The latest flaming idiot quote to come from NASCAR

Felix Sabates, minority owner of the Chip Ganassi Racing NASCAR team, says Michigan International Speedway should be eliminated from the Sprint Cup schedule.

"I mean, there's nobody left in Detroit other than the police and the unemployed," Sabates told the Charlotte Observer. "I'd cut Michigan off the schedule altogether. Michigan -- I'm talking about the state -- is never coming back to what it used to be, so why go there and throw good money after bad money?"

There are traditionally two summer races at MIS in Brooklyn. This year's events are June 13 and Aug. 15.


In Sabates' version of reality, both MIS races should be eliminated, along with one from each of the following tracks: Pocono, Atlanta, Phoenix and Fontana, Calif. That would take the schedule from 36 to 30 races.

"I think we grew too fast," Sabates said about NASCAR. "Some of these race tracks put in 140,000 seats, 120,000. That's crazy."

That statement probably applies to the Wolverines too, if that's the distinction that he was trying to make. 

200,000 total is still a 30 pct drop in attendance from 2008, right?

Meanwhile, 2 tracks in Tennessee sit virtually idle with a hardcore fanbase built right in. As an added bonus, all the fans are related.

The truth is that Sabates is right: The schedule is too long, and the sport suffers from a severe case of overexposure, as well as unrealistic expectations on the business side.