Kentucky race’s future in doubt
Now many of the fans who bought personal seat licenses and season tickets in hopes of being first in line when the Cup cars rolled in are starting to lose hope. At the very least, they're not simply coming to the races anymore.
Not anything outside of a Cup-driver led NASCAR Busch race.
It'll be interesting to see how Kentucky Speedway responds. The lawsuit with NASCAR is pending in court. (They're due back in court in February.) They've tried to move the IRL race in the past, preferring to run it at night under the lights, but ABC Sports/ESPN has never signed off on the move.
That leaves the Speedway between a rock and hard place. Rumblings are that the truck race will be moved to a later date next season, and that Speedway officials are tinkering with IRL. But the crux of the matter is NASCAR and Nextel Cup.
Without Cup racing, it's hard to see how Kentucky will survive, outside of the Busch race of course.
It's hard to imagine fans coming back year after year for second, third and even fourth class racing series (IRL, trucks, etc.). Especially when the big boys stop coming.
What does the future hold for Kentucky Speedway? It's hard to tell, but one thing is for certain: things need to change.
Because the allure has worn off. Grant County News
08/14/06 "Only" 35,814 were in the stands here yesterday to see Indianapolis 500 champion Sam Hornish Jr. hold off Scott Dixon to win the Indy Racing League's Meijer Indy 300.
It represented a free fall of almost 27,000 fans from the 62,595 who attended this race one year ago. In the seven-year history of Jerry Carroll's motorsports palace, yesterday's was the smallest crowd by almost 12,000 (47,323 in 2001) ever to see the IRL run. Lexington Herald Leader
[Editor's Note: Like we said, there were not 35K in attendance on Sunday. The track only seats 66,000 and there is no way it was even close to 1/2 full. Merger? Still no merger….as the IRL's oval business plan continues to show weakness.]
Photos courtesy of the IRL
08/14/06 
According to this Indy Star article, the announced crowd for Sunday's IRL race was 35,814, and the article says this is down 50% from just one year ago. And 35,814 was a very high number. As can be seen in the photo to the right, the grandstands were sparse at best and one has to question the future viability of this event. (Photo courtesy of Honda)
Many IRL fans received vouchers in the mail from Marlboro for two free tickets to the race. When the USA government forces Marlboro out of the sport after this year, many of the IRL races are going to take a big hit in attendance because of all the free tickets they give away to IRL races.