Tony Stewart has a dream of sorts.
After two years of huge success with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing at his Eldora Speedway, Stewart would love to eventually see the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series come to his little half-mile track, as well, according to MRN.com.
“I’d love for the Truck Series to not be the only NASCAR that comes here,” Stewart said, according to MRN.com. “If this continues to go as well as we hope it does there’s no reason that the other two divisions couldn’t come possibly in the future.”
The NNS series, possibly. But to draw the Cup series, Stewart would likely have to expand the capacity at least three or four times – and that may still not be enough to accommodate the crowds that would come.
“I think we can make it work,” Stewart insisted, according to MRN. “If you can take the trucks and make them work here, the Cup cars and Nationwide cars aren’t much of a stretch from that. So it’s definitely feasible to do that.”
Since purchasing Eldora several years ago, Stewart and his staff have continued to upgrade the facility, making it arguably the premier dirt track in the country.
And there’s more capital improvement on the horizon, with a larger infield building to replace the outdated facility in place now.
According to MRN, the new building will include a hybrid media center/hospitality suite, an infield care center and concession stand.
Construction will begin in October and be ready for the 2015 racing season, according to track general manager Roger Slack.
“It’s going to be a significant investment, but is going to be significant improvement,” Slack said. “It will stay the very same height of the existing building so it will not affect the fans in the grandstands sight lines.
“We are really excited about this. This is probably the second biggest undertaking since building the suites (between Turn 3 and 4).”
Added Stewart, “This is part of the continued process of us making the commitment of improving the facility to making it bigger and better.”
While Stewart’s hopes of one day hosting the Cup and NNS series will likely remain that, he’s more than happy to provide an annual home for the Truck series for many more years to come.
“We are very appreciative and very content if we only run truck races from here on out,” Stewart said. “We get the privilege to keep hosting Truck races and we are very happy doing that.”
Follow me @JerryBonkowski
