More NASCAR Road Racing?

[MicroRacer]

This is a quote rumor off of Jayski

Mexico? Australia [can I go?] Canada? in the future for NASCAR: NASCAR's search for new markets for Winston Cup racing could take a decidedly unexpected twist - think Mexico City and Australia. Car owner Jack Roush says that an early January Cup race in Australia would be perfect timing, since the weather's great, and he likes Canadian and Mexican options, too. While the Indy Racing League would be the obvious choice to replace CART at those venues, NASCAR sources say that the stock-car sanctioning body - which, after all, runs one of the world's most popular auto-racing series - may be approached by sponsors to consider running races at Mexico City and in Australia in CART's stead. Two such Winston Cup races could perk the interest of NBC and Fox, who haven't been making money on the sport they're paying $400 million a year to broadcast. Two venues closer to home, with more logical markets, are Vancouver, British Columbia, and Denver [street courses for Cup cars

I think it would be a mistake, but then again I'm not a fan of road courses. It seems like the only way that NASCAR can go road racing is to cut out more ovals. That seems to be a big pain the the NASCAR loyalist.

[NoviVespa]

If you have tracks in the United States screaming for a second date, what will happen if they add a foreign track?

[indyracefan]

Originally posted by NoviVespa
If you have tracks in the United States screaming for a second date, what will happen if they add a foreign track?

...I believe that eventually that most of the tracks with 2 races will lose one of them, except of course the big 'heavy-hitters' such as Daytona & Talladega and perhaps even Bristol.

[NoviVespa]

Texas is screaming for a second race, and I believe they deserve it. It is comparable to Daytona, Charlotte, and Talladega.

[SamC]

NASCAR ran two off-season races in Australia in the late1980s.

The first was subsidized by Goodyear and Ford (Billy Ford was in the process of running Ford of Australia into the ground at that point, much like he is now doing to the whole company) and called the Goodyear 500, and featured about 1/2 of the NASCAR regulars of that era and was somewhat successful. The sponsors and about 1/2 of the stars pulled out and the second was just called the Christmas 500 and that was that.

The track was Calder Park, which is a 1.3 mile (that is an even 2 km) oval shaped like Charlotte. The idea was that NASCAR teams would ship old cars there, which would be left behind and used multiple times. Much of the equipment is still in use, and more used NASCAR cars are exported there from time to time.

The track still exists and it owns a liscense for the name "NASCAR" in that country, as well as its own "AUSCAR" series. Both compete there and at several road courses in the country.

I have never understood why the IRL has not jumped all over this venue.