Champ Trail - January 3, 2016

  Happy New Year and Good Health to all! With the holidays behind us it’s now time to look foreword to Speedweeks in Florida. As of this coming Friday, January 6, six weeks remain before the green flag drops for the World Series at New Smyrna, the 50 lap tour type Modified event at the Bronson (Fla) Speedway and action at the Daytona International Speedway. It will be here before you know it.

  It will be interesting to see how the upcoming racing season in southern New England shakes out. Weekly mid week NASCAR racing at Thompson has been all but eliminated. Only two Wednesdays, June 14 and Aug 9, both NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour dates remain. Thompson had some of the best SK Modified and Limited Sportsman competition to be seen. Stafford’s Friday night fields of cars and spectators will see a tremendous spike as will the New London-Waterford Speedbowl and the Seekonk Speedway which host affordable entertainment to the paying fan. There will be tons of Modified Specials run during the week to pick up the slack but it just wont be the same with Thompson not running.

  On the speedway stock market scene this week, all three speedway stocks ended the week on the negative. The International Speedway Corporation dropped 1.05 to 36.80 while Speedway Motorsports dropped 0.23 to 21.64 and Dover Entertainment dropped 0.25 to 2.05. NASCAR cup sponsor Monster Beverage dropped 1.23 to 44.34 while NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear dropped 0.77 to 30.87 and NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) dropped 0.47 to 35.82. The car manufacturers were also down for the week. Toyota dropped 3.79 to 117.11, General Motors dropped 0.85 to 34.84 and Ford dropped 0.33 to 12.13. In the home improvement sector, Lowes dropped 1.18 to 71.12 and Home Depot dropped 1.00 to 134.08. With the exception of Coca-Cola, which went up 1.29 to 178.85, the big team sponsor’s stocks were down. McDonalds dropped 1.42 to 121.72, Target dropped 1.27 to 72.23, Aarons Rentals dropped 0.73 and Fedex dropped 5.66 to 186.20.

  On the tube this week:

  Thursday, January 5
8:30 AM, NASCAR Race Hub - Best of the Year, FOX Sports 1
5:00 PM, NASCAR Scan All Special, NBC Sports Net
5:30 PM, NASCAR Scan All Special, NBCSN
6:00 PM, Stories of NASCAR - Champions of 2016, NBCSN

  Friday, January 6
8:30 AM, NASCAR Race Hub - Best of the Year, FS1
5:00 PM, Stories of NASCAR - Behind the Wheel, NBCSN
5:30 PM, Stories of NASCAR - Legend: Tony Stewart, NBCSN

  Sunday, January 8
7:00 AM, How It's Made - NASCAR Car Bodies; Hurley Sticks; Tube Power Amplifiers; Thermal Coffee Pot, SCI-FI

  Monday, January 9
5:00 PM, Stories of NASCAR - Memorable Wins of 2016, NBCSN
5:30 PM, NASCAR Top Moments, NBCSN

   That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, and R.I.02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467.
E-mail: smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.

Phil Smith has been a columnist for Speedway Scene and various
other publications for over 3 decades.
 

Source: Phil Smith / Champ Trail
Posted: January 3, 2017