Former Kentucky Speedway owner Jerry Carroll happy with legacy, not wallet

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Jerry Carroll and the Kentucky Speedway founding group decided not to pursue any further appeals in their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

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Jerry Carroll has used the term “bittersweet” many times ever since he and his partners agreed to sell Kentucky Speedway to Speedway Motorspots Inc. in May 2008.

But it had a little extra meaning Friday after the founding group decided not to pursue any further appeals in its antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp. That decision means there likely will be a Sprint Cup race at the track in 2011 since NASCAR would not allow SMI to realign a Cup race to that track until the lawsuit was resolved.

“I do not want my grandchildren to drive by and say, ‘You see that big field over there with the rundown stands. My dad went over there and tried to build a race track,’” Carroll said. “The legacy will be, somebody will drive by there, and there will be a Cup race. They will say, ‘See that over there. Many, many years ago, a creative guy that did a lot went over there and built that speedway when people thought he was nuts.’”

But that guy is not in charge of it anymore, and he says he lost money.

“Lost a great deal of money,” Carroll said. “Life goes on. You’ve got to go on with it. I’ve had setbacks before, but nothing like this.”

Kentucky Speedway, a 1.5-mile track located about 25 miles south of Cincinnati, opened in 2000 at a cost of $152 million. It was sold to SMI, which was considered a co-conspirator in the antitrust case, in a $78.3 million deal.

The founders included Carroll, who owns horse-race tracks and office buildings, as well as businessman Richard Duchossois, a board member of Churchill Downs Inc.; Cintas Corp. Chairman Richard Farmer; and executives at Outback Steakhouse.

Would Carroll build the track if he knew what he knows now?

“With the belief that we have a market and we were building in the right place, yes I would do it again with that in mind. I believe we had the right market, I believe we had the right track, and I believe we did everything right,” Carroll said. “But in retrospect of understanding the difficulty of getting a race, I would not do it again.

“If you’re an entrepreneurial person, you never want to try to win something on merits and doing it real good and realizing later on that you never had a chance. We never, ever had a chance. Call us a little bit naïve when we got in, but we’re risk takers. That’s what makes this world go round.”

According to court documents, NASCAR, the sport’s sanctioning body, is owned privately by Jim France, the brother of the late Bill France Jr., and Lesa France Kennedy, daughter of Bill France Jr. and sister of NASCAR Chairman Brian France.

ISC is a publicly traded company, the majority of whose stock is owned by the France family. ISC has 19 of the 36 Sprint Cup events at its 12 tracks, while SMI has 12 races at seven tracks. The other five races are held at independent facilities.

Kentucky Speedway’s founders filed the lawsuit in 2005 alleging that NASCAR and ISC illegally work together to keep independent tracks from getting Cup dates. They sought in excess of $200 million in damages and were asking for the France family to sell off NASCAR and/or most of its tracks and for new criteria to be created for awarding Sprint Cup race dates.

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp. in the antitrust lawsuit brought by the track’s former owners.

The founders of Kentucky Speedway had only two potential appeals left: They could have asked for a hearing in front of all of the 24 appeals court judges, and they could have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Their chances of success were considered very slim.

“We’re not people that like to sue,” Carroll said. “And we looked at our options, and we looked at everything, and we looked at the judges’ rulings. This is why we have a court system. The deal was, it was time to move on.

“I had fought this thing in my own state and taken some of the heat and had made a lot of promises. We got beat twice. We tremendously believe in the merits of our case. We never backed off. We still to this day feel like we were right. All we were trying to do was create value for NASCAR. We did not set out to do anything negative to NASCAR. We’re entrepreneurial people that have started major companies in our life, and we thought we were doing something good.”

Carroll decided to spearhead the building of the track after a visit to Texas Motor Speedway in 1998. He was invited to the track by Musco Sports Lighting, which had done the lights for Carroll’s horse-racing tracks as well as NASCAR tracks.

The Kentucky track could not be profitable without a Cup race, Carroll said. He hopes to be at the track for future races – and especially the first Cup race.

“We had one big goal, and that was to get a Cup race,” Carroll said. “If you get there in a different avenue than when you started with, then so be it. … We’re not wishing anybody, including NASCAR, any ill luck. I understand NASCAR’s feelings on certain things, and I respect what NASCAR does.”

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Comments

15 responses to "Former Kentucky Speedway owner Jerry Carroll happy with legacy, not wallet". Post a Comment.

1

Robby said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Bruton Smith paid him off.
2

dale said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Robby, you really need to take your conspiracy theories someplace else.
3

dale said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 2:25 PM
The founders of Kentucky Speedway are a bunch of arrogant, self-important idiots that think they deserve a cup date simply because they want one.

This whole debacle shows how clueless they were from day 1. I would like to see them try and pull the same trick with MLB or the NFL.
4

phillipwafford said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 2:31 PM
"THANKS" Jerry for building the track. I know it doesn't make your wallet feel any better and we can only feel sorry for you and your partners! but we finally get a cup race at "KENTUCKY" and Bruton has only helped to improve your dream wish he could have kept "ARCA" in the schedule and I'm glad the ISC dictatorship didn't get a hold of it [the track] now I can go to a race in my own state because I wont go to a track owned by them[ISC]
5

rwilliamhayes said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 4:20 PM
Very few times can you go against the entrenched power structure and win whether it's FRANCECAR,or Joes Carwash INC.
6

Robbygordonfan1 said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 5:06 PM
I really don't see how the ISC-SMI pairing isn't a monopoly.......If it is seen as a legal operation we seriously need to reevaluate what constitutes a monopoly in this country. As for comment number 3, I don't understand the anger by some fans towards the original owners of Kentucky Speedway, if you get screwed over it's well within your rights to sue. And they did get screwed over.
7

kcysr said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 7:23 PM
I Can't see how it is a monopoly what do they monopolize not auto racing or stock car racing there are other forms of auto races and ARCA and ASA are stock car racing series. Nascar is a private business and like me who owns a private business I don't want anyone telling me how to run it and what markets to be in and what customers I must have and which ones to cut services from to do business with who I'm told I must. ISC is not a monoploy the have competion like SMI and alot of mom and pop tracks. The anger is coming from the fans who like me heard Na$car tell them before they built the place the market was covered by INDY Bristol and Talladega and they did not intend to bring a cup race there so if that is your intention don't build it. So now they build it and demand what they were told they were not getting and it is arrogant on their part to demand a date from another track and fans to suit their wants. I've been going to both races at Dover for 27 years and do not want to give up a date for them. If the Kentucky market wanted a cup date they should of jumped in the game early when there was no money in it instead waiting until it was a sure money maker. I would not dump one of my longtime customers who i've been dealing with and making money on to go with a new customer who I would make alittle more money on now and maybe lose money on later.
8

Robby said:
Dec 19, 2009 at 9:49 PM
Dale. Mr Carrol doesn't care about a cup date, if he did why did he continue the fight against Nascar after he sold the track to Bruton fully knowing that doing so was only preventing Kentucky Speedway from getting a cup date. Mr Carrol only had one thing on his mind from day one and that was money!! That my friend is no conspiracy theory, it's a fact.
9

phillipwafford said:
Dec 20, 2009 at 10:44 AM
business is business and to be a successful business man you have to make money or close the door or sell and when Kentucky tried to buy one of those northern tracks and they wouldn't sell to them but sold it to ISC for approx 10 million less what do you call that? monopoly!!!
10

daviclar38 said:
Dec 20, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Phillip, These companies have been around for a long time, they are business partners/friends who have done a great job in promoting "their" product. Its seems to make sense to "keep it in the family".
11

Robbygordonfan1 said:
Dec 21, 2009 at 2:16 AM
Daviclar38 "keep it in the family" as you call it is technically called collusion and that's supposed to be illegal in this country.
12

Racer60 said:
Dec 21, 2009 at 8:20 PM
Jerry Carroll did the same thing in 2001 that he was after NASCAR for.

News Friday, December 21, 2001

The Cincinnati Enquirer
By Terry Flynn

Louisville Speedway to be demolished

FORT MITCHELL — Kentucky Speedway is making plans for another year of auto racing, but track chairman and co-owner Jerry Carroll said the other track he owns, Louisville Speedway, has held its last race.
Mr. Carroll and his partners bought Louisville Motor Speedway in 1998 as the initial construction began on Kentucky Speedway.

The idea was to show NASCAR that the group was serious about auto racing, and also enabled them to move the NASCAR truck race from Louisville to Kentucky Speedway.

Louisville Motor Speedway was a 3/8-mile race track located in Louisville, Kentucky. It was opened in 1988 and hosted NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races from 1996 to 1999.
13

daviclar38 said:
Dec 22, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Gordonfan, maybe so but NASCAR is a private "fraternity" who had the foresight to include a few others to keep from being showed as a monopoly. Just like another earlier post said, NASCAR isn't all motorsports in the country that exist.
14

Robbygordonfan1 said:
Dec 23, 2009 at 12:03 AM
A this so called "fraternity," still no matter how you slice it is collusion, has only been around for the last 20 years or so when ISC & SMI started buying up tracks from independent operators at a favored pitch. For my Christmas present I'd like the Obama administration to dust off the old Anti-Trust laws.....but that would be too hard for our corporate friendly president.
15

miamijoe755 said:
Dec 23, 2009 at 7:19 AM
NASCAR and SMI pulled together to run the little guys out of merchandising by buying up the diecast and apparel business and now they are filing bankruptcy in those markets while the small vendor was stuck with old merchandise with no ability to buy new items. NASCAR and the Frances have always had a my way or highway mentality and that is not American. Kentucky has built a far fan friendlier facility than any ISC owns and deserves better treatment than to see tracks owned by ISC propsed for NY and Washington state.