Track upgrade could lift NASCAR
What’s most important in NASCAR right now?
The race?
The face?
The place?
The question is part of what makes next Sunday’s Can-Am 500 at ISM Raceway so significant. Not only for Arizona, but for all of the sports entertainment industry, aside from being NASCAR’s semifinal that will determine the final four drivers eligible to become the Monster Energy Cup Series’ champion.
The answer could put the former Phoenix International Raceway on the leading edge of a revolution in how to convince people to leave the comfort of their sofa and big-screen HD TV
pay to attend events in person.
The Avondale oval’s grand opening comes after a $178 million, two-year transformation that has turned it into a gem on the state’s sports landscape. Featuring the latest in spectator amenities, it’s perhaps the country’s second-nicest motorsports venue, behind only corporate cousin Daytona International Speedway.
It also comes near the end of a turbulent, and somewhat divisive, NASCAR season. There’s been debate on how to make the races more exciting, pressure on the newest generation of drivers to win and become marketable stars amidst further audience declines, and for tracks to modernize to improve the overall fan experience.
Stock car racing’s sanctioning body has also had to weather two major embarrassments:
--Reigning Cup championship team Furniture Row Racing is about to go out of business due to rising costs and loss of a major sponsor. (Driver Martin Truex Jr. is expected to join Joe Gibbs Racing for 2019.)
--The arrest of chairman and CEO Brian France on charges of DUI and possession of a controlled substance (reportedly a few oxycodone pills.) France, who pleaded not guilty, has been on a leave of absence since August.
There have even been reports that heirs of the founding France family might sell NASCAR, or at least a minority stake, creating further uncertainty.
So, the celebration of the Valley’s rejuvenated raceway couldn’t come at a better time.
“It will be a moment everyone in the sport can enjoy,” NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton said. “It’s them (track) saying, ‘We’re proud to be in this sport.’ It’s NASCAR saying, ‘We know there’s a lot of sports options in Phoenix. We’re part of your sports community.’ It’s all of us saying, ‘We mean business.’”
Comfort, access
Research done for International Speedway Corp., which owns and/or operates 13 facilities including ISM Raceway, indicates that ticket-buyers for almost any entertainment event want -- insist on -- contemporary comforts like stadium-style seats and other amenities. More engaged fans also seek increased access to the drivers and cars.
The raceway built on lessons learned during a $400 million “reimagining” of Daytona, ISC’s flagship, completed in 2016. Granted, the ISMR project for its 1-mile track was on a smaller scale compared to Daytona’s vast 2.5-mile complex.
There are two “vertical transportation” entrances to the grandstands, called “canyons,” with four new escalators and nine elevators. All 42,000 seats have individual chair backs and cup holders. Upper-level seats have armrests. There’s Wi-Fi -- the raceway says it’s the first in motorsports to have this throughout the facility -- and over 400 HD video displays.
A pedestrian tunnel allows easy access to the “INfield.” There, fans can literally step into the garage area to see the crews work on their cars, drivers walk a red carpet to their pre-race meeting, gather around Gatorade Victory Lane to watch the winner celebrate, sip a Modern Margarita at the tequila bar, relax in the Miller Lite Beer Garden, or cool off at the Portacool Chill Zone.
Fan experience
For years after the 2008 economic recession, which deeply cut into ticket sales and corporate sponsorships, all of NASCAR’s constituency groups seemed united in efforts to re-energize the sport. In 2018, though, there’s been public disagreement over what needs to be done.
Denny Hamlin, driver of Gibbs’ No. 11 FedEx Toyota, says the burden -- and cost -- of making race day memorable has fallen on the teams for too long.
“We’ve tinkered (with rules requiring expensive changes to the cars) to try to give the fan the best racing possible,” Hamlin recently told the Republic. “You’re not always going to have walk off moments. Sometimes a baseball game is 8-0. Sometimes it’s 1-0.
“The upgrading of the on-track product is less important than upgrading tracks that were built 20 or 30 years ago. (Phoenix opened in 1964.) Every NBA, NFL, MLB stadium is getting upgrades. We’re just now getting around to doing that.”
It’s this new, better, nicer, comfortable setting on which ISC is making a big bet: it will motivate people to watch races in person. ISC has commissioned less-extensive physical updates of some of its other tracks, too, spending more than $700 million to up the “experience.”
Those who want to enjoy the premium perks apparently are willing to pay. ISM Raceway’s 300 $1,399 three-day passes for the Dos Equis Curve suite above Turn 3 sold out months ago. So