Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains hurdles to NASCAR racing at Hickory, other grassroots short tracks

After the NASCAR Cup Series put on a show at the Clash at Bowman Gray people are wondering where the next one will be. Dale Earnhardt Jr. loved seeing the Madhouse get the spotlight, but is this something that can be replicated at other tracks?

There are tons of short tracks around the country. Many could use a new SAFER barrier, catchfence, and/or lights and other upgrades. Those tracks, much like Bowman Gray, fuel and power NASCAR from the grassroots up.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. talked about the topic on the Dale Jr. Download. Impressed with the Clash at Bowman Gray, Earnhardt remains skeptical that it can be done elsewhere.

“Well, I love that idea a lot, but I just don’t know if NASCAR would do it,” Earnhardt said. “Bowman Gray is an anomaly because they seat 10 thousand, 17 thousand people, okay? So, Bowman Gray’s infrastructure while minimal in terms of like a Charlotte Motor Speedway, it still seats 17,000 people.

“How many does Hickory sit? You know, they’re not going to come in there and build grandstands at these places. They could maybe put in some temporary grandstands that are going to get you another three or five thousand, maybe. I just don’t know that, while it would be amazing for them to go to like Hickory or some of these other short tracks to do what they did at Bowman Gray, I don’t know if NASCAR will look at it like that’s a realistic direction.

“Now, you could say South Boston. South Boston’s got a really nice facility. And that might be one of the places you could probably consider taking the race. But I don’t know man. The location of Bowman Gray, it’s kind of in this very dense area. You’d have to think about why that matters. If you take it to South Boston, that’s three and a half, two and a half hours up the road.”

In his answer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. brings up Hickory and South Boston. When considering the size of the crowd, it is a big step down from Bowman Gray to those two tracks. Hickory can seat 10,000 fans right now with no temporary seating. South Boston holds 7,600 with the potential for events of up to 10,000 people.

That is not quite the 17,000 that Bowman Gray was able to put in the stands and around the track. I’d argue that it is better to sell out a smaller venue than it is to race at a huge track and only fill half the seats.

While South Boston is small, Hickory feels like it could be a place that NASCAR races in the future. 10,000+ fans and that is without temporary seating and stands. You could get that up to close to 15,000, but it would take investment from NASCAR.

If you could choose a short track to host the Clash in the future, which track would it be?