Kevin Harvick: NASCAR Tracks Have A Responsibility To Fill The Seats

Earlier this week it was announced Nashville Superspeedway would no longer host NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races.

Some were left disappointed by the news. But not Kevin Harvick.

“The grandstands at Nashville have not been full since the first day we went there,” Harvick said Friday at Pocono Raceway.

A two-time Nationwide Series winner at the speedway, Harvick said it was the track’s responsibility to fill the grandstands and it had not lived up to its end of the bargain.

“The crowds have been terrible,” he said. “It’s just one of those deals where they couldn’t make it work for whatever reason. We need to be in places that fill up the grandstands. There’s a lot of race tracks on the circuit that have been able to fill the grandstands and (Nashville) couldn’t, and it didn’t work out for them.”

Despite his comments, Harvick praised the track itself and its history, but said it was ultimately the number of people in the stands that truly mattered.

What track should replace Nashville Superspeedway on the Nationwide schedule? None, Harvick said.

“There’s too many races for the Nationwide Series,” he said, adding the Camping World Truck Series needs to include more short tracks and bull rings.

Looking at last weekend’s attendance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, some could argue that track could be in danger using Harvick’s logic, but he disagreed.

“You’re not talking about 10,000 people in the stands, you’re still talking over 100,000 people in the grandstands at Indy,” Harvick said, comparing those numbers to the NFL’s Super Bowl attendance.

For Harvick, the attendance issues at Indianapolis do not stem from problems with the racing or the facility; rather they are still being effected by the 2008 tire debacle.

“The bottom line is we made a mistake in Indy and pissed all the race fans off,” he said. “Everybody’s done a great job trying to fix that situation going forward. Goodyear’s done (better) with the tires. There was just a huge mistake made there several years ago. If you look at the grandstands, the way they’ve been since that particular day has been not as good as it was before that.”

Harvick admitted they “still have a lot of work to do” at Indy, but the fact is Indianapolis is still putting 100,000 people in the stands for a Sprint Cup Series race, not 10,000 people for a Nationwide Series event.