Richmond Int’l Raceway Unveils New Members-Only Club

By Michael Smith, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

Torque Club To Make Debut This Weekend At Richmond Int’l Raceway

NASCAR’s newest members-only club, Torque, debuts this weekend at Richmond Int’l Raceway (RIR) with a Busch Series race on Friday night and the Nextel Cup event on Saturday night. Seating 700 people and offering two full-service bars, buffet stations, a carving station, private restrooms and 60-plus TVs, Torque “is very close to selling out,” RIR spokesman Keith Green said. The track did not release exact figures. Torque season packages sell for $1,750 and include parking, private admission, a prerace pit pass and a reserved outdoor seat for three race weekends, as well as a $250 food and beverage credit for the season. The track, which has sold out 29 straight Nextel Cup races, still has a limited number of grandstand tickets available and track officials predict another sellout. Torque was part of an improvement project that pushed capacity to 112,029. While RIR did not release the project’s expense, industry analysts placed the cost in the $10-20M range.