Smack: Hard to bet against Jimmie when he's out front (cont'd)

2. Auto Club Speedway's first Chase race didn't exactly produce the attendance benchmarks the track had hoped for. Is it time to move one race from Fontana somewhere else?

Joe Menzer: Well, Mark, you were there. How bad was the attendance, really? It looked pretty bad on television for sure.

Mark Aumann: It was bad. Probably half-full, about the same as in February. And definitely smaller than it's been since I first started going there. You can blame the economy, but places like Detroit, Las Vegas and Phoenix are perhaps worse off.

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David Caraviello: Let's face it, in this economy, there are a lot of race tracks -- a lot of sports stadiums, period -- that are underperforming. You can't move events around based on attendance in the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression. No question, Fontana hasn't produced like people thought it would, even with a Chase race. But let's wait for the economy to improve, and see what happens there, before we do anything rash.

Mark Aumann: Well, as much as I love the racing, I still believe at least one of Martinsville's dates is probably up for grabs in 2011. Having said that, Fontana continues to be a head-scratcher. You've got, what, 15 million people within 90 miles of the place and you can't sell 90,000 tickets?

Joe Menzer: Guys, guys. You are either way too nice or just dead wrong. No track deserves to lose a date more than California. If I were running NASCAR, which I'm obviously not, I couldn't move a race out of there fast enough.

Mark Aumann: And if you use Atlanta as the benchmark -- and Atlanta's March attendance was pitiful but the Labor Day event was impressive -- things aren't that great. I just think with races there, Las Vegas and Phoenix, the market may be oversaturated now.

David Caraviello: And Las Vegas and Phoenix do much better at the turnstiles -- or have, at least, historically. California is just a strange place. I agree fully with Jeff Gordon -- it's not the facility. The people there just haven't embraced it at the level many thought they would. It's past time for the folks at International Speedway Corp. and NASCAR to come to grips with that fact.

Joe Menzer: Right. And move one of the dates outta there! Pronto!

David Caraviello: Dang, Joe is playing the Turk this morning. The Jim Lippincott of race tracks!

Mark Aumann: But how you do pull out of the country's No. 2 market? Of course, I guess the answer is: The NFL did it, and look how much it's affected them. I looked at attendance for the Dodgers and Angels playoff games -- if we're comparing "postseasons" -- and they had capacity crowds. There's just a disconnect between the speedway and the fan base.

Joe Menzer: Here's the real problem: where does the date go if they take one away from Auto Club Speedway? I guess the answer, assuming they get approval on that new casino-hotel overlooking Turn 2, is Kansas. But it would be better if one went to Kentucky Speedway or a second date went to Vegas. And those latter two facilities are SMI-owned, and ISC will never give them one of their track's dates.

Mark Aumann: Well, I still think Atlanta's spring date is in doubt.

Joe Menzer: Agreed on that one. And rightly so. I think that will be better for everyone, including Atlanta as they try to build on what was a super first Labor Day race.

David Caraviello: The NFL has been banging on the door to get back in ever since the Rams left for St. Louis, but the community there seems in no rush to give the league what it wants. Sports entities fail for a lot of reasons. There's no common thread. But the fact that Southern California has run through two NFL franchises and two major NASCAR race tracks should tell you something.

Mark Aumann: David, one of the odd coincidences is that Ontario and Fontana were both built in the middle of the track-building boom, and both were hurt by recession. Because of its debt, Ontario was doomed to fail before they even hosted a race.

David Caraviello: Hey, let's see if Atlanta can roll some of its momentum into that spring date before we give it the axe. And remember, there is still a recession going on. As much as everyone seems to love Kentucky Speedway, is it smart to move another race into the Rust Belt, given all that's going on with unemployment and the automotive industry in that part of the world?

Mark Aumann: The most interesting issue with revamping the schedule is finding enough warm-weather dates to fill in February and March. If you axe California and Atlanta, you can't move Kentucky and Kansas in there without snowplows.

Joe Menzer: Bottom line is that Atlanta made good on their end of the switch of dates, when California couldn't make the Labor Day date work. Or any other date, for that matter. But I would argue that in some ways Atlanta was successful on Labor Day because they put all of their focus on that race over the spring event. I was at the spring event, and it was like they were just waiting for it to get over so they could really sink their teeth into promoting Labor Day. And it showed on both ends.

Mark Aumann: Well, you were just there for the Varsity hot dogs.

Joe Menzer: Unfortunately, I haven't hit the Varsity in years! Maybe that's the problem with Atlanta -- the Varsity is way too far away from the track! (Continued)