Opinion: Adding Nationwide race to Indy a good call, but taking a race away from Lucas Oil Raceway is not

Within the last day or two, there have been rumors about Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR considering the possibility of adding a Grand-Am Rolex Series road course race and a NASCAR Nationwide Series race to the 2012 Brickyard 400 NASCAR weekend.

Currently, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the only one of NASCAR's three top series to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the season. However, a recent decline in ticket sales have track officials worried, creating opportunities to change that.

Their solution to the problem appears to be giving fans more value for their tickets - three races in one weekend, instead of one.

"If you're trying to figure out how to spend dollars in the summer, it helps make this event more attractive," Doug Boles, the director of public relations at IMS said. "You can camp and stay in one location and see two or three events."

This idea is a great idea to give more to the race fans, especially since NASCAR's Indy weekend usually consists of very little track activity at all during the weekend. In fact, most of the track activity is down the road at the short track of Lucas Oil Raceway (previously ORP), where the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series teams race.

However, Lucas Oil Raceway is exactly where the problem begins. The short track provides great racing, as most short tracks do, and puts on a great show every time for both the Trucks and Nationwide series. Taking away a Nationwide race from the Speedway would be disappointment.

NASCAR is already in an era where many people feel NASCAR is getting away from their roots of short track racing, heading to more "cookie cutter racetracks." While they may not necessarily be those "cookie cutters" a short track race does put on a great show.

Perhaps it is time to place a race at Lucas Oil Raceway somewhere else on the Nationwide schedule. NASCAR would most likely have to take a race away somewhere else, but that certainly can be done - many tracks have two dates anyway.

NASCAR could go even a step further by moving the Camping World Truck Series race somewhere else on the schedule with the Nationwide Series. This would allow for the developmental series to rid itself of more Sprint Cup drivers, and would allow Indy to be the only place in the area for a NASCAR event during the weekend. This would (hopefully) help the ticket sales at IMS quite well.

As of now, adding a Nationwide race to IMS is all speculation and nothing is official. However, if done right, there can be two great NASCAR weekends in the Indy area at different times during the season - all with good crowds.