
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 5, 1995                   TAG: 9502090034
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RACE IS ON TO BUILD NEW TRACKS

So, where does Winston Cup racing go from here? Now that NASCAR's big league has left its skid mark on the world's most famous oval, where is the sport headed?

To California, certainly. Maybe to Texas. Miami has a new track and a Busch Grand National race in November. There are about 10 proposed tracks whose dreamers are talking about NASCAR, if not with NASCAR.

``There have been plenty of paper race tracks built over the years,'' said Clay Campbell, president and general manager of Martinsville Speedway. ``It's not the first time people have talked this way. We'll see.''

With the Winston Cup schedule one race from its maximum of 32 dates - and that one is promised to Roger Penske's under-construction, two-mile California Speedway - the question is whether NASCAR can or will accommodate any new tracks in the future.

The sport would seem foolish not to go where it hasn't been before. Winston Cup fandom has sprouted from NASCAR's Southeastern roots. In 1993, New Hampshire got a Winston Cup race.

Last year, NASCAR brought its show to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This year's Brickyard 400 there already is sold out. It seems wherever Winston Cup racing goes, fans will follow.

For the establishment, the math may not add up the same in the future. There are 31 races at 18 tracks. Ten of those tracks are in the Southeast. Thirteen speedways have two Winston Cup stops each.

Perhaps some tracks with two Winston Cup races now will lose one or both to new venues. Perhaps not.

``There's been absolutely no commitment for a Winston Cup race to anyone except the Penske track, and we'll go there when it's built in 1997 or '98,'' said Andy Hall, a NASCAR spokesman. ``That's 32 and it's all we can accommodate on the schedule, because then you have to add in special events like the Busch Clash and Winston Select.

``Since Riverside closed in 1988, we've made it no secret our No.1 goal was to get back into Southern California. With somebody like Penske, we know it's going to be done right. As for anybody else building a race track, that's up to them. We renew our sanctions yearly. In that regard, there's no guarantee anybody's going to be in the following year.''

Bruton Smith, who owns the Charlotte and Atlanta speedways, has proposed a 150,000-seat track in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Texas hasn't had a Winston Cup race since the circuit left Texas World Speedway in College Station in 1982.

Las Vegas is scheduled to break ground on a casino-owned track in March. The Rocky Top Motor Speedway is a project in south-central Tennessee. St.Louis, home of Winston Cup's Wallace brothers, is another possibility. That talk also raises whispers about current Winston Cup stops being in jeopardy. Campbell has heard the rumors, and Martinsville usually is mentioned.

He believes some of it is fueled by the fact that Martinsville, at .526 miles, is Winston Cup's shortest track. He also knows, however, that NASCAR won't abandon its short-track roots completely.

Martinsville has another plus some other tracks don't. NASCAR's first family, the Frances, owns 50 percent of the pretty and mushrooming Henry County facility.

``The future for Martinsville is pretty bright,'' Campbell said. ``Let me say this: If an existing track loses a Winston Cup race, it will be that track's own fault. It will be because it hasn't drawn crowds, it hasn't built enough seats and it hasn't upgraded enough and kept the facility nice.

``We've always been able to do that. I don't think the size of the facility has anything to do with it. We keep expanding [to the current 59,000 seats, with more expected] ... And everything you see here is paid for. We don't owe a person a dime.''

Until the Homestead, Fla., track opens later this year, the New Hampshire facility will have been the only major-league racing plant built since the mid-1970s. It took the Loudon track only three years to get a Winston Cup event.

NASCAR has to be enthused about the possibility of going where it's never been. And if it's going to bigger markets, it had better take its big boys, because Grand National doesn't have the glamour.

So, the pressure to stay in the race will be on the tracks who have written NASCAR's history.

Keywords:
AUTO RACING

by CNB