Driving down 16th Street right with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway towering above you is always a surreal moment.

Perhaps none more so than this year.

At 7:50 a.m. an Indianapolis TV station reporter said traffic was starting to build up around IMS and he expected it to get heavy soon. With that info I headed out of my hotel room about 15 miles from the track. I made into the IMS 30 minutes later, rolling down 16th Street almost as if it were a normal weekday morning. I heard similar reports from others and the small crowd — an announced 125,000 — was the reason there were no traffic jams reported.

A crowd of 125,000 sounds impressive, but considering the crowd was 138,000 in 2011, it’s another large drop. You only have to go back as far as 2005 for a crowd of 280,000 at the Brickyard. Outside the track on Sunday, there were reports of fans having trouble unloading tickets for $45. Another fan said she tried to give away a $75 ticket but found no takers.

The Brickyard 400 is not alone in seeing declining crowds. A sluggish economy, record temperatures and the ease of sitting at home with refreshments and a restroom — both with no wait — right around the corner are certainly factors. With discretionary incomes limited these days, fans are having to make choices.

IMS did its best to pump up the crowds by running the Grand-Am sports car series on its road course Friday — which by the way might have been the best racing of the weekend — and hosting the Nationwide Series for the first time on Saturday. Concerts, Q&As and driver autograph sessions and other entertainment attempted to keep the fans entertained before the races.

The problem for tracks like IMS and others is there are plenty around here to choose from. IMS, Kentucky Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Chicagoland and even Bristol, Tenn., are all in play for fans from this region. With that in mind, is it time to shorten the NASCAR season — even temporarily until the economy picks up — or award tracks just one date to make racing less saturated in the Midwest?