There was quite the spectacle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past weekend:
Tony Stewart making his final run in his home state. Jeff Gordon making a return to racing ... because his friend and colleague, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has disconcerting news involving concussions.
Lots of drama. But not many people.
Attendance was abysmal. Estimated crowd counts _ NASCAR does not release attendance figures _ ranged between 40,000 and 50,000. The IMS capacity is 235,000.
At least 5.2 million viewers tuned into NBCSN's telecast, making it the cable outlet's most-watched and highest-rated non-Olympic telecast on record.
TV money still provides a great chunk of revenue, but the sport can't keep feeding off that forever. Indiana loves racing. Check out the Indianapolis 500, which was sold out in May.
But it's obviously not so enthusiastic about the NASCAR brand. Blame the racing, or lack of, in Sunday's race. Blame the oppressive heat. Blame the fact that fans are more prone to sit in front of their giant high-definition screens instead of dealing with the masses.
The good news for those people is that plenty of seats, if not sections, were wide open on Sunday.
