No Runny Eggs

Don Walker reports that Wisconsin Motorsports, which promotes the races held at the Milwaukee Mile, owes NASCAR $1,878,228 for the races that ran earlier this month. Late last week, Claude Napier, head of Wisconsin Motorsports, acknowledged that he still owed NASCAR money, but it was not known at that time just how much money was owed.

As part of a deal Wisconsin Motorsports and NASCAR inked the day before before the scheduled running of the Camping World Truck Series Race on June 19, Wisconsin Motorsports acknowledged that it would not be able to pay the sanctioning fees in full, and that all the revenue generated by the races that would normally go first to Wisconsin Motorsports would instead go to NASCAR. Thanks in part to a rain delay in the Truck Series race, there were approximately 7,500 people that attended that race the early afternoon of June 20, while approximately 35,000 attended the Nationwide Series race held in the evening of June 20.

Meanwhile, questions are still swirling about whether the Indy Racing League was paid for its May race, and whether the IRL will return to Milwaukee next year. The IRL continues to avoid answering whether it got paid, while Terry Angstadt, the president of IRLs commercial division, told the Indianapolis Star that Milwaukee’s presence on their 18-race schedule was in doubt because of promoter issues.

Both Napier and the Legislative Audit Bureau both state that the Mile will lose money this year. What is telling is the State Fair’s reaction to the troubles of the company they brought in after firing the previous promoter earlier this year – they’re just going to sit back and watch the whole thing implode.