SOUTH SUFFERS FROM PUSH WEST.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

For all the NASCAR fans in Los Angeles, the good news is there will be two Nextel Cup events at California Speedway next year.

The NASCAR brass announced its 2005 schedule last week, featuring a much-anticipated second date for Texas Motor Speedway and a surprise addition for Phoenix International Raceway.

The move out West began last year when NASCAR added a race to California Speedway in Fontana at the expense of one of two North Carolina Speedway races.

Apparently The Rock, as it's known in NASCAR circles for being located in Rockingham, N.C., is being left for dead altogether, losing its only race one year after it lost its second one..

And Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, the first super speedway built for NASCAR racing, is on the chopping block. It already lost its Labor Day race, once known as the Southern 500, to California Speedway. There is still a Southern 500, a race with as much tradition as the Daytona 500 and perhaps as much as the Indianapolis 500, but without it being run on a Sunday afternoon in South Carolina over Labor Day weekend, it's never going to be the same.

Having the Labor Day race run on a Sunday night in Southern California has tremendous appeal, but seeing traditions cast aside for the allure of big money is unsettling.

And big money is what all this realignment, as NASCAR officials are calling it, is about.

The additional Texas race settles a lawsuit the owners of Texas Motor Speedway brought against NASCAR. Texas Motor Speedway ownership said it was promised a second race date, but NASCAR contended no such deal was ever made.

However, attendance figures, television ratings and presumably sponsor and corporate pressure led NASCAR to add a second date to Texas Motor Speedway.

The additional race in Phoenix only lends to the argument that corporate and fan pressure are pushing NASCAR out of its Southeast hole and into the Southwest.

``Well, obviously, it's under-served from our view,'' said Brian France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO, in a teleconference last week.

``The population base in Los Angeles, second-largest market. Phoenix is the 16th- to 17th-largest market in the country. It's proven, as we proved last weekend, two weekends ago, that the interest level - Texas has a huge interest level in NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racing. They've proved it for a number of years.

``I don't think it's any secret that the demand is there, the population is there, the race fans are there. We're going to take our events there.''

So as it stands, there are five Nextel Cup races scheduled for the Southwest in 2005. That's just counting the races at Fontana, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Add the two Texas races and it's seven.

There are 16 races scheduled in the Southern states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

Although there is a definite move West, it doesn't look like NASCAR is abandoning its Southern roots.

``The realignment is going to continue,'' France said.

``Listen, the Southeast is an important - it's historically where we started. We're never going to forget that. ... I mean, goodness gracious, we are not going to forget the Southeast, and no one should mistake that.''

The NASCAR brain trust made one move that was neither motivated by monetary nor corporate pressure but by sheer common sense.

The first California Speedway race will be Feb. 27, a week after the season-opening Daytona 500. It starts a series of races that will run in warm-weather states like Arizona, Texas, Nevada and Georgia.

Unlike in previous years, when the second race of the season was at The Rock, and sometimes with a blinding blizzard to greet the drivers, NASCAR will come West for a two-week stint in L.A. and Vegas before heading back to Georgia and Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Great idea, scheduling races in February and early March in places where it's not likely to snow.

The first track with a potential snow flurry that the Nextel Cup Series will visit is Dover (Del.) International Raceway. And that's in June.

Now if there's only a way to get the California Speedway race to be scheduled as one of the last 10.

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