IndyCar is the same way. Of the seventeen teams that field nearly thirty-four cars in the IndyCar series, with the exception of Foyt Racing and Dale Coyne Racing, all are based in the Speedway, Indiana, area, just west of Indianapolis.

Indianapolis being the historical and spiritual center of open wheel racing in the United States. Like NASCAR it brings venders, subcontractors, and the like to this area to support this part of the motorsports industry.

This is not something that is only in the United States. Formula One, by all accounts is the most expensive and technologically advanced form of motorsports, and even though the sport is the global powerhouse of racing and business, it too has a cultural nucleus: Silverstone, England. Formula One teams populate the area between Silverstone and London. Eight of the eleven Formula One teams and their subsidiary components that make up (Formula 2, Formula 3, and Formula Ford) are based within about an hour of radius of Silverstone.

This is something that is not lost on the British government. The domestic revenue generated by these teams is, as the British are fond of saying “staggering”. The lowest budget Formula One team has an operating revenue of, 83 million pound sterling or 110 million US dollars per season. The largest budget Formula One budget is 468 million pound sterling or a mind warping three-quarters of a billion US dollars. These teams employ thousands of people, who, trust me, are not making minimum wage. Therefor it generates a nice tax base for the township and the country.

This business scenario is also true outside of motorsports. If one wants to be a part of country music and its culture, one goes to Nashville. If you want to get into the movies at any level you go to Hollywood. These are the cultural centers of these industries.

So what does this have to do with drag racing? I will tell you. Our sport is going through a time a flux. Back when the sport was in its heyday, when Fortune 500 companies looked to the sport as a viable marketing tool and there were huge fields of cars in the professional classes, the sport also had something. It had culture. Wally Parks, founder of the NHRA, saw to that. The NHRA was based in Southern California. Many of the professional drag racing teams were based in California or had subsidiary shops there. Why? Because Southern California is where the sport originated. The venders and subcontractors are all there. If you wanted to be somebody or do something in drag racing, you moved to Southern California.

However, as time went on and progression set in along with changing political and social economical climates, the structure of the culture started to disintegrate. Tracks disappeared to expansion of the population base. It became harder to do business and find marketing partners who wanted to be in the sport. The cultural nucleus was eroding.

Then a few teams based in Southern California for decades left the state in search of a new cultural center, and others just folded up.

That handful of teams decided that Indiana was the place to go. The move was explained as being one to further enhance logistics. Being closer to the center of the country would theoretically make it more cost effective to compete at all the national events and Brownsburg, Indiana, was the chosen place. Close to Indianapolis Raceway Park, home of the U.S. Nationals and another track considered to be hallowed ground in the sport. These handful of teams started taking up residence in Brownsburg.

But many of the venders and other support systems to NHRA drag racing along with the sanctioning body itself failed to make the same move.

So, was Indy the right place to move? Does Indy have the culture for drag racing that Speedway has for open wheel racing? On the other hand, are we splitting hairs?

I know that maybe six of the seven of you might think I am spending other people’s money. That is not the intent. The intent is to take a look at some of very, very successful business models and see the one thing they have in common. They have a centralized culture. We need to find a way for drag racing to emulate those business models and become a force again in the world of motorsports.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.