Rapid expansion pleases NASCAR president

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LOUDON, N.H. – Mike Helton is just the third president in NASCAR history and knows he is overseeing one of the fastest growing sports in America.

That’s not to say there haven’t been difficult situations like the death of legendary Dale Earnhardt at the Daytona 500 in February.

But the growth over the last five years has been staggering as evidenced by the sold-out venues and construction of two tracks featured on this year’s NASCAR Winston Cup schedule: Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., where the Tropicana 400 was held eight days ago, and Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., site of the Kansas 400 on Sept. 30.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate. We’ve had a lot of opportunities come our way and we’ve been able to make good on some of them. The popularity of the sport has been able to grow and we keep trying to do things to expose the sport to more people because we think we have a pretty nice product,” said Helton.

“Being able to go into new market areas and the TV package opportunities are among the things that have helped us along with the personalities and character of the guys in the garage area,” he added.

The accessibility of Winston Cup drivers to their fans has often been listed as a primary reason behind the sport’s growth. Athletes in other major pro sports aren’t nearly as accessible.

“I’m cautious about bragging about those types of things because you never know what’s going to happen next. But everybody works together very nicely and stays pretty well-planted,” said Helton, a native of Bristol, Va. “Everybody understands that what makes this sport work well is the enthusiasm of the fans. They’re the reason we do all of this. Our guys [drivers] are real people and they come across as real people.”

He said NASCAR is taking a different route than the other major sports these days.

“So many other professional sports are moving from urban areas to rural markets. We’re backwards. We’re branching out from rural markets to urban markets. We’ve been able to go into places like Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and into the New England area,” said Helton. “All of those things work in our favor. We’ve very fortunate.”

He said expansion to other new venues has “quieted down a little bit.

“Some facilities would like a race and some would like more than one race,” he said. “The exposure we’ve received and the [quality of] product are very positive right now. We want to keep the fans we have and attract new one, too.”

There are 36 races on the circuit this year, two more than a year ago, and there has been some concern expressed over the expansion of the schedule.

“We’ve got to be conscious of what we’re doing but we don’t think it’s too much right now,” said Helton. “One of the things that relates us to the American public is the fact they go to work 50 out of 52 weeks a year. They work hard for their lifestyle and the same thing happens in here. These guys work hard year-round. There is time for them to catch their breaths but the rest of the time they’re committed to it. That’s what makes the sport click.”

Cal Wells III, the owner of Newburgh native Ricky Craven’s PPI-Motorosports Team, has been impressed with the series. He came over from the CART series a year ago.

“NASCAR focuses on competition and everything else clings to it,” said Wells. “It’s all about solid competition which creates a great spectacle for the fan and creates good competition for the athletes. They continue to focus on that and that’s their number one goal.”

Helton said NASCAR has managed to rebound from the loss of Earnhardt although he will never be forgotten.

“It doesn’t matter [if you lose somebody] in a very public scenario like we’ve had or in a very private scenario like losing a family member. You have to piece things together and go on. The community of NASCAR is strong. Everyone pulls for each other and we press on.”

Wells said NASCAR knew how to best deal with the tragedy.

“They focus on all of us in here, trying to keep us healthy and they really work hard on keeping the competition equal. They do a great job,” he said.

Busch Grand National, on the other hand, has had its struggles with car counts this season.

But Helton expected it since they’ve implemented a new more-expensive engine program this year “designed to bring a commonality between the Winston Cup, Busch Grand National and Craftsman Truck series” as it relates to NASCAR engine and vehicle body parts.

“They’re somewhat similar. They aren’t identical but they’re closer than they’ve ever been,” said Helton.

Helton expected the struggle and said there are signs of improvement.

“We’re very confident and very proud in that series. In our arguments, it’s the second best there is in the country to Winston Cup,” he said. “We knew there would be an expense with the changeover and they had to go through that cycle. But the changeover is in the best interest for the long term and we’re beginning to see signs of that already.”

Crowd responds to Craven

Long-time motorsports television reporter Chris Economaki was the grand marshal for the New England 300. Economaki used to cover motorsports for ABC-TV’s Wide World of Sports and has been affiliated with auto racing for more than 40 years.

“It’s nice to be back here in New England. All the seats are filled which makes this the largest crowd to ever attend a sporting event in New England,” said Economaki while addressing the crowd more than 100,000 in pre-race ceremonies..

Newburgh’s Ricky Craven, as always, was one of the fan favorites judging by the crowed reaction in pre-race introductions. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd also received nice ovations along with Steve Park.

Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Spencer were booed loudly and Tony Stewart also heard plenty of jeers mixed among some cheers.

The Winston Cup series will return to Loudon for the New Hampshire 300 on Sept. 16.

The venue is one of Wells’ favorites.

“I love this place. It’s God’s country,” said Wells.