I agree with the point about off track entertainment. In a society with a much shorter attention span than before, the clowns shouting into a microphone, shooting t-shirts into the crowd during downtime, aren't interesting enough to make people come out to the races. And that act is so tired in general, it might even drive some people from the stands. If they aren't back to their seat in time, that doesn't make the crowd look good on the ESPN2.
The Brickyard 400 pre-race activities mentioned, are far more interesting to the crowd that may not be gearheads and want to watch the crews work in the pits. NHRA has the gearheads already, so the "every seat is a pit pass" thing, works fine for them but not everybody cares to watch pistons being pulled. Activities like these can also be more appealing to kids that may want a break from solid racecar, racecar, racecar, all day.
Local focuses should be key, such as his mention of his Road America experience. If the facilities were more willing to do this, I'm sure the local businesses, organizations, etc., would be more willing to drum up people to come out. New Hampshire Motor Speedway used to have a rotary club selling fantastic food (not sure if they still do or not, it's been some years now since I've been). I never saw a lack of people buying track vended food. There's no way that couldn't be a win-win, short of a track being that stingy on hot dog sales.
Sound systems. There have been such amazing strides in sound technology, there is no excuse to not be able to hear announcing. Yes, when a fuel car is going down the track, that's tough to compete with. However, a sound system that sounds great when all is quiet is good. When louder cars are idling, often moments when key information is being dispensed, and that's enough to override the P.A., there's no excuse for that. Perhaps with the use of compression, noise gating, etc., some emphasis could be placed on tuning a track's system to handle the dynamics of the day.
Coca-Cola... NHRA does need a real partner that cares. Coca-Cola's brands have gotten far more exposure from NHRA, their publications, their television broadcasts, and their representatives, than NHRA has from Coca-Cola's efforts. Admittedly, it's not been easy to find those dollars these last few years, but if this economy turns a bit, and NHRA bites for more years of Coca-Cola dollars, while getting the same return, then it'll fall far more on their shoulders. For now, though, I don't believe Coca-Cola has done nearly enough.
