The growth in Monster Jam's popularity worldwide continues to be amazing and the opportunities to bring new fans into the fold are ever increasing. Last month's Monster Jam special on the CBS Sports Spectacular was another huge step in even more mainstream appeal of this series which thrills so many live and on television.

With Monster Jam's popularity higher than ever there's still so much growth potential, and that's exciting. Many in what may be considered more mainstream sports and entertainment are stunned when they see the huge numbers that Monster Jam attracts, not to mention how loyal and fervent those fans are.

Supercross in many ways has been kind of a cousin to Monster Jam over the years and even though our two wheeled friends are enjoying more mainstream media than ever with the CBS and Speed TV coverage and even results from Supercross action in places like USA Today many people heavily involved in other sports like NASCAR and Indy Car seem surprised when they get to know how popular these sports really are, even with their own fans.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of serving as the track announcer at the beautiful state-of-the-art Iowa Speedway for the US Cellular 200, a NASCAR Camping World Series East vs West Showdown race. On the stage in the center of the track during the opening ceremonies I was introducing the 44 drivers who made it into the race, and to no one's surprise, the loudest applause from the close to 25,000 Iowa fans in the grandstands was given to popular Kasey Kahne, who had flown into Newton, IA, early that morning after winning the one million dollar first place prize money in the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star race the previous night at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. What surprised many of the auto racing enthusiasts on hand was that clearly the second loudest ovation did not go to NASCAR veteran Steve Park, or Jeffrey Earnhardt, the grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., or even polesitter Austin Dillon, the 18-year old grandson of popular NASCAR team owner Richard Childress. No, to the shock of some that I talked to, the second loudest ovation of the day was given by the fans at Iowa Speedway to the driver of Ken Schrader racing's Monster Energy drink car: former Supercross legend Ricky Carmichael.

That reaction got me thinking about how the perception of the mainstream sports world is not based on the reality of the fan base in many cases. That might be the case in Supercross but to a much larger degree it is the case in Monster Jam and I keep enjoying the examples of just how many people heavily involved in other motorsports enjoy Monster Jam as well.

One that comes to mind is NASCAR star Michael Waltrip. I've known Michael since the beginning of his career, having been the track announcer when he raced a stock car for the first time ever at Kentucky Motor Speedway, a quarter-mile "bull ring" in Whitesville, KY. A couple of weeks ago Waltrip was in Louisville for an appearance at Churchill Downs leading up to the Kentucky Derby so I had the chance to interview him for the Kentuckiana Motorsports television show that I co-host in the Louisville market. As soon as the interview on camera ended Michael's first questions to me as we caught up on things were all about Monster Jam and the Monster Jam television program on Speed.

That kind of thing happens all the time these days, but it did not years ago, which further emphasizes just how the sport continues to grow. Here's another example. Before the race in Iowa last weekend I was in a meeting with Speedway personnel, NASCAR officials, and the producers of the event television broadcast from HDNet. As soon as the meeting was over a couple of the NASCAR officials stopped me and wanted to talk Monster Jam. They had taken their families to Las Vegas in past years and enjoyed the entire Double Down experience but scheduling conflicts kept them from going this year so they were quizzing me about everything that happened on the track and behind the scenes at this year's NGK Spark Plugs World Finals.

My point in this piece is that I continue to be pleasantly surprised quite often with these types of reactions showing just how strong and popular Monster Jam has become while at the same time seeing how much potential for even more growth remains. Thanks in large part to our phenomenal competitors and to the most loyal fans in the world, the Monster Jam fans, the sport has never been stronger or more popular, and we haven't come close to peaking yet!