Bruton Smith at it again

March 8, 2:44 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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The Las Vegas Track (NASCAR Media Group)

Bruton Smith, the Chairman of Speedway Motor sports, is rallying against NASCAR to move the NASCAR season finale from Homestead to his track at Las Vegas. Once aging Burton will come off, and be labeled by NASCAR, as a loud mouth jerk, however this plan makes a whole lot of sense in a number of different ways.

Now I hate to rail against Ford Motor Company who has a long term deal with NASCAR, and their Track owning company International Speedway Corporation to sponsor the finale weekend, since they are the only American car company not to take federal bailout money. Let’s be honest that company has bigger problems then sponsoring the NASCAR finale.

If the NASCAR finale where in a place like Las Vegas where there are many casino empires, and other big business maybe NASCAR could find itself with a more stable sponsor for it’s finale. Maybe even a pro sports franchise that will be in Vegas within five years. Beyond that though it is not a surprise that Vegas is a bigger marketing pool then Homestead-Miami.

I have made the argument that NASCAR needs a signature West Coast race; instead of using some cheap gimmick or a big purse payday why not move the finale of the three top NASCAR divisions west.

Moving races of such importance out of the NASCAR hot bed of the South East, raises the profile of NASCAR to an all new level. It just makes too much sense to have the finale in Vegas, and that is probably why it is never going to happen.

Another big reason to move these races is attendance. Homestead only sits 63 thousand while Vegas sits 175 thousand. NASCAR claims the attendance for the 2008 Sprint Cup final at 80 thousand; Bruton argues that the actual attendance was more like 50 thousand.

Whichever numbers are actually accurate is not the point, the point is Vegas with out a doubt would draw in a bigger crowd for the finale. The spring race held last week at Vegas produced the biggest crowd of the 2009 NASCAR season, save for Daytona.