Posts tagged BankOfAmerica500 at FanHouse

We've seen and heard the battle that the City of Concord (N.C.) and Lowe's Motor Speedway have had in the past month.

Thursday could be the day of reckoning on whether or not LMS' parent company, Speedway Motorsports Inc., and CEO Bruton Smith will either ruin yet another fantastic piece of the NASCAR history (remember North Wilkesboro?) or if he will remember the fans that earned his his wealth and keep the legendary speedway.

From NASCAR.com's Ron Lemasters:

There is talk of an announcement on Thursday that will go a long way toward determining if Lowe's Motor Speedway will remain in its present location or go on the road to a neighboring community, as Smith has threatened.

I honestly feel a little bit sick to my stomach knowing that such a place could potentially be leveled -- and for what, a billionaire owner on a power trip?

That really sounds like a track owner who is touch with the fans.

The city council has given Smith the go-ahead to build a NHRA drag strip, are willing to help with tax incentives on new building projects at LMS, and most importantly -- they want to rename a street already named "Speedway Boulevard" to "Bruton Smith You Are Our King Street" (or at least something or the sort).

What else could he possibly want? (other than some Carolina-fave Bojangles Famous Chicken 'n' Biscuits, of course)

Another top 10, another $10. Dave Blaney's 6th place finish earned him another spot in the owners points standings, which means I owe the Victory Junction Gang Camp more dough.

Blaney grabbed the 34th spot from the #45, driven mostly by Kyle Petty, whose 18th place finish in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 marked only his third top 20 for the season. His best finish was 3rd, last time around at Charlotte--his only top 5 of the season.

Lucky for him, Bill Elliott didn't fare too well in the #21, finishing 35th and doubling the gap between the 35th and 36th spots. I'm not understanding why Wood Brothers / JTG Racing isn't keeping Ken Schrader in the car. I realize he hasn't set the world on fire, but Elliott's not been significantly better and there's something to be said for a little consistency.

Scott Riggs is over 300 points out now and has the #10 car in 37th place--bummer for Patrick Carpentier who takes over driving duties in 2008 and will start the season being forced to qualify on time. Hey ... is he cleared to race in Daytona?

Was Tony Stewart's contact with two cars on pit road caused by lack of observation, communication or consideration? Or all of the above?

Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli:

"The No. 15 car was a minor thing. I think everybody got to hollering on the radio and we never even saw the No. 9 car. That is what did the damage. The No. 15 just scraped the paint off. It didn't really do anything else. But with us rolling out, it would have been real easy for him to give us the go ahead, not that he has to, but it is about give-and-take. If you have respect for people and they are racing for something you are not, you kind of usually do that. If you don't, the roles will usually be reversed."

Fair enough. Zippy thinks Paul Menard should have given consideration to Stewart and he takes responsibility for the chaotic communication that caused the contact with Kasey Kahne.

One can argue that the non-Chaser should have yielded to the Chaser. Another can argue that the stopped cars on pit road should yield to the already-moving incoming cars. We can all agree that it's every man for himself or argue that it should be a give and take. No one is wrong, no one is right--at least not per NASCAR's rules.

ESPN and ABC totally screwed me--and other NASCAR fans in the Los Angeles market--out of pre-race ceremonies yesterday. According to the Lowes Motor Speedway website, coverage of the Bank of America 500 was supposed to begin on ABC at 7:00PM ET, not a half-hour later at 4:30PM PT, as per my DirecTV programming guide. At 4:00PM, my ABC affiliate, KABC-TV Los Angeles, was showing news.

So, I flipped back to watch the rest of "Raceday" on Speed. At the tail end of the program, which ended at 4:30PM, Wendi Venturini commented about the chaos on the track and said the anthem was sung while some of the drivers were still going around the track for driver introductions--so even some of them missed the invocation and anthem. Regardless of the KABC programming issue, it sounds like pre-race ceremonies were screwed up anyway.

By the time I finally turned to ABC again at 4:30PM for the race, I was so annoyed. Imagine how my annoyance level skyrocketed when I discovered at 4:30PM that there was still no racing.

Bruton Smith is a man who likes to grab attention.

So last week when the Concord, N.C. City Council voted to change the zoning of Lowe's Motor Speedway to eliminate a possible drag strip, he swung back -- and connected.

The CEO of Speedway Motorsports declared that he was ready to spend over $350 million and completely rebuild a new version of Lowe's Motor Speedway in another Charlotte suburb. That left NASCAR fans (including diehard LMS fans like myself), Concord city leaders, and Cabarrus County leaders all saying the same thing.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttt?!"

I personally can't imagine the 1.5-miler south of Concord on Highway 29 as a boarded up, non-used ruin. That would be a sad day, even if a newer facility was built

Fortunately, Concord has changed their mind, and Smith might be stepping down -- a little bit.

Specifically, council members voted Tuesday to ask the Planning and Zoning Commission to consider amending the speedway's zoning to allow drag strips on the property -- a use that the City Council unanimously banned just last week.

In other words, Concord is getting out of their brain fade and realizing that no matter how bad it ethically seems, LMS does so much for the city and surrounding area that giving in is normally a better idea than not giving in.

Yes, you, as well as I, can start to breathe that slight sense of relief, for one of NASCAR's most-storied tracks is staying put for now.