What NASCAR means to the Midwest


      Over the years, there has been talk about expanding the fan demographic, racing in new places, along with trying to keep the core NASCAR fanbase together. It’s a tough task but one shining star is how the Midwest shows up to the racetrack. 

      For years the Midwest in my opinion has a fanbase that has been largely overlooked for the southeast, and the west, but now with the recent additions of WWT Raceway, Chicago street, Nashville Superspeedway, and now Iowa speedway the Midwest is now largely apart of the summer months of NASCAR. Sellouts and near sellouts have become the norm for these tracks every year ever since they were added to the Cup series schedule and I think that shows how much the Midwest region loves to watch NASCAR. The fan zones have been rocking and the stands have been packed as for many, finally having NASCAR at their track is a dream come true.

       The Midwest is like the screw that holds everything together. It’s connected to every part of the US while having a major city (Chicago) in it. Many of the people living in the Midwest are hard working people and occasionally want to be able to unwind and enjoy things in their free time, such as watching 36 Cup cars battling close for position. The Midwest and NASCAR is like the perfect combination.

         The Midwest in general doesn’t get the greatest opportunity to attend a NASCAR race in years past as the only tracks considered in the Midwest were Kansas speedway, Chicagoland, Indianapolis and Michigan. Now fans have WWT Raceway, Chicago Street, Nashville Superspeedway, and now as recent as this year Iowa speedway, to help spread out the distances from one track to another as well as showcase the opportunity to finally see Cup at a track that has hosted NASCARs lower series in the past. 

    The best part about this recent plunge into the Midwest market is that every track has its own character. WWT Raceway with the long straights, yet short track like corners, Nashville being a 1.3 mile mini intermediate concrete speedway, Chicago street being the only street race on the NASCAR schedule with long straights and 90 degree turns and one very tight corner towards the end of the course, and Iowa speedway a short track that has intermediate track characteristics. All these tracks have one race on the schedule, and they all come without removing a Kansas race date which is a different type of track in itself.

    Last but not least the actual on track product. The product has produced some great racing at each of these tracks so far. Chicago street being a damp weather shortened race, and Iowa being the first Cup race, while also being on a newly repaved surface are some asterisk marks but the cars have been able to pass, there’s been side by side racing, and at times strategy as well.

    With this current path of having a lot of tracks having one race, NASCAR has taken this opportunity to add tracks to the Midwest and I truly think this is indeed a winning formula for the future. I’m just glad that the Midwest was the region of choice to expand races into and hope that the fans continue to show up and NASCAR continues to show out.

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