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Jeff Wolf
Traffic chaos plagues new tracks
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Jonathan Palmer/The Associated Press
Kentucky Speedway sold all of its 107,000 tickets for Saturday's Quaker State 400, the Sparta, Ky., track's first NASCAR Sprint Cup race. But massive traffic jams and limited parking kept 5,000 to 10,000 fans with tickets from getting into the race.
Updated: Jul. 15, 2011 | 8:45 a.m.
Kentucky Speedway did not grab headlines for selling all of its 107,000 tickets for its inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup race Saturday.
Instead, the runaway topic has been massive traffic jams and limited parking that kept 5,000 to 10,000 fans with tickets from getting in to see the Quaker State 400.
Kyle Busch won the race, putting him atop the Cup standings, but his performance has been a footnote.
Reports on the traffic fiasco have been abundant -- and warranted.
It brought back bad memories for Lex Dudas, the general manager at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when the track hosted its first big race in 1996 with the Indy Racing League.
He also was a consultant at Kentucky for its big opening and first NASCAR Nationwide race in 2001.
"We got overwhelmed both times," said Dudas, 65, vice president and general manager of the Maple Grove Raceway dragstrip near Reading, Pa. "It was a nightmare at Las Vegas."
He said most of the near-capacity crowd of 60,000 showed up not long before the inaugural IRL race was to start.
"We had done all the planning we could, but it's a learning process," Dudas said. "I don't know of any track that didn't have a similar problem at its first big race."
Traffic debacles are unsavory byproducts of great crowds, insufficient planning and inexperienced fans.
Since the first Cup race at Las Vegas in 1998, traffic flow has improved annually despite crowds growing nearly every year. Last year's crowd of about 140,000 was parked more quickly and emptied faster than for the first IRL race, when attendance was less than half that.
The Las Vegas track has worked with government entities to widen Las Vegas Boulevard near the track. Nellis Air Force Base allows buses on Cup weekends to use one of its roads to avoid public traffic.
Each year at LVMS, more and more fans arrive early, and up to 30,000 use dedicated bus routes from downtown and the Strip. Past traffic delays likely made those more palatable options.
Traffic and parking planning have been refined after each of the past 13 Cup events.
Tracks can alert fans to arrive early and stay late. They can urge them to carpool or use shuttle buses.
But nothing works better than after someone gets caught in traffic gridlock.
Nothing can defend Kentucky's failed parking plan and lapses in traffic-control judgments by Kentucky's police personnel.
But it was especially shocking that it would happen at a track owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc., which purchased Kentucky three years ago.
Nearly all in motor sports tout SMI tracks, such as the one it bought in Las Vegas in 1998, for being the best with the greatest emphasis put on fan comfort.
Kentucky and SMI have offered the track's locked-out fans free admission to next year's Kentucky race and Cup races at its other tracks this year when seating is available. (That means they shouldn't count on getting into the Aug. 26 race in Bristol, Tenn.)
But that's not much of an offer to placate displaced fans who spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to attend the race.
While Dudas said it's nice for a track to have a sellout, especially in these tough fiscal times, he's certain there has been no celebrating in track offices or at corporate headquarters.
"There is no worse feeling in this business than to know you're upsetting people and there is nothing you can do about it," Dudas said.
At least not until the next year, when you hope fans give you another chance.
Fans did at Las Vegas, and they will at Kentucky.
Jeff Wolf's motor sports column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247. Visit lvrj.com/motorsports for more news and commentary. Follow Wolf on Twitter: @lvrjwolf.
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Hey ...... darladavis .... you scumbag...........
I’ve notice that some people, like yourself, try to use this forum to try to sell their worthless junk. What you are trying to sell is no doubt a worthless scam. If you had a good product, you wouldn’t have to resort in such a manner to try and drum up business.
Only fraud companies, and people like you, try to promote things this way.
Please stay off these forum sites for selling your garbage.
...
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The traffic problem won't be fixed by next year. So, be prepared. And, be patient.
It will take 3-5 years to actually change the road configurations, if at all. Many of the politicians who would vote on the funding aren't going to spend the money for a one weekend a year problem when the state is broke.
It took Las Vegas 5 years to solve much of the traffic problem and that was when times were booming.
Bruton will, eventually, get the traffic situation improved, but, you’ll still have to remember Rule #1.
RULE #1: If you have been to a NASCAR since the 80's, you should have learned by now that you leave for the track so you get there 3 to 4 hours ahead of the race. Then, you have plenty of cushion. Break out the folding chairs, food, beverage and a cigar and watch the world come by.
After the race, break out the folding chairs, food, beverage and a cigar and watch the world go by. You can’t be in a hurry at any NASCAR Cup race. And, it will save you a whole lot of money if you plan on an actual meal before and after the race.
For some reason, Bruton does have difficulty getting enough toilets to handle the crowds. He still hasn’t got Las Vegas figured out yet. He does seem to have difficulty with that kind of math.
The toilet problem? Bruton must never have to go. Ten years after he bought Las Vegas and that problem still exists.
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