They sat in lawn chairs yesterday under a blue tent a few feet from Laburnum Avenue, a box of fried chicken on the cooler of bottled water between them.

Homemade signs -- "RACE TICKETS," "BUY-SELL-TRADE" -- were affixed to the side of the tent and exposed to traffic heading toward Richmond International Raceway, about a half-mile away.

Dante and Kevin identified themselves as ticket brokers from Florida. They declined to provide their last names.

In town for the NASCAR races, they said they acquire tickets through various sources at less than face value and attempt to resell them for profit. It's legal off the RIR property, according to Henrico County law-enforcement officials.

Dante and Kevin said they do this at several NASCAR stops and other sporting events east of the Mississippi River.

"That's the game," Dante said. "Free enterprise. The country is built on it."

The game, according to these two and other ticket brokers working the streets around RIR, is not much fun here this year.

"Terrible, just terrible," Carl, who also chose not to provide his last name, said of his business as he displayed three tickets to approaching traffic on Laburnum.

"And the ones that stop, they're picky this year."

Aimee Turner, director of public relations for Richmond International Raceway, expects the racetrack will sell their remaining tickets, less than 200.

"We we are optimistic that we will have a sell out by tomorrow's race."

However, as slow street sales continued, tonight's race, the Dan Lowry 400, still was not sold out, a rarity for a Sprint Cup race at RIR. Ticket demand was down primarily because of the slumping economy, the ticket-sellers agreed.

"It's so bad that the Mafia had to lay off five judges in New York City," laughed Dan the Ticket Man, a North Carolinian who was selling tickets farther down Laburnum. He, too, wasn't interested in sharing his last name.

As tickets were available at RIR box offices, the Laburnum brokers spent the warm afternoon sipping water, smoking cigarettes and cursing the economy.

"I don't care what business it is, business is suffering," Dante said. "There's a whole lot more rice and noodles being bought these days."

Dante and Kevin said they have worked Laburnum Avenue for several years on race weekends. Combined, they have cleared as much as $1,000 during a Thursday-Saturday shift, Kevin said.

Yesterday, he was hoping that by tonight, the two could break even, earning enough to cover their travel costs.

"When things are bad, they're worse in Richmond for us for some reason," said Paul, also trying to unload tickets at another spot on Laburnum.

Paul and Dan the Ticket Man travel together and have come to Richmond's races for about the past 12 years, Paul said.

They also occupied lawn chairs, which they shared with a small dog, and relied on tickets-for-sale signs stuck in the ground several feet in front of where they were stationed on the corner of Laburnum and Hawthorne. Interested customers took a right on Hawthorne, parked, and negotiated with Dan the Ticket Man.

Typically, they sell about 175 tickets from Thursday to Saturday, according to Paul.

"Right now, I've sold two," he said yesterday afternoon. "And that's bad. This is the worst I've ever seen."

Kevin, up the road a bit, agreed. But he wasn't ready to abandon his post.

"NASCAR fans show up," he said. Sitting next to Kevin was his partner, Dante, who nodded and said: "How much they're going to spend, that's another thing."

Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233 or joconnor@timesdispatch.com.