Saturday, February 13, 1999
Local fans caught up in NASCAR's gust
Many heading to Daytona 500
BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The tidal wave known as NASCAR Winston Cup racing has swept up millions of new fans in the 1990s. And Greater Cincinnati is very much along for the ride.
The 1999 NASCAR season begins Sunday with the Daytona 500, the crown jewel of the nation's premier stock car series. The sellout house of 185,000 will more than triple an average Bengals crowd, with tens of millions watching on national TV (CBS, 12:15 p.m. Sunday).
Jerry Carroll, who is building the $152 million Kentucky Speedway about 35 miles southwest of Cincinnati, will be among Greater Cincinnatians attending Sunday's race. Mr. Carroll, 54, recently sold his Turfway Park horse track to devote full time to his auto racing venture. He is meeting with NASCAR officials this weekend to discuss future races and other ventures.
“It's the hottest thing going,” Mr. Carroll said of NASCAR. “I'll give you some examples. We drew nearly 12,000 to our (speedway) groundbreaking in July with no advertising. In September, we had Silver Charm, maybe the best horse in the world, running the Kentucky Cup at Turfway.
We advertised pretty heavily on that, and drew 9,000.
“Another example. The hockey team (Cincinnati Cyclones) draws what, about 5,000 fans per game? They bring (NASCAR driver) Ricky Rudd and his Tide car one night, and they sell out with 16,000. Just to see a car and a driver.”
Outsiders, the diehard fans of the so-called “stick and ball” traditional sports of baseball, football, basketball and hockey, still don't get it. But NASCAR presents a barrage of statistics that support its claim of being America's fastest-growing sport:
• NASCAR television ratings (regular season) are now second only to the National Football League. In 1997, the most recent full-season numbers that NASCAR has announced, it said the NFL drew an average 12.2 share and NASCAR was second at 5.8. The NBA had 4.9, baseball 2.7, hockey 1.9.
• Since 1989, attendance at NASCAR Winston Cup races has more than doubled, from 3.1 million in '89 to 6.3 million in 1998. It was the 17th straight year that attendance has risen.
• Retail sales are up 1,000 percent since 1990, with licensed merchandise exceeding $800 million in 1998.
• Research shows 62 percent of NASCAR fans are male and 38 percent female. The female percentage has risen 5 points since 1993.
In Cincinnati, TV ratings vary. Nielsen research showed that the 1998 Daytona 500 pulled an 8.2 share in Cincinnati and an 8.6 nationally. Then there was the Pepsi 400 in October, which drew a 4.7 nationally but a staggering 8.6 in Cincinnati.
Jean Lawrence, a 52-year-old Eastgate-area woman whom The Cincinnati Enquirer featured in a 1997 story about NASCAR fans, is a typical '90s newcomer. She watched one race on TV, was hooked and selected a favorite driver in Kyle Petty. NASCAR fans are known for fierce loyalty to their driver and/or manufacturer (Ford, Chevrolet or Pontiac).
Mrs. Lawrence, a waitress, devotes a good deal of her income to race tickets. She travels to about five NASCAR races per year with her husband, Jim.
“More and more people talk about NASCAR to me all the time,” Mrs. Lawrence said. “It's a lot bigger than it used to be.”
Mrs. Lawrence was one of those nearly 12,000 people who attended Mr. Carroll's groundbreaking on a steamy, 85-degree day last summer. Nearly all were wearing NASCAR T-shirts and toting collectibles for visiting drivers to sign.
“To me, it's the most exciting sport going,” said Bill Dennison of WLW-AM (700) radio.
Mr. Dennison hosts the Shur-Good Racing Report on WLW from 8-9 p.m. every Sunday. The show originally aired on all-sports 1360-AM (WCKY) but was moved to the more powerful 700 signal because of its popularity.
“The fan interest is amazing,” Mr. Dennison said.
Mr. Dennison said he has been a fan since the 1970s. He was there before the '90s boom, when NASCAR hit the jackpot via savvy marketing and widespread cable TV exposure — not to mention growing dissatisfaction with the Big Four team sports.
“We don't have drug problems. We don't have strikes,” NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace once said. “I think people can identify with us.”
NASCAR drivers have long been known for accessibility to the fans, signing free autographs at auto shows nationally. Access at race tracks has become more limited in recent years, but that has not stemmed the unbridled adulation of the average fan.
Tony Brosch, a mechanic who lives in Deer Park, has seen it from both ends. The 48-year-old Mr. Brosch works as a sometimes crewman for driver Randy McDonald, who occasionally races on the Winston Cup circuit.
“We were trying to qualify at Martinsville last year, and all of a sudden, I find myself next to Ray Evernham,” Mr. Brosch said, referring to NASCAR star Jeff Gordon's crew chief. “Now, he didn't have to talk to me, but he was the most regular guy in the world. You remember things like that.”
Winston Cup champion Mr. Gor don said here Friday that the sport's popularity has zoomed exponentially since he was a rookie five years ago.
“No matter where you go, everybody knows us,” Mr. Gordon said. (His wife) “Brooke and I sometimes go out to L.A., and nobody knew us in the hotels or anywhere,” he said. “Now, people recognize you wherever you go.
“The core fan is still in the Southeast, but we're much broader than that now.”
The colorful cars and fender-banging action have caught the attention of casual fans.
“At first glance, it looks like cars just going around in a circle,” Mr. Brosch said. “But there are so many things intertwined in a race. The drivers are real athletes, and they need to be in great shape to endure those long races. People don't realize that.
“But I know that when my son goes to school now, kids don't want to talk Reds and Bengals. They talk NASCAR now.”
That is all they talk about in Daytona in February. The hard-packed sand beaches are an afterthought when the “Cup” boys are in town.
The Daytona 500 has been called the Super Bowl of NASCAR, the only difference being that it comes at the beginning instead of the end of the season. And that is because of tradition — Daytona always has come early in the annual schedule, and since 1982 has always been the first race.
Fans start arriving a full month ahead of the race to camp out, hang out and soak up the Daytona aura.
The 180-acre Daytona facility is complete with its own lake inside the 2.5-mile oval. Fans stand atop thousands of Winnebagos, school buses and pickups in the infield, all parked nose-to-nose for weeks. It is a makeshift city in itself, lit by campfires and lanterns at night.
The luckiest fans have grabbed parking places near the turns, where they can feel the cars' power as they roar by at nearly 200 mph. The close competition, high-banked racing, drafting and high speeds have lured spectators to the race for 40 years.
“There's nothing like seeing them racing three or four wide into that 31-degree banking at Daytona,” said Mr. Dennison. He has been to Indy and several other races, but never Daytona. He yearns to go.
“That,” he said, “would be like heaven.”
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