I'm sitting in a suite near the finish line at Daytona today....

[trumad]

I did some business with one of the companies sponsoring the race and they invited me into their suite. I sat in it the other night for the Truck race and I gotta say, it was suite...uh sweet.

It's neat because you got the indoor part where the food and booze is, and several rows of seats on the outside above the finish line. You're high enough to see the whole track and low enough to feel the power of the cars.

I admit, I'm not a huge fan of NASCAR---- but I certainly get why fans are. Those cars buzzing by at 200 mph are mighty damn impressive. They say today should be wreck day with the track hot and the tires loosey goossey.....not that I want to see wrecks. ;-)


BTW: Did you know that it's the biggest sporting event in the world at about 200 thousand plus, just behind the Indy race at 270,000.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Do you get a pit pass as well?

I'm not a huge fan of NASCAR either, but I'd like to see a race and go behind the scenes as well.

[trumad]

8. I had a pit and garage pass alll week long.

very cool.

[GOPisEvil]

10. Damn, that is suite!

;)

[BOSSHOG]

2. I must say

I'm jealous. We've been to a lot of races, always had good seats but never in a "Sweet!" Make sure to cheer for Number 43, Bobby Labonte, most likely the only gentleman on the track today.

[MaineDem]

3. Neat, isn't it?

I've seen races from the press box, pit lane, timing and scoring, race control, grandstand, infield, and suites. By far, the suites are the most comfortable.

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. How do people up there like the idea of Humpy Wheeler owning New Hampshire?

I wish Bob Bahre had kept the place, but I guess Humpy gave him a boat load of money. Bob Bahre was always one of the favorite track owners by the NASCAR teams.

[MaineDem]

6. People fear losing one of the Cup dates

And the road racing people fear losing their dates as well.

Local folks liked the idea of a local owning the track. I don't think people are thrilled that someone from away has taken over.

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. The "Suite Life"! Pretty cool, huh?

BTW, the Indy 500 has had over 500,000 in attendance on race day in years past, but it doesn't get those numbers anymore. It does, however do much more than 270,000. There are over 300,000 seats at Indy, plus the infield spectators.

I was up at Daytona last Thursday. Certainly a big event this weekend.

[trumad]

7. I checked attnedance figures for last years Indy race and it said 270..

but hey--- if you say 300...ok by me.

It took hours to get out of there last night but it was fun.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. You're right. I stand corrected...BUT...

The Speedway has never released official attendance figures and has never stated publicly how many seats there actually are. This article from USA Today dated May of 2004 says

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana National Bank asked Tony Hulman to share Indianapolis 500 attendance figures when he borrowed an estimated $700,000 to purchase Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1945.

The bank never got the figures. Hulman paid off the loan.

Although Hulman died in 1977, his secret has lived on. No one connected with the Speedway has confirmed the size of any race-day crowd, and the limited number of people who know show no indication of breaking Hulman's unwritten rule.

Last fall, The Star decided to solve the mystery.

A six-month inspection of each grandstand resulted in a count of 257,325 permanent seats, which includes the five types of suites scattered around the Speedway. It is believed to be the only formal count of the seats in the facility's modern era.

Wikipedia says

It has existed since 1909, and is the original "Speedway," the first racing facility historically to incorporate the word. With a permanent seating capacity for more than 257,000 people <1> and infield seating that raises capacity to an approximate 400,000, it is the largest and highest-capacity sporting facility in history <2> (by comparison, the world's largest stadium seats 150,000 spectators).

In the 6 years I attended the race as a participant,(1990 thru 1995) there was much talk about how many seats there were and how many attended on Pole Day and on Race Day. It was said the the single largest gate take of any sporting event in the world was the 500. The second largest was Pole Day. Admittedly, since the CART/IRL split, this is no longer the case. Empty seats on Race Day have been quite obvious on TV broadcasts in recent years and Pole Day does not attract nearly the crowds it did in the 90's.

Two of the heaviest attended races when I was there were 1992 & 1993. I remember standing in Pit Lane and looking to my left toward turn 1 and the right down the 5/8 mile front stretch to turn 4 and seeing the stands full. On Pole Day. Plus another 100,000 or so in the infield.

The 300,000 figure I gave was from memory, and that was, if I'm not mistaken from another informal survey ordered by Roger Penske. That survey came up with a seating capacity of over 300,000 and with infield standees and the cars allowed inside, estimates for Race Day have been as high as 510,000.

So...my apologies for asserting you were wrong. You weren't, but nobody really knows. And that's the way the Speedway likes it.

[terryg11]

11. Might be the most popular sport in the US

I'm not a huge fan of it but when you look at NASCAR from a professional aspect it's run near perfectly. The drivers and owners completely understand where their money comes from (the fans) and are very accessible. These men and women are pretty sharp too. Business savvy. YOu put a NASCAR label on a product and it sells.

I hardly ever watch it, but know tons of fans and it's great to watch a race (or part of one anyway) with them, the excitement is contagious. Very entertaining when you get a Gordon fan and hater in the same room during a race.