Morning Musings In The Midday Maybe: Dover “Downs”, Thompson Blues, TV Wonders And Mini Mayhem

Morning MusingsA little bit of this, a little bit of that. Who really knows what’s in here. It’s the Morning Musings In The Midday Maybe.

— Published reports from Sunday out of Dover (Del.) Speedway indicated that the track likely saw it’s lowest attendance in years for a Sprint Cup Series event.

There’s not a bad seat in the house at Dover, but what anyone watching Sunday’s Fox broadcast could see was that few of those seats actually had bodies sitting in them,

The scary part is that Dover is still a place where fans can see some great racing action from start to finish.

The continued attendance issues over the weekend go far in proving what many people have been saying for years. It’s not so much that the product is failing, but it’s the periphery that has caused much of the damage.

Hotel rates around Dover for Sprint Cup weekends still range from the ridiculous to the absolutely absurd. The fact is, the Sprint Cup boom phenomena of the 90’s and early 2000’s was built partly on the fact that Sprint Cup events weren’t just an event, like a football game, but rather a weekend excursion.

It’s part of what made everything surrounding the Sprint Cup Series that much bigger, and is now part of the problem. A lot of people out there still believe to get the true feel of Sprint Cup Series event one must make a weekend (or more) out of it, but unfortunately, a lot of those same people can’t afford doing that.

The secondary greed of those who got fat off the backs of the sport rolling into their community is the same greed that’s now helping to kill the sport.

— Thompson Speedway has been a lightning rod of late for complaints from competitors.

The murmurs of disappointment from some competitors reached a loud crescendo a few weeks ago when the track made the decision to drop the SK Light Modified division, cancelling the two remaining events the division had on the schedule for 2014.

Numerous drivers have also publicly complained about how the new layout at the facility, with addition of the new road course, has made for headaches for oval track racing. With a new garage and a section of the reborn road course taking up much of the room of the old main paddock area, teams have been forced each week to park in a paddock area beyond turn two at the facility, which before this season had primarily only been used for events when car counts reached far larger than usual numbers.

A chorus of upset competitors have been singing of late how of how the new road course has made them feel like second class citizens at the facility.

And they have every right to be upset if they feel they’ve become the secondary focus at Thompson behind the new road course.

But the fact is, you can’t fault the Hoenig family for trying to make sure motorsports remains part of their family business, and taking the steps they feel necessary to ensure the continuation of racing in Thompson.

Nobody is getting rich running short tracks in Connecticut. Unfortunately, too often in short track racing, there’s a feeling of entitlement when it comes to participants. It’s this sentiment that short tracks shouldn’t be making money, for the good of the sport.

Whether or not one agrees with the direction they’ve chosen to take their business model, everybody has a choice to compete there or not. Nobody is forced to do it.

— We get that it’s the job of the TV personalities to at times manufacture drama, but the soap opera that was Jimmie Johnson in the Sprint Cup Series during Fox broadcasts this season got a little old this year.

Fox broadcaster Darrell Waltrip made the “drama” of Jimmie Johnson supposed likely chance of not qualifying for the Chase for the Championship weekly news until Johnson won the last two events.

Even after Johnson’s second consecutive victory Sunday, the magnificent hyperbole only continued.

“How would you like to be the competition?” Waltrip said after the race. “They thought they had him down.”

No, they all knew, one way or another, he was going to be in the Chase.

Portraying the idea that anybody in the Sprint Cup Series garage thought Johnson wouldn’t be in the Chase for the Championship is like saying Kanye West really isn’t all that full of himself.

— Temperature hovered in the mid-40’s when the checkered flag finally flew on the Northeast Mini Stock Tour feature Saturday at the Waterford Speedbowl, but the temperatures were rising in the pits after the event.

There was a lot of he said, she said going. Brandon Paul from Speed51.com has an interesting look at what the two sides were saying after all the mayhem went down.

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