NASCAR in Minnesota

By Richard Tix

NASCAR fans come from all over the states to every track in America to watch the sport they love. I have mentioned it a few times in different articles that once per year I can get the time off and the money saved to make it to an actual Sprint Cup race. I have been going to Michigan International Speedway every year since I first went in 2006. Every year when August roles around I get excited to finally put down the TV remote on Sunday and pick up my headset, scanner, and seat cushion.

I still remember the first time I got to MIS. Since that moment I had only went to our home town track on Saturday nights. A small 3/8 mile asphalt track in the small town of Elko, MN, just 30-45 minutes south of the Twin Cities. The track holds races for Super Late Models, Big 8 Sportsman, Power Stocks, Legends, and more division's every Saturday night. I can remember countless times getting into my brothers Dodge Ram and heading out to the track for the night. Parking in a dusty dirt field which was always packed to the hills (a few times we made our own parking spot's right up the side of the hills). At the time we would sit on old wooden stands that were weathered with years and years of people in attendance (now they have shinny new stands, bright red, that you don't have to worry about getting splinters in your you know what).

I absolutely love going to small home town tracks. When it comes to pure racing action there is nothing better to see. I still go out to Elko Speedway as much as I can and you can bet you butt when I have a kid I will be taking him to the races there and making memories he wont forget. But, nothing beats the first time you step up to a NASCAR track and a Sprint Cup car whips by. The ground shaking, the wind flying, and the sweet rumble of the engine, nothing beats it. You get hooked as that first car goes by, you will be coming back for years and years to smell the burning rubber after the winner does his victory burnouts.

The thing is for NASCAR fans in Minnesota, its hard to keep going back. NASCAR is not as cheap as it used to be and it never will be. When NASCAR started it was in the hotbed of stock car racing. The tracks were not spread out like they are today and were easier to get to. As the sport grew expansion naturally happened. Still, Minnesota has been left out. It seems the line gets drawn right by the boarder of Minnesota, goes to the edge of western Iowa, and then straight down until you get to Texas. The natural progression of NASCAR's expansion from the East Coast seems to have ended on that line and then skipped to the West Coast.

Now, I get it. A lot of states in the great Midwest just do not have the markets that NASCAR thinks will support a track, and to be honest, NASCAR already needs to trim down it's schedule (but I would push the idea to take some double stop tracks down to one stop).

Can the Minnesota market support a NASCAR race? This season I went to Iowa Speedway for the first time to watch the Nationwide race and was very impressed. Rusty Wallace has created a great track that seems like it could hold a NASCAR event (after adding some seats and a few amenities). A good number of fans attended which made me feel better about my idea that NASCAR needs to bring Cup to the North Midwest. If fans came out for a stand alone Nationwide race with no Cup drivers how many would come for a Cup race? The Iowa race just got me thinking more about a track in MN.

In the last 10 years talk has heated up in MN about a NASCAR track being built. A handful of proposals have been brought to the table and they have continually gained some support but eventually knocked down. Yet, MN based companies continually enter the sport (Just Wednesday 7/30 Thrivent Financial inked a deal with Leavine Family Racing: Thrivent Financial jumps into Nascar sponsorship, strikes five-race sponsorship deal with Leavine Family Racing). Not only do they enter the sport but some have been huge investors into it. 3M, Fastenal, Target, Cargill, General Mills, and Great Clips have all played a role in NASCAR the past 10 years and are all Minnesota companies. With those kinds of companies backing different teams in NASCAR why wouldn't MN and NASCAR see the possibility of a track and at least a Nationwide (hopefully Cup as well) stop in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes?"

In 2013 Nielsen "ranked the metro area the 11th-biggest television market in the country for Sprint Cup races. And viewership is on the rise, with ratings up 6 percent over 2012, when the Twin Cities TV market ranked 17th nationally for Sprint Cup viewership (Pioneer Press: Minnesotans would love to host a NASCAR race, but it's a tough sell). Now as we have learned, TV viewership does not always correlate to attendance but that is a whole sport issue though (Fixing NASCAR's Biggest Problems).

The biggest hurdle to leap for a track in Minnesota (or even a Cup date in Iowa) is getting on the schedule. Minnesota doesn't want to build a track for NASCAR if they have no way of getting on the schedule and getting on the schedule has been tough. NASCAR hasn't made a lot of big changes in recent years and barely any tracks have been added. But, talk has really started to heat up about schedule changes. Drivers have started to chime in and give there best ideas (some include a stop at Iowa).

With rumors and idea's like this starting to swirl the time to act for a track in Minnesota is now. If big changes come to the schedule in the next 5 years and Minnesota isn't ready, it will never happen. I do believe that MN could hold a Truck or Nationwide Race with its market (and possibly even a Cup stop which is always the goal). Sometime people forget how big the market really is in MN. St. Paul and Minneapolis make up part of the Twin Cities that in total makes up the 15th largest metropolitan area in the US (about 3,423,000 people). Not everyone is a NASCAR fan but with a large population and the Nielsen TV ratings showing people are interested it is worth the push in MN to get a track.

What I would like to see happen is get a track developed that could hold a Truck or Nationwide event with the ability to expand to a Cup track (sort of like Iowa Speedway has done). Another short track would be a great addition to the NASCAR Series and would be my personal preference. Something one mile and under to add some old school exciting racing again (part of my solution to NASCAR's problems). This also leaves the door open for other tiers of NASCAR to keep coming to MN. ARCA already makes stops at Elko Speedway and could continue that with a stop at a new Speedway. I think Minnesota has the market to eat up a NASCAR date, but the first step is to be visionary and see it happening. Hopefully one day I can not only continue my tradition of going to Michigan International Speedway every year but also take my kid (future kid that is) to a NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Minnesota.