New Hampshire Motor Speedway was dealt a blow Wednesday when the track in Loudon, N.H., was stripped of one of its two Cup dates on the NASCAR schedule — the playoff date in September, which was shipped out to a sister track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, effective in 2018.
Clearly, Loudon’s bucolic setting in the Laconia lakes region could not compete with the glitz and glam of The Vegas Strip, which already has attracted an NHL franchise, drawn interest from the NFL, and now is on NASCAR’s schedule twice a year.
For the last two decades, the facility in Loudon enjoyed the unique distinction of being one of the few tracks on the NASCAR circuit that hosted two Cup dates, one in July and another in September.
But, beginning next year, NHMS will host only one Cup date in July.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for Speedway Motorsports and Las Vegas Motor Speedway to create a NASCAR spectacle worthy of the greatest racing in the world and the entertainment capital of the world,’’ said Marcus Smith, president and chief executive officer of SMI, which has eight racing venues, NHMS among them, that host NASCAR events.
In 1997, the 1.058-mile oval — then known as New Hampshire International Speedway, under the ownership of Bob Bahre — grew its inventory to include a fall date, which was culled from the now-defunct short track at North Wilkesboro, N.C.
When O. Bruton Smith agreed to purchase NHIS from Bahre in November 2007, it was feared he would strip Loudon of one or both of its Cup dates and shift them to one of his other properties in Texas, Atlanta, Bristol (Tenn.), Charlotte, Sparta (Ky.), Sonoma (Calif.), and Las Vegas.
Those fears were realized Wednesday when SMI officials announced NHMS was losing not only its fall Cup date, but also its accompanying Camping World Truck Series date to Las Vegas.
The company also moved Kentucky Motor Speedway’s stand-alone Xfinity Series date to LVMS, which planned to host a tripleheader weekend for both its dates in 2018.
“Fans and tourism officials in New Hampshire and Kentucky should know that we are still very committed to creating motorsports entertainment in those regions,’’ said Smith, who said SMI planned to “double-down’’ on NHMS’s July race weekend and that efforts were being made to replace the fall Cup date with a Modified spectacular next year.
Since the inception of NASCAR’s 10-race playoff format in 2004, Loudon held the esteemed postion in the playofff schedule as being the first race in the championship chase.
However, NHMS seemed to lose traction in the playoff schedule when Loudon was shuffled back to the second race in the playoffs in 2011 behind Chicagoland Speedway, which replaced NHMS as the first race in the chase. Sagging attendance at NHMS the last few years seemed to follow the national trend in NASCAR.
Asked during a teleconference about the comparison in profit margins from hosting a second race in Loudon vs. Las Vegas, Smith replied, “We did this for the fans. It’s going to be great for NASCAR.’’
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.
