Is NASCAR coming to Kentucky?

Ever since I attended a stock car race at the Kentucky Speedway, I have been campaigning for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race to be held there. The facilities at the speedway are some of the best in the business. I rate the garage facilities as A-1 since there are enough individual car stalls to enable NASCAR to hold two of their series on the same weekend. There are plenty of crew lounges, a top notch media center and a professionally run medical center. The track is fan friendly with easy access from the grandstands to the fan walk and the pits. Due to a disagreement between ownership and NASCAR, and a lawsuit in the works, NASCAR has been reluctant to give the speedway a race date for a Sprint Cup race. The speedway currently holds a yearly Nationwide Series race, a Craftsman Truck Series race, an ARCA series race and an Indy Racing League series race. I see a Cup race in the near future for the bluegrass state. Last week Burton Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) announced that they have purchased the Kentucky Speedway for $15 million in cash and $63.3 million in assumed debt. The cash portion will be paid as $7.5 million over five years with an additional $7.5 million if certain conditions are met. The speedway was constructed in 2000 at a total cost of $152 million. Smith also announced plans to invest $50 million in the facility, mostly for increasing the seating by up to 50,000 more seats. It currently has a seating capacity of 66,089 . Burton Smith also owns the Motor Speedways in Charlotte, Atlanta, Bristol, Las Vegas, New Hampshire, Texas, and the Infineon raceway. Other than Infineon, his other tracks are called Motor Speedways but his new purchase will be called Kentucky Speedway due to legal reasons. Rumors have it that he may purchase The Pocono Raceway. Burton says, ‘I’m always interested in a speedway ‘ but here again, if I say something about Pocono, it would indicate to you that it’s for sale. I don’t know if it’s for sale or not, but if you’re telling me it is, then I’ll make a phone call tomorrow.’ Smith announced his purchase of the Kentucky Speedway to an assembled crowd in the Lowe’s media center. He said that when he toured the facility he absolutely loved it and feels the market surrounding the facility is a hotbed of racing and that the crowds have proven that they will support the track enough to lure a Sprint Cup Race. He also stated that the track is certainly ready and the added seats could be in place in a couple of months. Smith then added that the track is a ‘gorgeous, beautiful facility.’ Jerry Carroll, who led the group that constructed the track, has been asked to and has agreed to stay involved in the day to day operations of the facility. He further stated that the sale of the speedway was predicated on bringing a Cup date. Smith seemed quite confident that Kentucky would host a Cup race as early as 2009. This would mean he would move a date from one of his existing tracks, quite possibly Atlanta or New Hampshire. In the past, when asked about securing a second date for Las Vegas, Smith was adamant that he would not remove a date from one of his other tracks. This may mean the possible Pocono purchase could be more than a rumor. Any changes to the schedule must be approved by NASCAR and they stated that it is too late for a 2009 change. This did not sit well with the past owners of the Kentucky speedway. Does this mean the sale is off? I don’t think so ‘ what Burton Smith wants, he usually gets.