Chicagoland Speedway Gets a New Boss

Fans, NASCAR professionals, and even viewers on television might have been surprised by thousands of empty seats being visible in the stands at Chicagoland Speedway last weekend during the NASCAR competitions being held at this facility in Joliet, Ill. This must be a stress filled site for NASCAR officials watching the race and employees of this track on the far outskirts of Chicago. Especially since this track isn’t one of the larger capacity tracks that have been having trouble filling up to capacity, but a moderate facility designed for around 75,000 fans. Craig Rust, the new track president at Chicagoland Speedway has been asking questions and apparently fans have been filling up the email boxes in response and the reasons probably aren’t what NASCAR officials were expecting.

There were over 20,000 empty seats during the LifeLock.com 400

Why are fans deciding to skip NASCAR events like last Saturday’s LifeLock.com 400 Sprint Cup competition and staying home instead? Apparently, since the Chicagoland Speedway opened in 2001 it hasn’t made available for sale any single-day tickets to events such as the LifeLock.om 400. Instead fans have only been able to buy what is called a track pack, which gives them access to the Indy Lights and IndyCar races, as well as the Nationwide Series race, Camping World Truck Series race, and ARCA ReMax event.

This fact combined with the current economic conditions around the world could have a lot to do with the 20,000 seats in the stands last Saturday. They should probably think about going to a season-ticket setup for fanatical fans who want to go to every race or maybe even a seat license might be a good way to go. They could always sell single tickets to individual events and which makes sense considering the economic climate.

In response, Mr. Rust has been talking about making sweeping changes to the way tickets are being sold to race fans who want to attend NASCAR events at Chicagoland Speedway. He hasn’t given any specifics on planned changes, but the buzz is that this guy knows his business, so it’s expected that the fans will be back in the seats shortly.

“Image: Zuma Press”