NASCAR Event Hotel Prices

Ok what you have to understand before you totally blast me about this is, I actually work @ a hotel so my opinion may seem a bit bias but i'm just trying to get you to understand the hotels side of the story. OK.. if any of you have ever been to an actual NASCAR race and had to stay overnight then you know the hotel room prices can be a bit extreme. But when I hear people say this is price gouging I cant help but to think you are missed informed on what price gouging actually is. Price gouging in most places is illegal but its restricted to essentials such as food,clothing,shelter,medicine and equipment needed to preserve life,limb & property. Say your town has a massive tornado come through and destroys half the town...on the other side of town remains your one hotel untouched... and the hotel raises their rates to extraordinarily high level because they know there is no where else for people to stay...that is price gouging after a natural disaster and that is illegal.... And my point is... YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO A NASCAR RACE. Hotels base their prices for race weekends based on supply and demand. Usually at the minimum these race tracks hold 100,000 people and you might have 3,000 hotel rooms in the area surrounding the track.... So of course the price is going to be higher because of the limited number of available rooms compared to the people in the area. I'm saying a NASCAR race is not a natural disaster (except when Kyle Busch wins) hehe ;) But people are not forced to be in a hotel because of it.They stay in a hotel because it beats an 8 hour drive home and they will pay what the hotel asks to keep from doing that. Is it right? I don't know you be the judge..but don't imply the hotel is doing something illegal because the rate seems to outrageous for you to foot the bill.

Dale Earnhardt JR Keeping the Pace

With 10 races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has pretty simple goals: Maintain the level of performance he has displayed all season and win another race.

Heading into the Cup race Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, the Hendrick Motorsports driver sits third in the Cup standings, 14 points behind leader Matt Kenseth. He’s comfortably in the Chase — he is 103 points ahead of 11th, with the top 10 getting guaranteed spots — and won his first race in four years two weeks ago at Michigan International Speedway.

Last year, Earnhardt started 29th and finished 30th at Kentucky.

“I didn’t run as well as I thought I would here last year,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t really know exactly why we didn’t compete well. I think we’re better this year.

“I’ll be surprised if we don’t run competitive and have a top-10 car at least this weekend. If we don’t have that kind of competitive car, I’d be a little bit disappointed and concerned surely about where we’re headed and what we’re doing.”

Earnhardt has six top-five and a series-high 12 top-10 finishes in 16 races and has seven top-10s on tracks 1.5 to 2 miles in length. He led 70 laps earlier this year at 1.5-mile Las Vegas.

Earnhardt said every week, the team critically evaluates its cars and setups and whether it is headed in the right direction. But he doesn’t necessarily view the Kentucky race as a blueprint for what could happen in the Chase, which features five 1.5-mile tracks.

Kentucky and Atlanta are the only 1.5-mile tracks left before the Chase, which includes stops at Chicagoland, Charlotte, Kansas, Texas and Homestead.

“The 1.5s are important,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t really dissect the season like that. I always start out really well and then I struggle in the summer and then I do pretty well at the end of the season. The tracks at the end of the season are really the same or similar tracks we started the year with.

“I just assume I like those tracks or do well at those tracks, so I feel pretty comfortable about the Chase and the tracks in the Chase.”

Earnhardt has 10 top-10s in his last 12 races, including the dominating win two weeks ago at 2-mile Michigan, where he led a season-high 95 laps. A wreck on the last lap relegated him to 23rd last week on the road course at Sonoma for his first finish worse than 17th this year.

“I feel like we just need to kind of maintain our course,” Earnhardt said. “I struggle in the summer and we’ve gotten off to a pretty good start besides the road-course race at Sonoma.

“We’ve had a pretty good summer so far. If we can keep that going, I’m going to be really excited.”

The best part of the summer, of course, has been the win.

“I’d like to win another race,” Earnhardt said. “I enjoyed that one at Michigan, so I’d like to do that again. It doesn’t really matter where.”

Nascar...Caution Free??

After the last few races I have watched on T.V all I can say is.. It has giving me some time to catch up on my Sunday afternoon naps :( If you listen to the drivers and the race broadcasters..." Oh Racing has never been better!!" That may be true in some aspects but as far as the general fan base goes we, as bad as it sounds want to see Wrecks & Action! Of course the drivers and car owners want caution free races, why wouldn't they. But unfortunately the fans who are the absolute most major factor in the entire sport even existing do not see these issues the same way. No we do not wanna see a wreck every 5 laps but.. We also don't want to see the entire damn race go 312 laps with no cautions and the leader of the race win by 27 seconds!! >:( I just don't understand what the drivers don't get about that?? Are the stands going to have to be completely empty before they realize this? Also these so called " Cookie Cutter" tracks are just ridiculous.. all the minds NASCAR has working for them and they cant seem to understand %90 of the fan favorites are A. Short Tracks & B. Super Speedways. Simple as that. I mean when there is a 13 second difference between 1st & 5th place.... something is WRONG... What is everybody's thoughts on this? Is NASCAR as exciting as its ever been?? Or has it become a giant snooze fest?