Nascar Moves Nationwide Race From Indy Short Track to Brickyard

Much to the chagrin of track officials and short track fans across the nation, Nascar announced that they will move the Kroger 250 from Lucas Oil Raceway to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2012, in hopes of re-energizing the cup weekend at the Brickyard.

Arguably the biggest race next to the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 trophy is one of the most coveted prizes in the sport. Every driver hopes that they will be the one that gets to kiss the bricks at the end of the day. But in recent seasons (especially after the 2008 debacle where teams could not run more that ten laps on a set of tires before one blew out) the race has lost some of the pageantry that came with racing at the most famous circuit in motorsports.

Meanwhile, up the street at Lucas Oil Raceway, the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series held their events Friday and Saturday nights respectively before the Brickyard. Despite not racing with as much pomp and circumstance, the .686-mile track formerly known as Indianapolis Raceway Park produced some of the best racing seen all weekend. It allowed for good, old fashioned short track beating and banging, the kind of down to the wire, win at all costs racing that Nascar is all about. The track had also recently made several big investments, installing SAFER barriers and things to make the track more fan friendly for the future Nascar events they expected to hold. That is until Nascar pulled the rug out from under them and moved their big money event up the street to the big track.

So now that the Brickyard 400 weekend will be re-energized with the Nascar-owned Grand Am Series race, the new Nationwide event and the cup event Sunday, Lucas Oil Raceway's long history in Nascar is now over. Track GM Wes Collier said, while a stand-alone Nationwide race could work, a stand-alone truck race would not. The trucks just do not turn out the same crowd as the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series' do and, because of that, the tailgate brigade will not be visiting the Indiana short track in 2012. It just disappointing that the track that has been around since the Nationwide (then Busch) Series began in 1982 (race sponsor Kroger has been around just as long) will have its one date taken away to help drum up a crowd for the series that should already be drawing one of the biggest audiences of the season. Is sacrificing the great racing at Lucas Oil Raceway to bring a few more fans to the Brickyard really worth it?