Revved up and on the road: Oklahomans love their NASCAR Twenty percent of the Texas Motor Speedway crowd comes from Oklahoma City, Tulsa area Revved up and on the road: Oklahomans love their NASCAR
GRAPEVINE, Texas — As Oklahomans, we have a good sense of who we are.
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God fearers. Family lovers. Tornado dodgers. Football worshippers.
The good folks at Texas Motor Speedway would like to add one more to the list.
Racing nuts.
"The Oklahoma City area is unbelievably strong for us,” speedway president Eddie Gossage said Thursday during the track's annual media day. "I really think demographically we fit in so perfectly with sports fans in Oklahoma, and I'm gonna tell you, it's a big part of our success.”
Sometimes, it takes outsiders to notice something about you that you may not otherwise recognize about yourself.
So it is with racing in Oklahoma.
I mean, the next time you hear someone proclaim our fair state as a racing mecca will be the first time.
Then again, you can't drive to the grocery store without seeing the evidence. Every fourth or fifth car has some sort of racing paraphernalia on it. There are Dale Earnhardt Jr. decals and Jimmie Johnson bumper stickers and Tony Stewart license plates.
But that's not the half of it.
"More Oklahoma fans come to Texas Motor Speedway than come down for the Texas-OU game,” Gossage said, "and that's something we're real proud of.”
More fans from our state go to the races than to the Red River Shootout?
Even though it sounds crazy, consider that the speedway says 20 percent of its fans come from Oklahoma. If you only count the two NASCAR races at the speedway, which has a capacity of more than 200,000 per race, that would account for about 80,000 Oklahomans.
The Cotton Bowl only holds about 40,000 Sooner fans. Even if you add all the folks who make the trek simply to tailgate or drink or stroll with midway, the number probably falls short of the number of race fans who head south to the races.
That makes Oklahoma City-Tulsa one of the best for Texas Motor Speedway.
"It's a strong third,” said Kenton Nelson, the speedway's assistant general manager. "Obviously, you've got the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Then, you've got Houston and that area. And then Oklahoma City and Tulsa ... makes up a strong third.”
Read that again, friends.
We compare to Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Those are two of the biggest metropolitan areas in the entire country, and yet, we are a close third.
That speaks to our racing fanaticism.
So does the marketing and the advertising that Texas Motor Speedway is doing in our fair state. It is pouring big bucks into luring us to their races.
Heck, check out the pages of this very newspaper. Speedway advertisements have become a regular staple during the past year or so. You know folks are serious when there's money involved, and Texas Motor Speedway is investing serious money in Oklahoma City.
"It's been a market we can measure a return every time we invest money,” Gossage said. "A positive return.”
The speedway runs advertising bugs during television broadcasts of races. Staff members know exactly when each bug is going to appear in each of the markets.
When the bug runs in Oklahoma City?
"Boom,” Gossage said, "the phones ring.”
When it runs in Tulsa?
"Boom, the phones ring.”
Of the 16 television markets in which the speedway advertises, none are more responsive than Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Want more evidence? For the Daytona 500 broadcast, Oklahoma City posted a 10.7 share, Tulsa 13.5.
"You have to go to the Raleigh-Durhams, to some of the markets back on the East Coast to see that,” Nelson said of ratings so high. "Knoxville. Charlotte. Birmingham. But Oklahoma City and Tulsa are like that day in and day out.”
NASCAR, remember, has its roots in places like Charlotte and Birmingham, and still, Oklahoma City and Tulsa have similar percentages of people watching races.
"I call Oklahoma City and Tulsa my crown jewels,” Nelson said.
The evidence is clear. We are hard-core, off-the-charts, head-over-heels racing fans, even though we might not have known it.
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"Yep".."Un-huh"..."Well Daryl, we were not that hot today. My number 25 Kickapoo Bingo, Natural Light, Copenhagen Ford Fusion was really holdin' on tight in turn four and after the turn, I notice jenni Carlson in the grandstand waiting on me to do an interview. At that time my lug nuts popped, then my wheels flew off, my engine exploded and I was then passed by the number 18 Pabst Blue Ribon Dodge Charger."
The "god-fearing" passion to watch people drive in circles will lead Clay Bennet to buy the Texas Motor Speedway and relocate it to his home...he's extending his driveway in order to separate himself even farther from the masses who will foot the bill to relocate all of Clay's toys.
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Racing at Texas Motor Speedway
•April 6: Sprint Cup Samsung 500
•June 7: IndyCar Bombardier Learjet 550k
•Nov. 2: Sprint Cup Dickies 500
•Tickets: Call (817) 215-8500 or log on to www.texasmotorspeedway.com for information
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