say exactly what they’re going to do to help improve traffic flow.
And most of all, it’s time for the finger-pointing and blame-game playing by Bruton and his minions to stop. Fix the problem, make the fans whole. And if you can’t, move the race back to Atlanta or, better yet, Las Vegas, for a second race.
But start with telling the loyal, dedicating NASCAR fans how sorry you are. And how you are going to make them whole again.
Because if you don’t, it doesn’t matter how many parking lots you add or how many lanes you expand I-71 to. If you’ve lost the fans — and right now you have — you’ve lost everything.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
By Bruton Smith’s own estimate, as many as 20,000 fans never even made it into the track for the inaugural Quaker State 400, which was won convincingly by Kyle Busch.
Eager race fans by the thousands spent six hours or more in traffic only to be turned away when they arrived at the track because there weren’t enough parking spaces to accommodate the crowd. Others simply turned around in frustration.
Those who did get in were only allowed to bring one bottle of water. According to numerous reports from race fans, there was a serious shortage of portajohns in the parking areas, with waits of half an hour or more to use the facilities — this after spending hours in traffic.
From all reports, the scenes in the parking lots were utter and total chaos both getting in and leaving. How bad was it? Kentucky Senate President David Williams couldn’t even get into the track.
Toward the end of the race, the track issued a statement from General Manager Mark Simendinger: “We’ve had an overwhelming response to our inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ‘Quaker State 400.’ We know we had challenges related to traffic. We’re already planning improvements and looking forward to a much better situation for next year’s event.”
Nowhere in that statement did the track’s management apologize for the situation. Nor was any offer immediately made to compensate the fans for their frustration or the cold, hard cash they shelled out. Many of those who never made it in were out the cost of tickets, gas, meals and hotels — in some cases thousands of dollars.
Interestingly, other tracks responded to the woes of fans before Kentucky Speedway did. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which has had its share of problems, said on Sunday that it would offer a special ticket deal for the upcoming Brickyard 400 for frustrated Kentucky Speedway customers. Details were to be forthcoming on Monday.
Talladega Superspeedway Chairman Grant Lynch issued a gut-punch press release that read, in part, “After hearing how rough the fans had it at Kentucky this weekend, I wanted to let them know that we’re ready to show how a race weekend is supposed to run. We put fan experience at the forefront of everything we do. That’s why we allow coolers in our grandstands and provide hundreds of acres of free camping. It’s why we created a $49 two-day ticket and allow kids 12 and under to sit free in the Allison Grandstands on Saturday and Sunday. It’s also why we work closely with the Alabama State Troopers and other organizations to ensure our fans arrive on time to see the race.”
Lynch can talk the talk because Talladega walks the walk. Talladega knows how to stage a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Kentucky Speedway does not. It’s just that simple.
The big question is what happens going forward. I was at the first race at Texas Motor Speedway, a track that like Kentucky is owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc. The 1997 Texas event was also a disaster of epic proportions — I left my hotel at 5 a.m. on race day and got into my parking space at the track at 11:30 a.m. — and that was just to go 35 miles.
To their credit TMS President Eddie Gossage and his staff got things turned around and the Fort Worth track is now one of the premier stops on the Sprint Cup circuit.
Maybe Kentucky Speedway can do the same.
Right now, though, there’s a huge mess to clean up.
NASCAR Sprint Cup race No. 1 at Kentucky Speedway was a complete, unmitigated disaster.
Immediate action is required to fix the damage.
Track owner Bruton Smith needs to quickly say exactly what the track is going to do for the fans who paid top dollar and got nothing.
NASCAR management needs to say exactly how it’s going to hold track operators accountable to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
State and local officials need to say exactly what they’re going to do to help improve traffic flow.
And most of all, it’s time for the finger-pointing and blame-game playing by Bruton and his minions to stop. Fix the problem, make the fans whole. And if you can’t, move the race back to Atlanta or, better yet, Las Vegas, for a second race.
But start with telling the loyal, dedicating NASCAR fans how sorry you are. And how you are going to make them whole again.
Because if you don’t, it doesn’t matter how many parking lots you add or how many lanes you expand I-71 to. If you’ve lost the fans — and right now you have — you’ve lost everything.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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