Auto racing, as a sport is transparent in New York City. I used to live about an hour outside of the Big Apple. A train ride to Grand Central Station and a stair walk up, bring one to many taxicabs eager to drive to a destination. My brother has lived in Manhattan for the betterment of twenty-five years. I visited him semi-regularly and came to know some of his circle of friends. This summer I made a return visit to the city that doesn’t sleep after a many year absence. Residing for the last eight years in North Carolina did not make that train ride as convenient.
The evening my brother and our wives spent together reminded me of how far apart our worlds are. NASCAR is just an everyday part of my life. Motorsports in general always has been. From the viewpoint of the everyday New York City resident I might as well bring up the candlewick selection process of the fifteenth century.
I don’t mean New Yorkers don’t follow racing. They might as well have never heard of it. There is somewhat of an attitude that if it doesn’t happen there, it doesn’t exist. Observing the local sports media indicates what interest they have in motorsports. None at all.
If I can paraphrase a few conversations between myself and several of my brother’s friends:
“Have you ever heard of Jeff Gordon?”
“No”
“Dale Earnhardt?”
“Nope”
“Richard Petty? A.J. Foyt?”
“No, who are they?”
I am serious about the flavor of the dialogue. They are not people who just don’t follow NASCAR or any kind of motorized activity. They are people who are oblivious to the existence of what we all take for granted and absorb everyday. They have no idea what NASCAR even is. But ask them about the Mets’ bullpen and be prepared for in-depth analysis.
A typical New York media visit from a racecar driver from any league is usually greeted with softball questions at best.
“Do you wear a seatbelt on the road? How fast do you drive on the highway? How do you handle traffic? What kind of car do you drive in real life? How fast do you go in your racecar? What happens when you have to go to the bathroom?”
And there is often the classic talk show host versus racecar driver in a remote control car contest. Set the Tivo. Can’t wait.
Jeff Gordon made an appearance on Regis and Kelly’s talk show back in June. He was promoting his foundation’s support of finding bone marrow donors for those in need. A fantastic cause and he should be commended for his charitable work. The early part of his interview, however, was filled with questions written by people who didn’t want to achieve too much depth in the auto racing knowledge department.
“This is the time of year when all the racing takes place, right? Are you in training? Do you work out? How much weight do you lose in a race? How long are you in that car each race?”
The basic items have been covered for years. I cannot picture a Derek Jeter interview leading off with “Now three strikes and you are out, right?”
Gordon’s back problems were brought up and the subject of medical injections naturally came into the conversation. A perfect lead in to a Jeremy Mayfield comment, whose story was less than a month old at the time. No Mayfield related question was asked.
At the time some hot topics around the garage were: Kyle Busch’s Nashville guitar smash, the double file restarts that were used two days prior for the first time in Cup, Carl Long’s penalty, and teammate Dale JR’s crew chief change.
No hard news was approached. Times like this are perfect to let a New York audience into the inner working of NASCAR and see what makes it tick day to day. Many are still under the impression the sport is a bunch of moonshiners running jalopies around in circles. And those are not my words. In 2009 I have been told that by people who just do not understand nor want to understand.
I have a hard time finding anyone in New York City who knows or cares about auto racing in any way shape or form. I’m sure they exist, but my luck finding them doesn’t.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting article Patrick. For me- it begs this question: Whats does this portend for NASCAR’s desire to grow outside its original boundaries. Now ya’ll now I’m not old school- though I revere the sport’s history and believe the pioneers and the roots should never be forgotten. But I also understand the need to grow to survive.
That said- is NASCAR pushing a rope by trying to make it happen in New York and LA. When I read Ed Hinton’s piece about the second and third generation powers in motorsports and their designs- it makes me wonder.
I live in Manhattan am in a Nascar fan. Can’t speak about it in New York.
People either laugh or don’t know what I am talking about. When I try to explain they asked if I married my cousin. Then they ask if those are the people who drive in circles.
Just not interested.
Jim, New York is largest media center in the world and it would be a good thing for the sport to have a presence. I understand NASCAR’s plan to have a speedway in the NYC area. If it were to ever happen, it would be a home run and open up a lot of sponsorship doors and budgets. I see this project more important than sending Nationwide teams into Canada and Mexico. There is a lot more promotional work to do here in the U.S. Auto racing is not acknowleged is many places.
Bonnie, thanks for reading. I have experienced exactly what you write about. I feel I have to defend the sport as others look down their noses at us. Too bad, they are missing out…
Patrick, I disagree that a track in NYC would be a home run, especially if some fool decides it needs to be another mile and a half D shaped oval. How original — how many tracks are there already like that? The idea for the one on Staten Island was idiotic — the traffic issues around tracks that have the infrastructure for the number of fans coming in is a nightmare. Getting people into and out of a track in NYC would be ridiculous. They talked about using public transportation — ha! I’ve been to Daytona and waited over an hour to catch the shuttle bus back to the parking lot after the race ended and that was a logistical nightmare. So I don’t see that working. Plus, your article shows how little interest there seems to be in racing in general — why does anyone think in a time when we are in an economic downturn AND fans have stopped watching races on TV through sheer frustration or boredom with the POS car and racertainment being the order of the day rather than actual competition, another track in a market that isn’t interested is the answer?
Baseball is king in New York and nothing else comes close. Long Island does have more support of motorsports, I am from there. There is a short track in Riverhead and there used to be several other. Islip hosted several NASCAR races. But the people like me who are the NASCAR type people are moving away, a lot to NC. Racing attracts a certain type of fan and a lot of those people are seeking a way of life that once was present outside NYC. I moved to NC now all the races are going away from down here, go figure. I do some local short tracks especially Bowman Gray in Winston-Salem. To me a track in New York doesn’t make scene especially if it mean taking another race away from the Southeast. People will come down here to see the brand of racing that made NASCAR famous. I would not go up there to see another cookie cutter race.
New York is theaters, museums, and galleries. It speaks to the cerebral -or pretends to anyhow. Racing is none of that and never will the twain meet. It would take 50 years of mind manipulation by the propagandists-er-I mean sponsors- to make it work, if it ever did. Or maybe it’s just time to admit that NASCAR racing has reached it’s zenith and the current generation has found other things to do.
Gina, I mean home run in the sense of sponsor value. All companies look for the most bang for the buck and a NYC presense would certainly raise the eyebrows of the marketing and advertising people already involved and the sport. The potential ones would take a second look too. That would be good for NASCAR.
I agree Staten Island was a bad idea right from the start. Traffic and transportation on an average day is a challenge at best. Never mind trying to hold a Cup weekend. I lived in the north at the time and everybody I knew rolled their eyes at that location. The logistics of any project would have to work out just right. And so far it hasn’t. Not sure if it ever will
The plan was for a track similar to Richmond. Not the cookie cutter D shaped ovals, which we have plenty of.
Now how successful would it be…. take into account the fan’s lack of enthusiasm for the COT, dropping attendance, and the recession… your guess is as good as mine. I think it would be good to take our show to NYC and show them what a good stock car race is all about. It could help restart the sport’s growth. I would love to make this article a moot point.
But I could be wrong too. I’m just guessing. Thanks for reading.
Hi Patrick, When the NASCAR guys are in NYC for the banquet, the streets are lined with thousands of people. So I don’t think EVERYONE in the City is missing the boat. I’d love to see a track built close to the CT border.
I’m hoping a reader who contacted me directly will copy his comments here. He makes an interesting point. His contention is that we must remember to make a distinction b/t New York City and New York state. That while NYC folks love their baseball and hoops, there is good racing elsewhere in the state. It reminded me that New York has given us the Bodines and if memory serves correct, Randy Lajoie among others.
Jim, Randy is from Norwalk CT. There are alot of great Modified drivers that have come out of NY.
This is a very interesting article, and I would agree that there needs to be a distinction between New York City and the state as a whole. Steve Park is another driver from New York. Martin Truex is from neighboring New Jersey but I know that is a whole different thing completely. I have several friends who are originally from New Jersey, and they talk about it like it is two different worlds. Having visited New York City and upstate New York I can tell you that is also two different worlds. I don’t see that building any new tracks anywhere is going to be happening anytime soon. Unless the economy gets much better it just can’t happen. On a side note when I bought my 2003 Jeff Gordon edition Monte Carlo used, I received a New York title. So someone in New York likes Nascar, just maybe not in the City.
There is a cup race held in NY at Watkins Glen. Attendance is usually pretty good and some of them actually come up from the city to see it. I live in Pennsylvania and have been a Nascar fan since Junior Johnson was driving a Chevy. I know people from NY ( ok, Long Island ) who follow Nascar and know a thing or two about it and actually go to races. The City has 8 million people so the chances of running into a Nascar fan are not good but they are there. I might add that The NY Times does a good job of covering Nascar though the other NY papers ( Post & Daily News ) pretty much ignore it.
Why do you think Jef Gordon and Jimmie Johnson live in New York?
No one knows who they are, and leave them alone for the most part
I have been to many a track in New York state. Dirt and asphalt and have seen many, many modified races in the state and there are many very loyal and dedicated race fans.
Title of the article: NASCAR is Invisible In New York City. Article’s first sentence: Auto racing, as a sport is transparent in New York City. I felt that was clear.
I did not clarify “City” every time the words “New York” were used throughout.
The fact that people dont know it exists is actually a good thing, because that means they may still be open to the idea of stock car racing is it is brought up. People seemed to love the Times Square pit stop that Brian Vickers did in NYC. NASCAR can go there it would just be about the marketing, someone like Bruton Smith would be the best choice for opening a track in the NYC area. ISC has done a terrible job marketing in major areas like Chicago and California, while Bruton has made the LVMS very popular in that area.
hello. There wont be no new tracks for some time.
Cant get people to go to the ones they got[empty sets mean lost revenue].And there not stupped just greety.
hope thing get better I luv nascar racing.
Years ago when I used to go to WOO night races at Santa Fe Speedway outside of Chicago, I always encountered heavy traffic leaving the track–UNTIL–I turned onto the road going back to Chicago. Then I was alone in the dark. Almost all the track traffic was heading west away from Chicago. This should have told the smarties who build race tracks something about the demographics of racing attendance.
This is no surprise. While every other sport has an arena IN the city and the fanbase grows outward, NASCAR and other racing venues exist in more rural areas and the fanbase spreads out from there, many times running into what feels like a brick wall around the core of the city.
Southern cities like Charlotte and Daytona are different because they are traditional homes where racing started and grew while stick and ball sports were also growing… NOW, they’re all mature and people only have so much time to devote to what they already know.
LA? Same Story… There’s a reason why the track is in Fontana and more a part of the San Bernardino market than the LA Market, and I’d bet that the vast majority of the attendees (when the track is less than sold out) come from somewhere OTHER than within the LA City Limits.
The sooner NASCAR realizes that they are NOT a stick-and-ball sport and get back to building the sport for what it is, then maybe, just maybe, they’ll find a way to re-engage the core while also finding ways to make it exciting enough for Generation X to care about it a little bit too.
I live close to New York City, on Long Island, and I absolutely love NASCAR. A lot of people don’t understand my love for the sport and I constantly have to defend myself. However, there are a number of NASCAR fans here in New York. The problem is, they’re just afraid to show it because of the sterotypical way New Yorkers seem to view NASCAR. I completely agree with you in that New York City needs NASCAR’s prescence. I also think it was a poor decision on NASCAR’s part to move the Banquet from New York City to Las Vegas. I think it would be close to impossible for NASCAR to have a racetrack in New York City. But I do believe NASCAR should continue to hold the Banquet in New York City, as well as certain media events. New York City needs NASCAR.
I’m actually looking into getting Nascar fans out to my venues to watch some races. I think there is a fan base out there in Manhattan but they haven’t tried to meet up. If anyone is looking to help start up a following at a great sports bar, contact me at jason@yourpartyplanning.com.
Also check out villagepourhouse.com for pics.