Travis Sauter wins Lettow Memorial 150, ASA provides NASCAR with weekday event business model

Last night was the ASA Howie Lettow Memorial Late Model 150 at the Milwaukee Mile which featured the stock car return of 1989 Sprint Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace. But that wasn’t the big story, nor was it Travis Sauter who won the race.

Instead, I want to focus on the success of a mid-market track running a major event successfully on a Tuesday afternoon, a concept that was first brandied around in February after the Daytona 500 was also ran in prime-time on a weekday afternoon.

The Memorial was a huge success, drawing a packed grandstand, and delivering a party atmosphere for those in attendance.

While tracks have struggled to draw crowds in recent years, the emergence of weekday races could completely change the economy of promoting races.

This concept can only work during the summer, as kids are out of school, and families can afford to stay at the track until late in the evening, and must be promoted at tracks with strong racing history or the ability to draw from several media markets. This is why the Lettow Memorial was such a huge success for the ASA. The track has a legendary pedigree and was able to draw from neighboring Green Bay and Chicago.

Imagine if NASCAR had decided to host a Tuesday night summer race at Milwaukee. Assuming they would schedule around the NBA Finals, TNT would have only regional baseball action to oppose them, almost assuring them a monster television rating.

Higher television numbers (and the weekday setting) could mean a smaller sanctioning fee for the track, offsetting the financial damages of the smaller crowd, and NASCAR would be number one on a day where they typically don’t receive the spotlight.

If Milwaukee doesn’t make sense for NASCAR, the same principle could easily apply to nearby Chicagoland which has bounced from day-to-night and most recently from the summer-to-the-fall to help boost struggling attendance and television figures.

But we like short tracks at NASCAR Ranting and Raving, making Milwaukee the obvious location for such an experiment. Judging from the turnout of NASCAR regulars to last night’s race, such an endeavor is sure to have driver and team support but will the Sanctioning Body make the move?

Judging from their post-Daytona 500 discussions, NASCAR doesn’t appear to have an interest to go prime-time on a weekday night. But if they ever decide to make the jump, they should ask the ASA for their business model. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

Read more about last night’s ASA Howie Lettow Memorial 150 after the jump.

Travis Sauter is the son of Tim Sauter and nephew of Johnny Sauter. His victory in last night’s Lettow Memorial 150 means that every member of his family that has competed at their home track has gone to victory lane. That stat spans three generations of Sauter men.

NASCAR stars of past, present, and future were represented at the two-day event, including Rusty Wallace, Chase Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Ross Kenseth, Aric Almirola, David Stremme, John Hunter Nemechek, Johnny Sauter and Tim Sauter.

Howie Lettow Memorial 150 Finishing Order and Information:

Travis Sauter Victory Lane interview (Courtesy of Speed 51 - the Short Track Source)

Who was Howie Lettow?

Milwaukee Mile makes a comeback
The Milwaukee Mile is the country’s longest-running motorsports facility. Originally built for horse racing in 1876, the track was later paved for its first automobile race, which took place on September 11, 1903. The track experience a long relationship with NASCAR and IndyCar but hasn’t hosted a NASCAR race since 2009. IndyCar also dropped its date in 2009 but returned in 2011.

This week is a major one for Milwaukee with the track hosting the ASA Midwest Tour on Monday and Tuesday and IndyCar hosting IndyFest on Friday and Saturday. The IndyCar race can be seen on ABC, starting at 1 p.m. EST.