Could Bruton Smith’s Foray Into Qatar Have NASCAR Close Behind?
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Did you see or hear the news reports over the weekend that Bruton Smith is negotiating to build a three-track racing megaplex in the tiny Middle East country of Qatar?
The news kind of seemed to float under the radar a bit, when it should have been accorded much greater significance and importance.
The racing complex Smith and Speedway Motorsports are negotiating to build would likely include a small bullring style oval (possibly for dirt – or would that be sand – racing), a road course and, of course, a NASCAR-style oval.
There’s also the possibility of adding a drag strip, as well, but superchargers don’t swallow sand very well.
The complex is supposed to be patterned after Smith’s and SMI’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway layout, which not coincidentally, is also in a desert outside Las Vegas. You know, lots of sand virtually everywhere.
Smith’s dalliance with the Qataris, as well as George Gillett’s pending partnership with a Saudi Arabian sheik, makes it pretty clear that the Middle East may be the only place in the world where there’s available money right now – and lots of it, indeed.
And if that’s the case, you’d better believe NASCAR will follow the money trail. Horace Greeley may have said, “Go West, Young Man,” but NASCAR’s future could very well include a Middle Eastern outpost if things continue to move in that direction as they have already started.
Don’t scoff. If the Qataris or Saudis or Dubaians have so much money they don’t know what to do with, I’m sure NASCAR will be more than willing to help them take some of that cold hard cash off their hands.
And let’s not forget all the fuel a stock car could use for mere pennies per gallon.
Let’s see, we have NASCAR in the U.S., CASCAR in Canada, why not QASCAR in Qatar? It even has a pretty neat ring to it, don’t you think?
Sure, Smith and SMI are negotiating to build a huge racing complex because they know money will be no object, that no expense will be spared to build the most palatial racing complex in the world. And, you know Bruton wouldn’t get into something like this unless that also means he’s going to walk away with a nice, tidy, multi-million dollar profit in his pocket, as well.
Honestly, the idea really intrigues me. Sure, it’s halfway around the world and in the desert, but watching stock cars go around and around sure beats watching camel racing, don’t you think?
The Qataris, Saudis, Dubaians and others in the region are becoming increasingly sophisticated, enriched beyond anyone’s wildest dreams by the oil trade in the Middle East. You can only build so many shiny office buildings before you look for other investments, and NASCAR racing seems to be a pretty good investment to them at this point – although I’m sure many in the U.S. might beg to differ, given NASCAR’s ongoing struggles with TV ratings and at-track attendance.
NASCAR chairman Brian France said a couple of years ago that he believed international expansion was definitely on the sanctioning body’s radar screen, but he never gave a timetable.
But if Smith signs on the dotted line and actually begins construction in the near future, we could potentially see perhaps a NASCAR exhibition race at the very least in Qatar by maybe 2012. I mean, in the desert, you don’t have to worry about taking winters off, do you? What might take two or more years to build in the U.S. could take two-thirds or less the time in a place where snow is an unknown word.
Folks complained about Toyota when it came into the sport, citing nationalism and a natural aversion to letting in a foreign automaker into the stock car racing game.
That’s nothing compared to where things may go from here in the future. I mean, the “Sandstorm 500” actually has a kind of catchy ring to it, doesn’t it?
Posted by Jerry Bonkowski on 11/09 at 11:38 PM
