During the toughest economic times in recent memory, Americans' discretionary spending has fallen to all-time lows.

Sports fans in particular are quick to hold on to their wallets and hope for better times ahead when they can see their favorite sport in person again.

For NASCAR the tough times have challenged track promoters to come up with ways to get fans to the speedways. From reduced ticket prices to deals with local hotels, NASCAR tracks all across the country are doing what they can to give fans a reason to buy a ticket and come to the races.

One track, however, might just have come up with a way to give fans a reason not to buy a ticket.

Dover International Speedway is one of the best venues on the circuit to watch a NASCAR race. The one-mile concrete oval, also known as the Monster Mile, is fast, provides some great racing and is small enough that fans are close to the action.

Just don’t go there and plan to watch the race from the infield.

Dover officials decided to close the infield to fans starting in 2009 for what they said was a lack of fan interest.

“As we evaluated the attendance in that area, year-to-year, it continued to decrease and didn't make sense from a business perspective to continue to operate it,” said Gary Camp, Director of Public Relations at Dover. “Every year, the numbers were essentially cut in half from the prior year. Around 100 customers paid to park in the infield for the Sept. 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.”

100 may not seem like many fans.  But for tracks struggling for attendence, 100 fans mean the world.

To be fair, the cost to operate the infield may not justify the small amount of tickets that are sold.  But right now it would seem that any ticket sold would be a good one.

In a time when promoters are doing all they can to make money, if a fan wanted to pay to stand on top of a Port-O-Let outside turn four the track should ask if that will be cash or credit card.

“Fans can experience a race for much less by purchasing a grandstand seat to the event,” said Camp. “And the view from the grandstands is certainly much better.”

But could the closing of the infield be a way to help sell out the grandstands in hopes the track could announce that they have sold out the race?

Sellouts this year have been few and far between.  And while they are good news for a track, given the current economic situation no one can fault a venue for not selling out.

There’s no indication that this was Dover’s intention, of course, and after attending many races there I know for a fact that fans who go to a race at Dover come away happy.

But those diehard NASCAR fans who consider the infield the only place to watch a race -- and there are many -- won’t be leaving Dover happy. Because they won’t be able to even buy a ticket to watch from the infield.

By the way, tickets for the grandstand for both of this year’s Dover races are still available.