ATTENDANCE MAY BE FUTURE ISSUE.Byline: TIM TIM Timothy TIM Technical Interchange Meeting TIM Transient Intermodulation Distortion TIM Time Is Money TIM The Invisible Man (movie) TIM Telecom Italia Mobile (Italian cellular provider) HADDOCK Motor Sports Two races into the NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. Nextel Cup The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series is NASCAR's top racing series. It was formerly known as the Strictly Stock Series (1949), Grand National Series (1950-1971), and the Winston Cup Series (1972-2003). Series season and there are a few surprises that jump out. For starters, the empty seats at California Speedway The California Speedway is a two-mile, low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California, similar to that of "sister track" Michigan International Speedway. It is located approximately 40 miles east of Los Angeles on the site of the former Kaiser Steel mill. on Sunday for the Auto Club 500. Track officials estimated the crowd at 85,000, far below capacity of 92,000 in the grandstands. Other estimates were as low as 60,000. It was probably somewhere in between, around 80,000. Neither NASCAR nor races tracks release attendance figures, but it doesn't seem to matter really when it comes to the California Speedway races. There was some talk that NASCAR could take away one of its two stops to California Speedway if attendance figures continue to lag. Track president Gillian Zucker scoffed at that idea. There probably won't be any serious talk of NASCAR moving races around again until the proposed tracks in Seattle and New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. are built. Zucker can relax until then. To Zucker's credit, it is a silly notion. The additional California Speedway race essentially replaced the NASCAR Cup Series stop at North Carolina Speedway North Carolina Speedway is a racetrack located in Rockingham, North Carolina. It is affectionately known as "The Rock" and hosted NASCAR events from 1965 to 2004, and has proposed hosting Automobile Racing Club of America series races starting in 2008. in Rockingham, N.C. Whether 60,000 or 85,000 people bought tickets for the California Speedway race, it is still far more than what North Carolina Speedway attracted at the end of its run. The estimated attendance for the last Cup race in 2004 at North Carolina Speedway was 50,000. But ask Roush Racing's Matt Kenseth Matthew Roy Kenseth (born March 10 1972) is a stock car racing driver for the Roush Fenway Racing team in NASCAR's Nextel Cup series. Kenseth was raised in Cambridge, Wisconsin. and he wouldn't mind making a visit to Rockingham instead of two to Fontana. ``I really loved Rockingham, so you're asking the wrong person about that,'' said Kenseth, who won Sunday's Auto Club 500. ``I love coming to California, but when we went to Rockingham it's just an awesome race track. You could really race there like we used to race - spinning the tires and short-track type racing. It was like a week off after being in Daytona for two weeks. I love this place, but I loved going there, too.'' If and when the Seattle and New York City markets have their NASCAR tracks built, then it will be time for Zucker to worry. NASCAR will want to add Cup dates, especially in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , and extending the season might cause a driver revolt. California Speedway could lose one of its dates to New York or Seattle if attendance continues to dwindle dwin·dle v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. . But that day could be well off in the future. Another surprise is that Jimmie Johnson This article is about NASCAR driver. For the football player, see Jimmie Johnson (American football). For people named Jimmy Johnson, see Jimmy Johnson (disambiguation). has put together a 1-2 start to the season and still has the points lead. After having his crew chief, Chad Knaus Chad Anthony Knaus (pronounced kuh-NOWSE) (born August 5, 1971 in Rockford, Illinois) is the NASCAR Nextel Cup crew chief for the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo currently driven by Jimmie Johnson, owned by Jeff Gordon and operated by Rick Hendrick's Hendrick Motorsports. , suspended for four races for cheating during qualifying for the Daytona 500, most expected the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team would get a points penalty as well. But it never materialized. Johnson went on to win the Daytona 500, finish second in the Auto Club 500 and is securely in first place in the Cup standings. It doesn't mean a whole lot to be in first this early in the season, but there are some who think having Johnson atop the Cup standings sends the wrong message to teams willing to push the rule limits. Johnson said after the Auto Club 500 that he is not dwelling on his predicament and has faith in his team, most importantly, its depth. ``That is what we did in Daytona and that is what we did this weekend and not that I am surprised, but it is just amazing that our team has been able to perform like it has and I am really proud of them,'' Johnson said. ``It is like: Wow! Here we were racing for the win at California with all the troubles we have had.'' As surprising it is to see Johnson first in points, it's even more surprising to see his nearest competitor. Casey Mears, of the famed Mears racing family, is finally living up to his racing pedigree. Mears, second in points, has put together two impressive races to start the season and is off to the best start of his NASCAR career. ``It's not going to be easy, but no one said it was going to be easy,'' said Mears, driver of the No. 42 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates is an automotive racing organization with teams competing in NASCAR, IRL, and Grand-Am racing. It is owned by businessmen Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates. The team is based in Concord, North Carolina, which is a suburb of Charlotte. . ``It's never easy. I think we've come a long way. I think I've come a long way as a driver. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I just know how much I've learned.'' It will be even more surprising to see Mears second in points when the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series comes back to Fontana for Labor Day. CAPTION(S): box Box: RACE WEEK BY TIM HADDOCK |
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