Cup race in KY?

[kykahnefan]

just heard that ky gov steve beshear has been talking to bruton smith about buying kentucky speedway - and that bruton's gonna do it! could it be true that the new gov and bruton will finally get us a cup race in the bluegrass? anyone know?

[Lee Roy]

From Jayski:



Bruton to buy Kentucky? announcement Today? The future of Kentucky Speedway is expected to be addressed during a “major announcement” scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Concord, N.C. Sources close to the speedway confirmed to the Enquirer tonight [May 21st] that Kentucky Speedway officials have been in talks with Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman and chief executive officer O. Bruton Smith about selling or partnering with the Sparta track owned by Jerry Carroll and his partners. A spokesman with Lowe’s Motor Speedway, one of the seven tracks owned by SMI that hosts NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, indicated only that Thursday's announcement would be of interest. The exact nature of the announcement is not immediately known, but it could include selling all or part of the speedway or partnering with Smith to bring a Sprint Cup race to the 1.5-mile track. Smith will make the announcement at 3pm/et Thursday in the media center at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Carroll was unavailable for comment Wednesday. News of a potential deal with SMI comes at the same time lawyers representing Kentucky Speedway continue to fight in 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the early January decision by a U.S. District Court judge to dismiss the track’s antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp.(Cinncinati Enquirer)(5-22-2008)

[Mark in Oshawa]

Bruton will not get Kentucky a date unless he takes one away from one of his other tracks. NASCAR wont make the sched any larger and wont take dates away from any of the existing venues. Kentucky is too close to Indy, Michigan, Pocono, Chicagoland and Bristol. People in this area have a lot easier trip to an existing NASCAR Sprint Cup event than many other fans in the US. I say....good luck.

[jeffconn]

Confirmed in Yahoo! Sports:

Speedway Motorsports purchased Kentucky Speedway
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_sp_au_ra_ne/car_nascar_kentucky_speedway;_ylt=AhCSQSwxzWe96q5Z ozCTrhUR07QF

[jeffconn]

i guess we will soon say bye-bye to New Hampshire's 2nd race.

[Sparky1329]

i guess we will soon say bye-bye to New Hampshire's 2nd race.

That would be my guess.

[DavePI2]

maybe fan hopitality will finally improve. I quit going there for years for that very reason. Noone knew how to treat fans worse then Kentucky Speedway. You had a better time at Columbus Motor Speedway then you did in Kentucky.

David

[Jonesi]

i guess we will soon say bye-bye to New Hampshire's 2nd race.

I thought that one was going to Las Vegas.

[tstran17_88]

NASCAR says too late to add Cup race in Kentucky

SPARTA, Ky. -- NASCAR's decision Friday to not have a Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway in 2009, despite a change in ownership to Bruton Smith, has left the track's founder livid.

Kentucky Speedway founder Jerry Carroll said in a phone interview Friday that he had contacted his attorneys to fight the decision.

"This is what bullies do and it's been going on too long," Carroll said. "They've showed their hand again. If they want to break us and want to run us out of business, get more creative."

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/05/24/nascar.no.to.kentucky.09.ap/index.html

[harvick#1]

geez, thank goodness Nascar said no, another boring Cookie Cutter wasting a date

[BenRoethig]

If he takes one way from New Hampshire, why not?

[RaceFanStan]

The thing is that NASCAR has to approve any changes in race dates ...
Kentucky could only take another track's race if NASCAR said okay ...
NASCAR seems to have a real issue against having a Cup race @ Kentucky. :eek:

[Lee Roy]

The thing is that NASCAR has to approve any changes in race dates ...
Kentucky could only take another track's race if NASCAR said okay ...
NASCAR seems to have a real issue against having a Cup race @ Kentucky. :eek:

You're correct. It's up to NASCAR where it's races are held. I think it would be incredibly stupid to take a race from New England, where there are so few, and move it to an area where there are a lot of races.

[tstran17_88]

You're correct. It's up to NASCAR where it's races are held. I think it would be incredibly stupid to take a race from New England, where there are so few, and move it to an area where there are a lot of races.Very true, but Bruton bought the track to bring a Cup race there. He generally doesn't buy tracks to just keep the status quo.

I sure hate to see NHIS loose a date, but we knew it was coming when Bruton bought it.

[nigelred5]

New Hampshire has the entire New England Market and very good crowds. SMI just doesn't like anything other than 1.5 mile borefests.
People are rumoring about them trying yet again to buy Pocono. Pocono is the closest race venue to NYC and MAdison Avenues' advertising executives, has very good attendance and is a very fan friendly racetrack. I don't see NASCAR approving moving either of their dates unless they can break into the NYC market with a closed ISC venue. Dover fills the Middle Atlantic's market between Pocono and Richmond so I can't see loosing one of their cup races either.

Atlanta's attendance sucks, and it seems there just aren't enough paying fans for their two races.

[jeffconn]

IMO, NASCAR made a BIG mistake when they allowed the North Wilkesboro dates to be transferred, then both Rockingham races and Darlington's 2nd races to be transferred too. That set the precedence that an owner could transfer any dates between tracks. Now SMI can say there is no legal reason for a race to NOT be in Kentucky. Prepare for more lawsuits.

A New Hampshire race will be lost, either to Las Vegas or to Kentucky.

[Lee Roy]

IMO, NASCAR made a BIG mistake when they allowed the North Wilkesboro dates to be transferred, then both Rockingham races and Darlington's 2nd races to be transferred too. That set the precedence that an owner could transfer any dates between tracks. Now SMI can say there is no legal reason for a race to NOT be in Kentucky. Prepare for more lawsuits.

A New Hampshire race will be lost, either to Las Vegas or to Kentucky.

I disagree. NASCAR has not allowed the transfer of a race that they didn't want to be transferred in the first place. If they don't want a race at the Kentucky track, it won't happen, no matter what Bruton Smith says.

I wonder if there was already some kind of an agreement in place between NASCAR and Smith. I find it hard to believe that Smith would invest in that track without some kind of a plan in place to begin with.

I think it would be stupid of NASCAR to move a Cup date to Kentucky now. They just got over that lawsuit because they wouldn't give Kentucky a date. If they were to give it a date now that the track ownership has changed hands, how would that look?

[oldhippie]

kentucky speedway has 1 nationwide and 1 truck race but they wont get a cup race date
if kentucky speedway is lucky they might get another nationwide and truck race later on
with only 66,000 seats kentucky speedway should never expect to get a cup race date

[tstran17_88]

with only 66,000 seats kentucky speedway should never expect to get a cup race dateNot sure that would be the deciding factor? Darlington only has 60,000 seats, Martinsville 65 K, Pocono 70 K & Miami 73 K.

[Lee Roy]

The deal may not quite be done yet. From Jayski:


France not ready to add Kentucky to Cup schedule: NASCAR isn't as anxious to put a Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway as Speedway Motorsports chairman Bruton Smith is. "It's not a market that we've said is highly desirable," NASCAR chairman Brian France said before Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "It's well served. We'll look at things as we get down the road, but right now he doesn't own it and we've got to deal with the owners that do have it and we have Nationwide events and Truck races, so we're working on that with them right now." Smith has agreed to purchase Kentucky Speedway with the contention that he can get a Sprint Cup date for the 1.5-mile track that he went so far as to file a lawsuit against International Speedway Corporation and NASCAR to get a date. He said on Thursday he wanted a date for 2009, something NASCAR says won't happen. He has 90 days to finalize the deal. France is concerned another Cup race in the Southeast, which already hosts more than half of the schedule, will further over-saturate the market. NASCAR spent the past few years trying to alleviate that saturation, closing North Wilkesboro and North Carolina Speedway that once hosted two Cup events each and taking one date from Darlington. "The schedule is getting completed and we have no intentions right now of getting a Sprint Cup race there for 2009," he said. "That's all we can say right now. We don't have any intentions of doing that." France said Smith has not informed him of his plans, which many speculate includes buying Pocono or Dover, closing those tracks and giving the Cup dates to Kentucky and Las Vegas. "I don't know about that," France said of the speculation. "Those are speedways that have their events. They're doing fairly well. When something changes in the ownership structure we'll deal with that." There also has been speculation that Atlanta, Talladega and California are swapping dates in the fall of 2009. That would give Atlanta the Labor Day weekend race, California the Talladega weekend and Talladega the Atlanta weekend. Sources said that likely will happen. "We're working on a number of things," Smith said. "That's one of the reasons it's too late in the game for us to be looking into any other realignment options, not the least of which is that SMI doesn't own Kentucky right now. We're trying to get our schedule out earlier than we have in a while and there could be some dates that move around a little bit, not from speedway to speedway, just in scheduling. [We] might be able to work on a different weekend for one track or another that has been trying to do that for a long time."(ESPN.com)(5-27-2008)

[nigelred5]

Who in their right mind would close down a track like Dover that even on less well attended cup races gets over 100K. Dover seats what, 135K+ now not counting infield spectators? They could have 66K EMPTY seats and still have more attendees than Kentucky and compare the market each race serves. Washington to Philadelphia with NYC barely 2 hours away, compared to Cincinatti and Louisville? I think Indy covers them fine and I wouldn't doubt that NASCAR's stance on Kentucky doesn't have a great deal to do with the Brickyard. They are at Chicago because Tony George was actually an original partner in Chicagoland with ISC. I wouldn't be suprised at all to learn that IMS has a 300 mile or so exclusivity agreement for IMS with NASCAR.

[ms0362]

They may pick up someones date. Honestly with people cutting back due to gas prices, I wouldn't be surprised if we Nascar starts considering a cut back schedule in future years. I bet we start seeing more open seats soon.

[Jonesi]

They may pick up someones date. Honestly with people cutting back due to gas prices, I wouldn't be surprised if we Nascar starts considering a cut back schedule in future years. I bet we start seeing more open seats soon.

Not a chance any track gives up a Cup date without fighting for it! The Cup series would probably be better with a slightly easier 32-34 race schedule, but no track (or network) wants to lose a date. Nationwide, Truck or IRL (excluding I500) races really can only clear a million or two profit. Most Cup races clear 10 million and a poorly attended one still probably brings in 4-5 million. What track would turn up its nose at that? (Especially if they owe mega millions to a bank.)