NASCAR Hall of Fame opens to lower-than-expected attendance

All things considered, it seems odd that it took until 2010 for NASCAR to open up a hall of fame. Now that NASCAR's best days may well be behind it, one might expect that fans would be thronging to a new museum dedicated to the drivers, crews and cars that spend every Sunday afternoon driving in circles and banging fenders.

However, now that the NASCAR Hall of Fame is finally open to the public, the crowds haven't been as big as originally projected. Supporters had hoped to lure 800,000 people to the facility in Charlotte, North Carolina during its first year of operation. However, based on the first month's attendance, the projections have now been ratcheted down to 600,000 or less.

Granted, most museums would kill to have 600,000 people come through in a year, but this is NASCAR where they do everything in a big way. The museum is still expected to to run a surplus of nearly $800,000 this year but waning interest in NASCAR and a continued weak economy could make things tough going forward.

[Source: That's Racin]