I try to watch all Nekcar on road courses (legit and made up oval infields). Thou but I watched a smidge of this event(barely functioning wiper cracks me up), two things came to mind. Has it been over two years for a major series to visit this venue? And the attendance in a driving rain was amazing.....these peeps were Jonesin' hard for some motor sports.
Maybe not entirely true, but probably depends on what you call major. Indycars have been hit or miss (with lots of misses) since the mid-2000s. I think they ran once since 2019. Pirelli World Challenge was here last in 2019. NASCAR ran trucks a couple times about twenty years ago. American Rally Association National Championship was there a few weeks ago.
It certainly hasn't been like the old days when we used to consistently get Indycars, ARCA, IMSA/ALMS, Trans-Am, AMA Superbike every year.
The other bit of context is that right now is Rose Festival in Portland (our annual summer festival-a couple weeks of parades, flower shows, beauty pageants, concerts, fun fair, car races, boat races, etc)
NASCAR is the headliner at the Rose Cup Races, which have been part of Rose Festival since the early 60's. I don't know exactly how it impacts attendance (if at all) but the Rose Cup races are a big enough tradition that I hear non-car people mentioning them.
Indy Car has been back for 3-4 years. This is the first year for NASCAR in over a decade.
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