NASCAR
Campbell: (NASCAR) leadership has proven they will do what's necessary to take this thing to another level
President of Martinsville Speedway Clay Campbell talks to Chris Lea about schedule changes in 2022 in NASCAR
so there's um uh interesting things that kind of immediately pop off uh Pop out just to me just looking at it. And I think one of the things that is super interesting, we heard it yesterday but uh talk about the clash being at the L. A. Coliseum that's kind of that's really cool. Uh You know, wait for Nascar to begin their season and a little different changes and what was normally happen. Absolutely. Is that not a heck of a way to get the year started? That's gonna be, it's gonna be really uh interesting and I think it I think it really is a testament to Nascar's leadership on on the the things that they will do to step outside of the, you know, they get outside of our comfort zone too to enhance the schedule to do something different and uh you know that's that's phenomenal in the L. A. Market. Uh Something like that. Short track fans love that. Uh it'll it'll be something to see and that's a great way to get the year started. So I applaud Nascar for for doing things different and they've shown they're not afraid to change things up. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that um when it comes down to, you know, the addition of the road race in charlotte the road race in Daytona. Uh Then you know you have like Nascar, I'm sorry L. A. At the L. A. Coliseum for the clash and um you know there's been some things happening over the last few last couple of years that I've been kind of sprinkled in with some differences. How is this helping Nascar get in front of new audiences and how will L a. Help to enhance that? Yeah, well obviously that's a huge market and we're already out there with, with fontana, but that part of the country is important to us and I'm speaking, I'm not part of the leadership that makes just makes decisions on where races are held. This is just me speaking. But you know, it's obvious that what we're doing has has rung the bell, so to speak, Look at the different corners that we have coming into the sport now that already there, uh different drivers coming in. Uh things have changed quite a bit in the past few years. And I think that that has a lot to do with, with the way Nascar approaches things. It's not the same old, same old because years ago, you never would have considered changing the schedule up adding a race like that or anything of that nature. And now Nascar is doing many different things. Look at the schedule this year, look at it next year, things have changed. And years ago we didn't change anything. We may have shuffled around a few dates, but I think our leadership has proven that they will do whatever is necessary to take this thing to another level. And I think we're going there. So here's the change that may impact the folks in here in north Carolina, 10 days of thunder aren't happening since the All Star Race is going to be back in texas, uh, for next year as well. Like it was this year. Um, that's something that, personally I was looking forward to, because that's, uh, you know, it's usually something, um, that, you know, before, you know, Covid happened, that, you know, we get a chance to cover. That's gonna be a, you know, a kind of a different change for, for folks, um, uh, here in, in the state of north Carolina. Yeah, again, I think, I think if you look at the changes that have been made and, you know, 5, 6, 10 years down the road, this, you know, the way things used to be, you won't even recognize that that happened. This is the norm. And I think the norm going forward maybe just to change up every year. Uh, we've got new fans coming in, uh, you've got a lot of fans that are not even aware of what the schedule was, maybe five years ago. Uh, they're looking at the schedule now. So you gotta take that in consideration. All the new eyeballs and new people coming in. They're looking at the here and now rather than what it was. So you've got to have a balance. I mean, they're not going to do something just to totally forget our past, forget things that got us here to where we are, but they will change up things enough that it certainly, it certainly gets attention of people that have been around for a while, but we're hoping to get attention of people that are new to our sport and I think it's working. What's something that you're personally excited about when you're looking at the schedule for next year personally? I'm excited about our two races that we've got here at martinsville again. Two races are first race on, on april 9th, blue immune maximum pain relief, 500 on saturday night under the lights. Fans love that. They've always asked, when are we gonna run under the lights? Well, we're doing it again. So that was, that was special to us. And then in the fall again, the penultimate race in the playoffs, the last race before they go to the Championship, which, you know, look at, look at the way it panned out last year. Chase Elliott had to win it. And he did, uh, look at years in the past when we had several races to go before you went to the Championship. It was pretty, pretty chaotic. So I think that's what, that's what we want. That's what nascar nose can happen here. The broadcast partners. No, it it's just an exciting venue, Especially when you have that much at stake before you go to the championship. So we're excited about that with extended to 500 October 30, by the way? Yeah. Uh, well, I was gonna, you know, talk about that and have you talked about that with, you know, your race is coming up um, you know, later on this year, how excited is it to, you know, you know, you guys have had it already, but you know, to still with the shutdown, it was just, it didn't impact Nascar probably as much as other places, but to still be blessed enough to have fans there in the stands. Um, you know, how does that feel for you? Well, you said it, we're blessed to have the fans back in the stands because that's what this sport is all about. That's what drives it. That's what has got us to where we are at fans, you know, we can't do this without fans. Obviously we had to, to a certain degree last year to get to keep us going and keep us relative and, and get relevant in all of the races run and that's where did an outstanding job. But it's really, it's really pleasing to all of us, all track operators to have fans coming back. We've got full capacity potential here. We've got our Valley Start, Credit union 300 next week for the Nascar late model Stock series, always a big race and then we wind up in the end of october with a double header on saturday, the last weekend of october with drunk and Xfinity and then finish it up on sunday with Xfinity, 500 for the cup series. So it's, We've got two Great race weekends coming up, but to have fans back that, you know, that really makes it all that more special and all the work that we put into these races, all the work that nascar the teams, you know, the drivers, driver doesn't like getting out of the car at the end of race and nobody's up there to cheer or boo or whatever the case may be. So, to be back on track now is pretty cool. So we're expecting a huge crowd for our race, uh, the mid atlantic region, which is Darlington Richmond in martinsville. Those two races had really good crowds, good races. So we're looking for the same thing here in March and october.