Regional tracks welcome relaxed testing policy

It was always a big deal when a Sprint Cup hauler pulled into Greenville-Pickens Speedway. The track wouldn't announce it, but it didn't have to.

If you spotted a team transporter driving about Easley, S.C., you knew where it was headed. Someone would call a local radio station, and before noon the word would be out. By mid-afternoon there might be a few hundred people standing on the hills around the half-mile facility, watching a NASCAR driver test on a race track that was technically closed to the public.

Home Tracks

• Local racing coverage
• Regional tracks guide

For years, the routine was the same. NASCAR teams got around the sanctioning body's testing limits by fine-tuning their Martinsville setups at Greenville-Pickens. The local track received free publicity, not to mention several thousand dollars in rental fees.

That all changed late last year, when in an attempt to save teams money in a struggling economy, NASCAR banned testing at all its sanctioned venues. Greenville-Pickens, the second-oldest sanctioned track in NASCAR and a place where Bill France Sr. once promoted races, was suddenly as off-limits as Daytona or Talladega.

Until Wednesday, when NASCAR tweaked its testing policy and announced that beginning in 2010, teams would be allowed to test on a select number of tracks that host regional events, but not the sport's national tours. Greenville-Pickens is one of 14 tracks that met that criteria, which was welcome news to marketing director Keith Cochran.

"It was a big loss to us last year, and I think NASCAR has since rethought that policy, because the local tracks were kind of being penalized," he said. "So I think they rethought that policy over this past year, and we're just thrilled. It's a big help to a local weekly race track.

"Our location is particularly good for [NASCAR teams] because they're just up the road in Mooresville [N.C.] and can be here in an hour-and-a-half or so. That's why they've used Greenville-Pickens quite a lot. We're ecstatic about the whole thing."

The 2010 policy still prohibits teams from the Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Camping World Truck and Camping World East and West circuits from testing on tracks that host events on NASCAR's national levels. But it exempts tracks that host only events at the regional level, which includes Camping World East and West, the Whelen Modified Tour and the Whelen Southern Modified Tour.

Other than Greenville-Pickens, the list includes South Boston (Va.) Speedway; Tri-County Motor Speedway (N.C.); Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway; Adirondack International Speedway (N.Y.); All-American Speedway (Calif.); Madera (Calif.) Speedway; Douglas County (Ore.) Speedway; Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.); Colorado National Speedway; Thunderhill Raceway (Texas); and three road courses, Lime Rock Park (Conn.); Portland (Ore.) International Raceway; and Miller Motorsports Park (Utah).

"I think it's by far going to help us," said Rita Martin, general manager of Tri-County Motor Speedway, a half-mile track outside Hickory, N.C. "This is a perfect opportunity to be a success, to actually pick up the economy around the area if we have these guys coming in. I think it's going to be awesome."

Not all of these tracks enjoyed the regular business from NASCAR's national-level teams that Greenville-Pickens once did. Martin said Dale Earnhardt Inc. once tested at Tri-County, and Thompson operations director Russ Dowd said his facility would host Sprint Cup testing about two days each year before the ban was put into place. (Continued)