Another thrilling finish and perfect race day weather kept a near-record crowd of NASCAR Sprint Cup fans entertained this weekend at Watkins Glen International. Kyle Busch held off a charging Brad Keselowski in the final turn of the 90-lap Cheez-It 355 at The Glen before a crowd that WGI president Michael Printup said was about 94,000, an increase of 3,000 over last year and one of the largest crowds in the 28-year modern history of the Sprint Cup event at Watkins Glen. ‘We beat the heck out of that number last year’ Printup said. ‘The weekend was fantastic. The fans were happy and the drivers were happy.” Printups crowd statement gives an accurate gauge on NASCAR attendance at Watkins Glen for the first time. It has been a policy of the Glens parent owner, International Speedway Corporation, Inc., not to give out attendance figures because it is a publically-held company. Instead, the media had to rely on NASCAR to provide crowd estimates at their race events, a policy that was dropped this year. NASCARs estimates were not always accurate. Last year, they estimated 90,000 attended the Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen; Printup said it was actually 91,000. ‘We own our own ticketing system, so its really easy to determine’ he said. Printup had hoped to beat the attendance record, which he said was 94,300 in 2002. Rain and road closings on Thursday and Friday had a slight negative impact on an otherwise near-perfect weekend. The only issue Printup cited was some traffic snarls entering the track due to some signage mix-ups.( Elmira Star Gazette )(8-15-2013) News from August 14, 2013
