Miami offers NASCAR a little time in the sun

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- There is perhaps no better nighttime stroll in America than a walk down Ocean Drive, where the pink and blue neon of the boutique art deco hotels stands opposite palm trees swaying in the Atlantic breeze. This is the Miami of film and television and popular perception, the Miami of fast cars and supermodels and velvet nightclub ropes, the Miami of Jackie Gleason and Hyman Roth and Crockett and Tubbs. It's beguiling, it's beautiful, and it's a long way from Homestead-Miami Speedway in more ways than one.

The racetrack is further south, near the terminus of the Florida Turnpike, not far from the modest creek that separates the mainland from the upper Keys. It's bordered by the real Florida, unforgiving swampy environs of alligators and armadillos, wild wetlands full of sawgrass blades sharp enough to draw blood. Built in an area wiped out by the wrath of Hurricane Andrew 16 years ago, the speedway began as a modest facility that, president Curtis Gray will admit, wasn't ready to accommodate NASCAR's premier series when the tour first arrived in 1999. Now it hosts the season finales for all three national circuits, and in the process attempts to bridge the distance -- physical and metaphorical -- between the Everglades and South Beach.

They've done a credible job, rebuilding the facility from a flat track that put on monotonous, featureless races to one with variable banking that drivers love. They've kept the grandstand capacity of 65,000 small enough to keep ticket demand up and big enough to look good on TV. They've tried very hard to associate themselves with the Miami that everyone envisions, knowing full well that in a city that's hosted more Super Bowls than any other, it takes a championship event just to make a dent. Does the race seem to get lost sometimes in a sprawling metro market, during a time of year when the Dolphins dominate the airwaves? No question. But it would likely be that way even if NASCAR raced right down Brickell Avenue.

You occasionally hear grumbles from the purists, most of whom have never experienced the short-sleeved joy of being in South Florida in November, and who'll grumble about almost anything that's not exactly as it was in 1973. NASCAR in Miami? Well, don't forget that before he went off and became patriarch of the Alabama Gang, Bobby Allison raced on ovals around his native Hialeah. Don't forget that Herb Thomas won four of the seven Grand National events contested up in Palm Beach in the '50s. Don't forget that Juan Montoya lives here, as does almost every prominent international open-wheel driver. Don't forget that for a while, Jeff Gordon called the region home. Don't forget that it's easy to get run over by somebody doing 120 mph on the Don Shula Expressway.

"I think it's great," Gordon said. "This is great exposure to help grow this sport to certainly a different fan base than what we're used to. The weather is fantastic. The competitors like it. I hope the media likes it, too. It's a great racetrack, too. This has turned into being one of my favorite racetracks since they reconfigured the banking. It's just an awesome place. I can't think of a better place, really to wind down the season." (Continued)