California Speedway hopes to change Cup date away from Labor Day
Quote selected text Published May 25th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Auto Club Speedway President Gillian Zucker said she’s “cautiously optimistic” about a potential date swap to move her track’s fall race away from Labor Day weekend, but added she’s heard nothing official.
One scenario has Atlanta Motor Speedway taking over the Labor Day date, with California’s spot on the calendar moving to Talladega’s current slot in early October. Talladega would then move to late October, when Atlanta currently holds its race.
Zucker has been wanting to race later in the fall because temperatures can be unbearable for fans in Southern California during early September. Early October temperatures are ideal, on the other hand, with little chance of rain or gusting winds.
“What our responsibility was to do was to officially petition NASCAR to move our date, which we did, and to supply them with as much historical data on weather from our area to support our dates of choice,” Zucker said Saturday afternoon via telephone. “Then, the rest of it’s up to them. … Ultimately this is NASCAR’s call. We’ve been optimistic, because I think they’ve really been aggressive in trying to find some solutions here. But I have nothing official.”
- Bruton Smith asks NASCAR to swap fall Atlanta, California dates
- Atlanta pushes for future Labor Day night race
- NASCAR Labor Day weekend headed back east again?
- NASCAR releases 2008 Craftsman Truck Series schedule
- Top 10 drivers and beyond heading into California
the way NASCAR is looking at the 2009 Sprint Cup schedule is a three-track swap of race dates. Atlanta would receive the Labor Day race that’s currently run in Fontana, Calif.; Fontana would receive Talladega’s fall race; and Talladega would receive Atlanta’s fall race.and that would be fine for everyone involved I think and California might sell more tickets that way .
I can tell you as a fan that has season tickets to the CA races that a swap is needed. The last couple of Labor Day races and been so hot!. Last year was the worse.
I sure hope this happens. I know that everyone thinks the races here are boring, but we have no choice and need this to happen and hopefully a track fix also so the races are better. I’m a diehard fan and will continue to go no matter what the conditons are how boring the racing, but am keeping my fingers crossed for some changes.
KK I’m with you! Season tickets in hand and infield camping I will go! LOL Try and stop me! Hotter than hell or not, I’ll be there. At first I wasn’t that keen on the change…but the more that I thought about it…if we’re gonna go…we’re gonna take the time no matter when it is. So if they can make it cooler when I go…all the better. I hope it works out for the best!
Labor Day has been well beyond normal the past couple of years at CA. Fortunately, they moved the spring race back from what it had been which also was much too hot. If they want to make a dent in CA, this would be a great help in selling seats to the fall race.