Short-track summit: There's more to it than going in circles

America's short tracks are in trouble, but help is on the way. Actually, help has already arrived, but it's not like the cavalry just rode in.

You remember how they used to do it in the spaghetti Westerns: The troops would be on routine patrol several hundred miles from the fort when they'd ride up on a small wagon train besieged by the bad guys. With the sound of a bugle and thundering hooves, the soldiers would swoop down, drop three or four of the enemy with every round fired and save the day.

It's not that simple in real life and real life is what short-track operators are dealing with here. And the cavalry in this instance is the major big-track player, NASCAR.

NASCAR is helping put on the Short Track Racing Summit in Daytona Beach, Fla., this week. http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/10900722.htm The company's deepest roots are in racing's bull rings while its sister operation, International Speedway Corp., runs many of the superspeedways of today.

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Many sanctioning bodies and tracks from throughout the United States and Canada are represented at this week's convention. And none expects a silver bullet to be found. But the fact that these good people are getting their heads together is a very positive step in the right direction.

While there are still short-track success stories out there, many tracks are struggling with soaring costs, lackluster shows and dwindling attendance. Humpy Wheeler, as aggressive and loquatious a race promoter as there is, estimates that only a third of the Carolinas short tracks running in the 1960s are still with us.

Wheeler likes to point to your typical 12-year-old boy.

Here's a guy with a cell phone, maybe even a pager. He might even have a Game Boy in his backpack. He's got an X-Box or PlayStation at home. He and the rest of the family enjoy a wide-screen TV, too, with cable or satellite. And there's even a movie rental place half a mile or so away.

In short, this is the most entertained kid in the history of the world.

Many 12-year-olds in Wheeler's and even my day thought a Friday or Saturday trip to a muddy dirt track was like the circus had just come to town. Today's 12-year-old would probably rather do something else than watch a race and get mud caked on his $150 sneaks.

And, of course, he can probably stay home and watch a NASCAR race on TV, sitting on a couch within easy walking distance of the fridge.

Tracks have to control costs, not just for the fans but competitors as well. If racers can't afford to compete, what's there for fans to watch?

Many tracks, sadly, still need to clean up their acts. If you think that 12-year-old kid's concerned about mud on his sneakers, check out the look on your wife or girlfiend's face when she sees the "amenities" at some of these places.

And to compete with the refrigerator's proximity to the TV at home, some tracks need to do a little better than cold hot dogs and stale buns.

"Nobody cooks any more," Wheeler says. And that's close to true. If you can put better, affordable food on premises, a family of four won't have to stop on the way to the track.

Working people in America are working harder than ever. And it sometimes takes the promise of a pretty rewarding experience to pry them off the couch in front of the TV.

It's true to a degree, too, that NASCAR's tremendous growth and television exposure have done to short tracks precisely what Wal-Mart and its kind have done to most of the mom-and-pop retailers in America. But Wheeler notes that innovative mom-and-pop stores are holding their own against the giants and that some are doing better than ever.

And that's what the Short Track Racing Summit is all about. Sharing success stories, brainstorming to find the innovations that will work.