Charlotte Motor Speedway Will Not Host Annual NASCAR Media Tour This Year

The NASCAR Media Tour ends after 35 years

The NASCAR Media Tour is no more.

The annual pre-season event that brought together motorsports journalists from all over the world to meet with NASCAR teams and industry officials in the run-up to the start of the NASCAR racing season has been a tradition dating back to 1982.

On Friday, Charlotte Motor Speedway – which has hosted the tour since it's inception – announced the annual event would not be held this year. Instead, individual teams will host their own media events at their own shops or at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

While the media "tour" had become less of a tour and more of a media conference in the last few year, its purpose remained the same – to give journalists the opportunity to put together stories and articles on the stars of NASCAR as a kick off to the start of the season.

Although Daytona International Speedway hosts its own media day – and will continue to do so – the Charlotte Media Tour allowed teams and drivers to host the tour closer to their home base, and doing so early in the year meant less distractions as the teams worked to get ready for the Daytona 500.

Originally conceived by Charlotte Motor Speedway promoter H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, the tour was modeled after the college football media tours of the 1980's. In the early days, media members would board buses and travel from race shop to race shop, where each team would – most of the time – have some sort of presentation covering the coming season. Oftentimes, teams would save their major sponsorship announcements just for the media tour.

In it's heydey during NASCAR's mist populous years, the tour attracted hundred of journalists from as far away as Germany and the UK.

Starting in 2010, the bus trips became less frequent as more events moved to the ballroom of whatever hotel was hosting the tour. Beginning in 2014, the tour became a stationary event headquartered at the Charlotte Convention Center adjacent to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and instead of tour going to the teams, the teams instead came to the convention center.

While the new format for the tour was more cost effective, it became more of a made-for-social-media event than a press tour. As travel budgets for media outlets tightened and the industry's priorities shifted, interest in the tour waned considerably, with many journalists focusing instead on the Daytona 500 media day a few weeks before the season opening race.

And thus, the end of an era comes to pass.

– Pete McCole