Sportswriters to speak at VCU on ‘The State of NASCAR’

By Tom Gresham

A panel of sportswriters who have covered NASCAR throughout the current racing season will discuss the state of the sport next week at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“The State of NASCAR” will be held at 3 p.m. on Sept. 6 in the VCU Student Commons Theater, 907 Floyd Ave. Examining NASCAR’s successes and challenges – both on the track and off – will be reporters David Caraviello of NASCAR.com; Gene Laverty of Bloomberg; Dustin Long, who writes for the Greensboro News & Record, the Roanoke Times and the Virginian-Pilot; and Nate Ryan of USA Today. Josh Lief, the general manager of VIRginia International Raceway, will moderate the session.

Admission to the panel discussion is free and open to the public.

The sportswriters will be gathered in Richmond next week for the NASCAR schedule’s second stop in town this season. Richmond International Raceway hosts the Busch Series Emerson Radio 250 on Sept. 7 and the Nextel Cup Series Chevy Rock & Roll 400 on Sept. 8.

VCU School of Business professors Jon Ackley and Michael Pitts organized the panel session. Ackley and Pitts co-teach an honors module course at VCU called “From Dirt Tracks to Madison Avenue: The Business of NASCAR,” and maintain a blog that addresses the business issues NASCAR faces. The Department of Management in VCU’s School of Business is a sponsor of the event.

Panelists are expected to discuss such issues as the Car of Tomorrow, the impact of Toyota’s entry into NASCAR, international interest in the sport, the Drive for Diversity efforts, the dominance of multi-car teams and persistent complaints that the sport’s image has become too squeaky clean.