The five-step program to fix the country's most hated racetrack

Carl Edwards won last year's Auto Club 500 after a rain delay left fans waiting until the wee hours. Tom Bowles's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tom. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

If Daytona is NASCAR's Super Bowl to start, then California is its red herring that follows. For the past four years, the speedway one hour from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood has won the Oscar for Worst Track Conditions, with the 2-mile oval criticized incessantly by fans, media, and race teams alike. Last year's February edition produced the biggest firestorm yet. After a light but steady rain fell all weekend, NASCAR attempted to start the race on Sunday when the track wasn't completely dry. Chaos ensued in the form of a multi-car wreck, with water seeping out from underneath the racing surface and causing slick spots where cars suddenly lost control without warning. After finally addressing the problem and stopping the race, rain resumed -- and fans were then kept in the dark until almost 2:00 a.m. EST before race officials finally gave up. The decision to postpone the finish until Monday came only after a record seven-hour rain delay.

For many, that race was viewed as the final straw for a facility that's failed to meet expectations. But before you take a bulldozer and start tearing this speedway to pieces, let's not forget it's smack in the middle of the nation's No. 2 media market. With NASCAR yet to build its dream track in New York City, two events in southern California give the sport upward potential, capable of reaching more than 20 million residents within a few hours' drive of the speedway. It's rare to have such a large, untapped fan base to choose from, making it poor business sense to just wipe this track off the map -- as much as traditional fans might want that.

Instead, NASCAR would be better off addressing California's issues head-on. Contrary to popular belief, the track isn't the worst on the circuit, with its multiple racing grooves giving cars ample room to race under the right circumstances. The track is hurt more by how it's perceived than anything else. With that in mind, here are four ways NASCAR could change California for the better:

Step 1: Change The Sprint Cup Schedule.

With virtually all the NASCAR teams based out of North Carolina, it doesn't make sense to have a race 3,000 miles away. It's even worse for the guys in the garage; the second Daytona is over, teams are rushing to get their haulers on the road simply to make the cross-country drive in time for the NASCAR garage to open on Thursday.

It's a scheduling quirk that makes no sense, especially considering the sport has about seven or eight tracks close to its home base in Charlotte that would allow teams a better chance to regroup. Instead, the sport dumps a West Coast strain on its teams before they even get the chance to hit the ground running (Las Vegas follows California on the schedule). There's no reason not to take these two races and push them back until April. In making the switch, you move up two of the more exciting races on the schedule in their place -- Atlanta and Bristol -- giving teams an easy drive from their Southeast base and a chance to build momentum and excitement for the 2009 season.

A pushback to April would also give California -- now known as Auto Club Speedway -- the marketing break it desperately needs. Not only is the weather cold and iffy in February, but the race currently falls on the weekend of the Oscars; and when NASCAR goes up against Hollywood, that's a battle they're never going to win.

Step 2: Market your drivers in places where they'll actually make new fans.

Speaking of Hollywood, NASCAR is known for hobnobbing with the rich and famous during their two trips out West -- not long ago, Kasey Kahne was rumored to have shared a public smooch or two with Paris Hilton. In fact, NASCAR's been known to run black-tie events to give drivers a chance to meet and greet A-list stars. That usually leads to a long list of celebrities making a trek to the track on race day, giving NASCAR a connection to fame it's long hoped would lure starstruck fans to the stands.

Here's the problem with that strategy, though: people in L.A. rub noses with these movie stars all the time. There's all sorts of red carpet events close to their homes each weekend; why would they want to drive an hour out of their way just to see a movie star roaming the pits? NASCAR would be far better served upping the number of local driver appearances in and around the community. Why not pull out all the stops, running a five day FanFest throughout the city in a manner similar to what they do in New York for the banquet? Forcing the sport's biggest stars to get down and dirty -- kicking it up a notch in public for the week -- may be the kick in the pants L.A. needs to finally get turned on to the sport.

Step 3: Shorten The Races.

Since the track's debut in 1997, all events at Auto Club Speedway have been 500 miles. Typically, that produces almost four hours' worth of racing, one of the longer events all season. It used to be that attrition would come into play for those final 100 miles, keeping around some element of suspense as the racing spread out. But with all the top teams rarely experiencing mechanical failure now with the CoT, is there any reason to go those extra 50 laps? Michigan Speedway, its sister track, has always had races 400 miles in length. Scaling back to a similar distance out West -- or even 350 miles -- would cut back nearly an hour of competition, increasing the intensity on the track for teams that would look at this event as more of a sprint race rather than an unnecessary test of endurance.

Step 4: Give Darlington Back Its Southern 500 On Labor Day.

When California received its second date on the schedule in 2005, it came at the expense of one of NASCAR's most legendary race tracks, Darlington. The first superspeedway to make it on the schedule in 1950, the egg-shaped oval was the host of a 500-mile race on Labor Day for 53 years. Breaking that tradition has left most fans enraged ever since, despite a Mother's Day version of the race that's become a popular sellout each year. The race that replaced it in California isn't capable of the type of rough 'n' tumble track conditions the one-groove race track in South Carolina always produced -- which has made it a change fans steadfastly refuse to accept.

So, even though NASCAR chose to shift the Labor Day date this year to Atlanta (California's second date was moved to mid-October) most fans' anger continues to be based at the one track that took that tradition away.

Step 5: tearing up the track and giving it a facelift altogether. Homestead-Miami Speedway is a great example of a place that's improved its quality of racing significantly, chopping up the surface and installing a different degree of banking around its 1.5-mile oval.

No matter what decision the NASCAR brass chooses to make, they need to take some sort of action -- and soon. It's getting tiring for everyone to see a bunch of empty grandstands each visit -- with 20 million people turning a blind eye to what's supposed to be the second-largest sport in America.