Attendance drop at Brickyard 400 not a concern to most drivers

INDIANAPOLIS — Several grandstands sit only half-full. The concession lines run little, if any, wait.

Getting around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a race day has never been easier.

The IMS, the largest sporting facility in the world, opened in 1909. Since then, a variety of races have graced the track, including the Indianapolis 500. Since 1994, it has also invited NASCAR to a 400-mile race around the 2.5-mile oval track.

The Brickyard 400 has been very popular in its relatively short lifetime and boasted high attendance numbers and even sellouts — until now. 

Taking a gander at the crowds from the beginning of pit road to the end, a visitor might think it was a practice run, not race day.

With such a large venue — the IMS seats more than 250,000, not including the infield seating, moving the total to about 400,000 — a few empty seats might not seem like a big deal.

Several drivers seem to have the same mentality, including four-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon.

“I still see we have great crowds,” said Gordon, who drives the No. 24 DuPont car. “So when you look at the other sports and the numbers, we’ve always been this huge number, you know, averaging over 100,000 fans.

“So we get knocked down to averaging 95,000, and we’re still doing pretty darn good.”
Gordon added that while he isn’t sure what exactly is keeping fans away, as there are so many potential factors, he tries to not think about it.

Whether it is the economy, the sweltering heat that took over the Speedway for most of the weekend or the lackluster races that have plagued the Brickyard for the past two seasons, it all comes to the same point — fewer people are coming out to watch NASCAR.

Or maybe, some drivers suggested, fans are just bored with a similar scene playing out every weekend, even if they are at different venues.

“Well let’s face it, I think that in the last five to seven years, the reality-based TV shows of everything we see on TV — it started out with ‘Survivor’ — people want to see dramatized, real-life things play out,” said Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion car.  “We’re hungry for that. ‘The Bachelor.’ ‘The Bachelorette.’ All of this drama and these ‘What’s going to happen next?’ You want to make it exciting and interesting. It has to be, so that’s part of it, I think. People don’t want to see the same old thing.”

However, it seems that even the recent Nationwide Series — the NASCAR racing league under the Sprint Cup — drama between drivers Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski has not been enough to entice more people out to the Speedway.

If two drivers intentionally wrecking one another on the final stretch of a race was not enough drama for the viewers, maybe they would be better off sticking to reality television rather than racing.

The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite car, Kurt Busch, isn’t worried about the decline, and he believes the attendance moves in cycles.

“I think that the racetracks saw a big boom in the mid-80s and -90s and started to build grandstands and built the tracks up so big that it’s not at full capacity right now,” Busch said. “There are still grandstand packages that they’re putting together. ... Over 100,000 fans at most of our events is something that really can’t be done at any other sport.

“Whether it’s the economy, action on the track or the way that the cars look, there’s always things to look at and improve on because we want to be sold-out at every one of our events.”

And while any of the things Busch mentioned might be true, the drivers will still focus on the fans who do attend, rather than be upset about those who choose to stay away.

“I still see avid, incredible fans that are supporting us,” Gordon said. “So the numbers are down a bit. Are they ever going to be what they were? We’ll see. But I think the racing is about as good as it’s ever been.”