Road America to add NASCAR Truck race

UPDATE This rumor is downgraded to 'false' today. The all-but-done deal to bring the Camping World Truck Series to Road America next season is done, but not in that way. Done, as in over. Not going to happen.

“You don’t know how close we were," George Bruggenthies, president of the Elkhart Lake track, said Thursday evening. “We had very senior management was working on this event for us. There’s only so much time in the day; I guess that’s what it came down to."

NASCAR and the track had hoped to package the truck race with the Nationwide Series and Grand Am on the weekend of June 23-24.

The hang-up? TV.

Because of other commitments by NASCAR’s television partners, a truck race couldn’t be scheduled for that Sunday, Bruggenthies said. Grand Am and Nationwide are committed for Saturday. The other option was Friday, but to run an afternoon race on a traditional work day would not have made sense economically. Although the trucks often race on Fridays, those are nighttime events at tracks with lights.

“We’re all disappointed," Bruggenthies said. “You know what? We’ll make it happen in the future. We’re going to run a couple national NASCAR events on the same weekend in the future. I’m confident of it." JSOnline

10/29/11 Road America won't run an IndyCar race but the NASCAR weekend at Road America will almost certainly include a Camping World Truck Series race next June.

"We're trying to expand the schedule a little bit more for the NASCAR-type fan," track president George Bruggenthies said Thursday, stopping just short of confirming the race.

"We've got sports cars going there with the Grand-Am and Continental Tire series, but we definitely noticed distinct fans in that weekend so we're trying to build a little package for the NASCAR fan and run two national series here on the same weekend."

The Nationwide Series race at the 4-mile track in Elkhart Lake is scheduled for Saturday, June 23. Grand-Am, the sports-car series owned by NASCAR, was added to the weekend for 2011 and is scheduled to return in 2012.

Although NASCAR has announced its 2012 Sprint Cup and Nationwide schedules, its truck schedule has been held up.

"We do have interest in Road America in 2012," Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's senior vice president of operations said Thursday in an email.

"It has certainly been a terrific partner for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and for Grand-Am. If we can expand on the weekend in an important NASCAR market that has some of the most passionate fans in racing, we would certainly like to make that happen."