Your eyes weren’t lying. There has been a lot of exposed aluminum at NASCAR races this season and the financial reporting from  International Speedway Corp. proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The company went from posting a $62 million profit at this time last year to a $6.5 million dollar loss now.

Most of the loss seems to have come from the merchandise wing of the company, which is suffering doubly. There are far less at track sales being made with the major attendance drop, and off-track sales have suffered heavily due to the poor economy.

The numbers are an interesting study in the problems that face NASCAR now, which is inching ever closer to being a burden to itself with the huge team budgets, high ticket prices, and slowness to react to this downturn in the economy and their business.

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