NASCAR is considering Wednesday nights Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora a success and are hopeful to return to the Rossburg, Ohio track in 2014.
The dirt track owned by Tony Stewart provided the first NASCAR race on dirt since September 30, 1970.
“Felt it over-delivered on everything they’d done,” NASCAR vice president Steve O’Donnell said Thursday. “Terrific turnout, really happy with how the competitors performed all night, so all in all, a great night for NASCAR and the sport.
“We’ll take a look at it and have conversations with Tony … and still want to go through the garage area and meet with team owners and competitors and get their feedback as well. And want to see the ratings. So far everything we’ve seen, it’s something we’d certainly entertain doing again for 2014.”
Wednesday nights race was the 10th most watched Truck race with 1.4 million total viewers and was easily the most watched sports program of the day.
O’Donnell did rule out the notion that the Nationwide Series could race at Eldora in 2014.
“We’ve been trying to get to shorter tracks with the trucks in general,” O’Donnell said. “You look at trucks and dirt, it felt more of a natural fit. Certainly, I think a Nationwide car could do that, but the focus has been trucks, and will continue to be for the near future to look at the Truck Series and keep that as a unique opportunity for them.”
Much of the racing on Wednesday night was single file which has drawn sharp criticism in the past but O’Donnell says he heard an overwhelming amount of positive reviews.
