Speedway Motorsports vows to keep Dover on NASCAR slate

DOVER, Del. — Chase Elliott took note that Dover’s grandstands passed the eye test and looked fuller on Sunday before rain washed out the conclusion of the race.

A track that scaled down in size — and races — in recent years had full sections, hundreds of fans crowded the entertainment events chasing driver autographs, and the turnout for a country music concert seemed fitting for a popular act on the property’s yearly music festival.

At least one Delaware native loved the scene.

“This is like a festival atmosphere,” actor and pace car driver Ryan Phillippe said. “What’s going on outside with the concerts, and inside, it feels like way more than just a race for me.”

The advertising tarps that once covered empty sections at Dover Motor Speedway went the way of the rain on Monday: Totally gone.

“That was a great crowd we had yesterday,” Elliott said after he won the race on Monday. “Biggest crowd I have seen here personally since I’ve been racing, which I thought was really cool. Proud to see that.”

Dover’s attendance rebound following two years of pandemic restrictions — and shrinking turnout for more than a decade even before 2020 — was the boost the track needed in its first race under new management.

Long independently owned, Speedway Motorsports bought Dover Motorsports late last year and added the Monster Mile to its growing collection of tracks. And who doesn’t want to impress the new boss, especially when the boss — in this case, Speedway Motorsports President Marcus Smith — worked the Dover gates and greeted fans Monday with the track short-staffed.

Dover had already moved its fall race to a new location. Perhaps a poor showing this weekend would have made Speedway Motorsports strongly consider bumping Dover off the slate completely to a sexier new site. The old mile concrete track still has legs: Speedway Motorsports COO Mike Burch said the plan was to keep Dover on the NASCAR schedule just as its been since 1969.

“Nobody has ever looked at making changes to thriving events,” Burch said. “If the fans want us to continue to have races here, the racing is good, the support is here, yes, absolutely.”

Dover’s second race was transferred last season to Nashville Superspeedway. Speedway Motorsports property New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a track with anemic attendance, kept its summer date but had its September race weekend moved to Las Vegas in 2018. Pocono, which ran doubleheader weekends each of the last two years, lost a race this season to the Raceway at Gateway in the St. Louis region.

For those keeping score, that’s three lost dates in the Northeast corridor in a span of just four years. But the bleeding may stop.