TALLADEGA – Thursday’s announcement that the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) will spend $50 million over the next year and a half to renovate its infield facilities was just one of many business expansion projects unveiled in Alabama in recent months.
Seemingly every other day, Gov. Kay Ivey’s office in Montgomery is making some announcement touting positive economic news.
What sets the NASCAR announcement apart from the other announcements is that as an industry, the sport of stock car racing isn’t exactly booming, or at least booming in the way it once was.
NASCAR has fallen from the peaks of its popularity of the previous decades and has struggled to regain its footing from a variety of setbacks.
That started with Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001. Then came a wave of retirements shortly after that, which included marquee drivers like Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin. More recent departures including Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. have also dealt blows to the sport. Add the downturns in the American economy over the last 15 years, and NASCAR has seemingly been playing a perpetual game of catch-up.
“Everything that goes up has got to come down,” NASCAR Monster Energy Cup team owner Richard Childress said to Yellowhammer News at the Thursday announcement. “There’s peaks and valleys in life and peaks and valleys in business. We may be in a little bit of a valley, but we will find a peak again.”
The Talladega announcement, part of ISC’s $500 million capital expenditure plan that began last year and will continue through 2021, is one of the proactive measures NASCAR is taking to reverse that trend.
“It certainly helps,” Talladega Superspeedway chairman Grant Lynch said of the project to Yellowhammer News. “Any time you can show them the new stuff we’ve unveiled here today and say we’re going to build this at Talladega, as we talk about being a bucket-list track, they’re going to come down here to see this because it is going to be very, very impressive. So I think it’s going to help us, kind of revitalize our sales for years to come.”
Earlier this year, Lynch made overtures suggesting the state legislature might offer to chip in to help Talladega Superspeedway, given it had a $1.8 billion impact on Alabama’s economy over the past eight years. The state of Alabama had awarded nearby Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds money, yet Talladega Superspeedway was a much bigger player in Alabama’s tourist economy than Barber Motorsports Park.
Alabama Senate President Pro-Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston), whose State Senate district is adjacent to the Talladega Superspeedway, touted that role in the state’s economy at Thursday’s announcement.
“Talladega has been great to the state of Alabama,” he said in an interview with Yellowhammer News. “This announcement today does a couple of things. One, it shows their continued commitment to the state of Alabama through this $50 million investment, and it shows their long-term commitment to the state of Alabama to continue to bring these quality NASCAR races to our state.”
Marsh explained help from the state government would come in tax incentives and suggested the legislature could find other ways to help “supplement” the project.
“The state always works – we give certain tax incentives when anybody does an expansion,” Marsh said. “They’ll benefit from that. We also have tourism dollars. We see them as a tourism project, which obviously brings a lot of tourism to the state. I think we can find some ways to also supplement their investment through that. The state wants to do all it can to make a good investment for the people who have been partners for such a long time and continue to be good partners. Yeah, we’ll do all we can as a state to give them some financial incentives.”
Marsh called Talladega Superspeedway officials questioning being overlooked when benefits were given to Barber Motorsports Park “fair,” but ensured Gov. Kay Ivey, who was also on hand for the announcement, and the legislature would not neglect them.
“That’s a fair question,” Marsh added. “Many times, the state forgets about those who have been here for so long and does anything it can to attract new industry. Barber’s was a new facility that came in and in that package was a promise to Barber. And rightfully so, NASCAR and Talladega said, ‘You know, we’ve been here a long time. We want to see some support as well.’ That point was well made, and I think the governor and the legislature are going to make sure they’re treated fairly.”
According to track spokesman Russell Branham, work for the project will begin upon the completion of this October’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 event and carry on throughout 2019 with anticipated completion in time for the October 2019 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup event.
Birmingham-based Hoar Construction is the pre-construction contractor for the renovation designed by architect DLR Group.
https://twitter.com/HOARLLC/status/1022577680489832453
https://twitter.com/DLRGroup/status/1022855388562173952
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
