Lucas Oil Raceway Loses Nascar Events

By now, you have all heard, The Nationwide and Truck Races have been moved from Lucas Oil Raceway to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway starting in 2012.

From IMS's standpoint, they needed something to boost the Brickyard 400, having all the support races at the same track could bring more people in, and would be more convenient for the drivers, but the decision I cannot agree with. Most drivers who do Nationwide and the Sprint Cup series have no problem making the 8 mile trip on over to LOR, hell, some drivers travel from California to Wisconsin for a double header of racing on both series.

The racing at LOR took you back to the roots of Nascar, and as much as Nascar is trying to grow, they have made it an important topic to stay close to its roots, the beatin and banging, 200 lap under the light feature that LOR put on was a battle of today top starts against new up and coming drivers, who all gritted their teeth on Saturday night short track racing under the lights. Now look, I'm looking on both sides, most of you think that 42 bucks for general admission to a Nationwide is a bit steep, when you can spend 30 and get a ticket to the 400, that may be true, but LOR always sold out, the stands, the hills in Turn One and along the front stretch are always full on Friday and Saturday nights, how is 40,000 fans going to look at IMS for a Nationwide race? Empty.

Now I'm not blaming IMS at all, If your co workers smoking hot girlfriend said she would rather date you, wouldn't you? I blame Nascar for wanting this, I realize LOR may be a hard sell to those corporate sponsors, but that doesn't take away from the product it puts out. Nascar wants Danica and the other up and comers to get a shot at the Brickyard. Maybe Nascar wants to add this to learn for the Sprint Cup Series to make it more competitive, But if you give me 50 bucks and say pick a race, sorry IMS, I love you to death, but I'm heading to LOR the night before to catch the Nationwide race.

I hope LOR gets the races back, even if its a stand alone type event, I also would like to see Indy Car jump on this and put the Lights cars on the oval, and see if it is possible for the Indy Cars to get on the road course out there, to all the fans reading this, enjoy the race weekend at LOR that some have enjoyed since 1982.