Not a good sign for the season ahead

I realize I’m talking about up north and it’s only April which is traditionally cool & wet up in the Great Lakes region.But today’s ARCA/CRA Super Series race at Salem Speedway in Indiana (won by Kody Swanson) had a starting field of a whopping 9 cars.A race on a high banked 1/2 mile with a single digit field is hardly worth the drive let alone the ticket price.As the price of everything quickly is rising and doubling the purse money to draw a field isn’t an option, promoters everywhere better quickly get a plan together or they are facing some real good chances of holding events that will chase fans away instead of bring them back.An event like the one at Salem today is a good way to kill future ticket sales.

It is certainly a bad sign for ARCA/CRA, but I suggest not for the sport nationwide. ARCA had 14 (I think) at their Pensacola race; an event that should have drawn 30+. Maybe they got too big for their britches and are acting too much like NASCAR? I don’t know what their problem is.

On a better note, dirt late models and sprints are packing the cars in. UMP mods are healthy too. Here in the Carolinas, there is a great local class, and a tour that pays big bucks too: sport compacts. Think 4 cylinder Bombers (a name to retire), but a step up when it comes to speed, safety and overall presentation. The sport compacts draw big fields, and the SCDRA hosts several $5000 to win events for this class. They just got done racing at Bristol too.

There are positive signs all over.

Why do we have ARCA?

I get it, it used to be a bucks down way to get on a superspeedway in 3 year old NASCAR equipment and get some experience.

But then…NASCAR purchased ARCA in 2018.

So now, they have no real reason to want to survive as an independent entity, they are just a small cog (maybe) in the NASCAR wheel.

And while we are at it, why do we have Xfinity? The cars look the same as Cup and probably you can run a backmarker Cup car for what it takes to run xfinity. With a lot more eyes on your sponsor logo.

And where does it all slot in when the Car-of-European-Decent (coed) comes on line?

In another related line of thought, NASCAR comes up for sale from time to time. I believe they bought ARCA just so they have ALL of the major leagues to offer–essentially ALL of the full body cars on big tracks–to sell to a buyer.

ARCA is clearly expendable, and may be in the process of expiring per se.

Boneman

There are positive notes this year.Putnam County coming back here in Florida,West Virginia Motor Speedway reopened yesterday after being dormant for 8 years and the new owners of I-70 Speedway have that place looking fantastic.One common thread.Every one a dirt track.There are some good asphalt series.The Wheelman Sportsman here don’t usually disappoint.Ditto with The Florida Pro Truck Series.The Vores Travelling Compacts. Series out of Indiana are true mini latemodels complete with wedge bolts and very liberal engine & suspension.They aren’t Grandpa’s mini stocks and usually draw high car counts.Same with CRA’s Street Stock Division.But that latemodel count? I hope that isn’t a trend everywhere.But with pump gas approaching $3 gallon and everything else on the rise, it ain’t exactly looking rosey.

What exactly is a ARCA/CRA car? I thought ARCA is or was very similar to a cup car, and I thought CRA was a template late model.

I believe they run on everything from true short tracks to superspeedways and run two types of cars.

50x

The C.R.A. cars are a separate entity of the ARCA national series.The CRA Super Series & Jegs All Stars Series are template latemodels.The Super Series being basically the same rule package as the Southern Super Series and the Jegs All Stars are the Pro late template cars.ARCA meanwhile is a separate division mainly kept alive as a series so Joe Gibbs Racing has a place to go do their on track R&D.