CONCORD, N.C. -- Poor Jimmie Johnson. All he does is win races and championships.

But when track operators for Speedway Motorsports Inc. got together Monday for a round-table discussion about many topics during the Sprint Media Tour hosted by Lowe's Motor Speedway, the conversation quickly was dominated by what they intend to do to help out race fans who are hurting in this economy.

They might want to start by shortening the "official" name of the media tour. It's a mouthful to say and hardly easy on the eyes when it comes to writing or reading it, but the good folks putting on the annual media tour insist on it being called just that -- and we try to oblige at least once during the week.

But we digress. We were talking about Johnson, who became the first driver in 30 years and only the second in the history of stock-car racing to win three consecutive championships in NASCAR's top series last year.

At first the talk amongst the track operators on Monday pertained to what they're doing to help keep the fans they have and bring back those who recently have ceased coming to Sprint Cup races.

In Texas, track president Eddie Gossage downsized the massive backstretch by 21,000 seats and is offering reserved-seat tickets there for a mere $20. "In this day and age when everybody is giving bailouts to banks, we had to ask ourselves, 'Who is giving a bailout to Joe The Fan?'," Gossage insisted.

In Las Vegas, track president Chris Powell is touting the fact that his people are working with local hotels to cut deals for race fans. "The day of the $299 room rate has passed us in Las Vegas, at least for the time being, and that's good for race fans," Powell said. (Continued)