Area race fans who had a chance to watch their favorite drivers in NASCAR and the National Hot Rod Association won't be seeing any drivers in 2011 after the NHRA removed Gateway International Raceway from its 2011 schedule, which was released on Thursday.

It is the second major blow for the Madison track in four weeks. Last month, the track owner, Dover Motorsports, Inc., announced that it was not applying for 2011 dates for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, which had been coming to the 1.25-mile oval since 1997. The 2011 dates were given to Nashville Superspeedway, another Dover property.

The NHRA, which gave its 2011 Gateway date to Houston, had also been coming to Gateway since 1997. The drag racing facility seats about 20,000 fans.

"Given the uncertainty of the facility, we decided not to put a date on the schedule for next year," NHRA vice president of public relations and communications Jerry Archambeault said by phone from the NHRA offices in Glendora, Calif.

While Gateway is off the schedule for next season, Archambeault said a 2012 date is not out of the question.

"If the folks at Dover were to indicate that they were going to have a full schedule of drag racing activities in 2011, it would definitely be something we would talk about," he said. "Obviously we like coming to the marketplace. I know our fans love it. It's been a good event for us. I know there are a lot of NHRA fans out in that region. We'll just have to wait and see what the folks at Dover decide."

Denis McGlynn, chief executive officer and president of Dover Motorsports, agreed with Archambeault, saying Dover's announcement last month that the company would not apply for NASCAR dates and that it would be "evaluating its options for the future including a sale" left the NHRA with no other choice than to eliminate Gateway from the 2011 schedule.

"I guess (the NHRA) felt it was better to not have it on the schedule than to have it on the schedule," McGlynn said by phone from his office in Dover, Del. "From the NHRA standpoint, (the ownership issue) leaves an uncertainty of who is going to be there next year."

With the loss of its racing dates from two of the country's top sanctioning bodies, the fate of the 150-acre facility located in Madison just across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis remains unknown.

"We're still considering all the different options that we've got," said first-year Gateway vice president and general manager Terry Harmeson. "Obviously, this news, especially since we're looking at different business models (for 2011), makes it a bigger challenge (to keep the facility in operation). Everybody here was pretty down when we heard the news."

McGlynn would not shed any light on Gateway, which was recently devalued in price to $1.2 million.

"It's too early to tell," he said. "Obviously we're going to continue with the balance of our events for this year while we review our various options.

"We're a public company so we have to be careful to not violate our obligations to do what's best for the shareholders. We just have to continue to monitor the performance of the company the best way we can."

Gateway, which seats about 55,000 fans at the oval, will host one more NASCAR Nationwide race on Oct. 23 when Danica Patrick is scheduled to run. Ironically, that is the date that had been set for Memphis Motorsports Park, another Dover facility that was closed late last year.

McGlynn did confirm that Dover has been in contact with potential buyers for GIR. But because Dover leases some of the Gateway property, any negotiations with those buyers would also have to include the folks Dover leases with.

"It's still a little early in the process, but we've had some inquiries about the facility," he said. "We'd like to get some more just to get a broad sample of what the interest is out there. We'll just have to decide as we move along down this path, what's the best course. It's just a little too soon to give you a whole lot of clarity on the situation."

Dover Motorsports has owned Gateway since 1998 when it bought the track from its original developer, Chris Pook, who built the track in 1996. In addition to NASCAR and NHRA, Gateway has hosted Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and the Indy Racing League, the precursors to the Izod Indy Racing Series. The IRL left Gateway in 2003.