Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell said that Int'l Speedway Corp. "is exploring the possibility of moving the start of the spring" race at Richmond Int'l Raceway from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, according to Dustin Long of NBCSPORTS.com. Campbell, whose track is owned by ISC and who also helps oversee RIR for ISC, said, "I’m not going to say seriously, but we are exploring it. ... We’re always entertaining whatever can make our events better for the broadcasters, for the fans and for the competitors and that’s part of it." ISC as part of its typical post-event critique "is examining how far Richmond’s ticket holders travel to attend that race." Another factor "could be weather." Long noted this comes after NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick on Friday indicated that he thinks Saturday-night races "need to move to Sunday afternoons" (NBCSPORTS.com, 5/3). Harvick: "I believe that some venues need one race (and) that the schedule needs to be mixed up. People like things that change. They don’t like stagnant things. In my opinion the most stagnant thing in our sport is our schedule and our venues that we go to. You can beat a dead horse as much as you want, but it doesn’t come back to life. ... Sometimes you just have to change things up to keep the excitement and enthusiasm in the sport. I think our schedule is definitely the weak link along with some of the venues that we go to. ... Everybody wants to see more short tracks." Harvick when asked why it is tough to get schedule changes in NASCAR, said of ISC and SMI, "Two publicly traded companies. It’s not that the tracks aren’t putting in an effort, it’s just there needs to be a different type of effort" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/2).
CORN STATE OF AFFAIRS: The AP's Jenna Fryer reported Harvick "wants Iowa Speedway put on the Cup schedule, and rattled off a list of road courses that would make good venues." He also "supported the idea of visiting one random track a year." Harvick: "Really, you could test these venues and see how the market reacts and see the reaction that you get from the market. Even if you only have 30,000-to-40,000 people in the grandstands, if you put on a good event for TV and do the things to make it a unique event -- that's really what people want. They want unique things" (AP, 5/1).
