Full Throttle

NASCAR ’s status as a major player for the sporting public’s hard earned cash is well established and has been for nearly a decade. From the days of three week old airings of select NASCAR events on ABC’s Wide World of Sports (who’s old enough to recall Chris Economaki and Glen “Fireball” Roberts?), to live primetime broadcasts on over the air and cable networks has taken thirty plus years.

As the sport has grown the France family has continued to find ways to place the NASCAR logo in the publics eye and compete with the “stick & ball” sports. As a result racing “under the lights” and the Championship Chase were born. One thing missing in the competition has been a national hall of fame. In recent months various groups have proposed locations for the new hall. Atlanta, Kansas City, Daytona Beach, Fla. and Charlotte N.C. have all placed their helmets in the ring.

Charlotte may be the most logical location considering most of the major NASCAR teams operate within the region. But as the Charlotte Business Journal reported Friday money is a problem and the racing “industry is unlikely to play a financial role in a project.”

“Cheerleading is our role, not (being) investors,” says Geoff Smith, president at Roush Racing Inc. “Charlotte makes all the sense in the world. We support the bid, but it’s not on the radar screen as far as day-to-day business.”

Doug Stafford, a former Charlotte Convention & Visitors Bureau executive who now is an executive vice president at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, says industry investment is more likely to come in the form of supporting exhibits, providing memorabilia and historical information, and encouraging corporate sponsors within racing to support the hall of fame.

Other than awarding the bid to the successful location NASCAR honchos have no plans to add any financing to the project. Even legand Richard Petty has been left in the dark. As chairman of industry trade group the N.C. Motorsports Association (NCMA) Petty is at a loss to explain how his organization will assist in any plans for the hall.

“I don’t know if that’s up to (the NCMA) or not, but we would definitely back something like that up,” Petty says. “The hall of fame would be a natural because that’s just a plus for the state and that’s what we’re doing all the rest of this stuff for — to see how much money comes through here.”

Humpy Wheeler, president of Speedway Motorsports Inc has expressed confidence that the local community will foot the bill. In addition Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory admits there has been no serious public discussion of a funding plan. It all sounds like a financial game of “spin the bottle” with everyone shifting position as the bottle slows near them. At the same time NASCAR sits and watches.

“We think there ought to be a single and legitimate hall of fame and that’s why we went with the (request for bids) to a number of cities around the country,” says Brian France, NASCAR chairman. “There’s a lot of interest and we’re just going to see where the best location ends up being.”

That translates into non-NASCAR speak as “who coughs up the most private and taxpayer cash.