Driver Jeff Gordon "thinks maybe it's time" for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to "try a midweek date," according to Jenna Fryer of the AP. Gordon said, "I think when 'Monday Night Football' ends, we should start `Monday Night Racing.' But that's just me. Of course I came from `Thursday Night Thunder,' and `Thursday Night Thunder' was ridiculously successful back in the day." But Gordon said that NASCAR officials have been "cold to the idea." Gordon: "It seems like every time I talk to NASCAR about doing a weekly race or one midweek, they say `Oh well if you do it on this day, you won't get as many people coming to the track, so the track suffers.'" He added, "I am not saying we need to do it every week, but if we could find the right week in the schedule and mix it up, make it special, and make it make sense for the fans at home as well as the ones that could attend, then I think it would be awesome" (AP, 7/10).
WHAT ABOUT THE LITTLE GUY? SPORTING NEWS' Bob Pockrass noted ISC recently announced plans to "decrease capacity" at several tracks, so "gone are the cheap seats." That "raises the big question: Will any cheap seats remain for the fans saving vacation money to make an annual pilgrimage to a racetrack?" For fans "clinging to every dollar to get to a race, that doesn’t sound like a good thing." ISC would be "foolish -- very foolish -- to price out the diehard working-class fan who supported the sport before all the big television deals, before all the money and glamour." Pockrass: "We'll watch your ticket prices. Don't price out the little guy" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 7/9).
