Kansas Speedway petitions to have second Cup date to join casino by 2011
Kansas Speedway officials expect to have two NASCAR Sprint Cup races no later than 2011 after it was announced Friday that the track will be the location of a new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
As part of the proposal by International Speedway Corp., which owns the track, to Wyandotte County (Kan.) leaders and the Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board, ISC President Lesa France Kennedy said that ISC would petition NASCAR for two Sprint Cup dates if ISC was awarded the casino contract.
The 2009 schedule is set, but the track could get a second Cup date as early as 2010 from NASCAR, which is owned by the France family, including France Kennedy.
ISC did not announce which track it would pull a date from. By NASCAR's structure, the group would need to shift a date from one of its other facilities instead of being awarded an additional race. ISC’s tracks with two Cup dates are Daytona, Auto Club (Calif.), Martinsville, Phoenix, Richmond, Michigan and Talladega. Its tracks with one date are Watkins Glen, Homestead, Chicagoland, Darlington and Kansas.
“Now that we have been given the green light to develop one of the nation’s most unique sports and entertainment projects, we look forward to moving forward with our other announced plans – this includes requesting that NASCAR move a second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to Kansas Speedway,” Kansas Speedway President Jeff Boerger said in a statement. “I look forward to NASCAR’s premier stock car series racing twice a year in the nation’s heartland by no later than 2011.”
ISC spokesman Wes Harris declined to speculate on which track would lose a date nor when a decision would be reached. He said ISC is committed to requesting NASCAR to move a date by 2011 because that is the year the casino is scheduled to open. He said 2010 remains an option.
Martinsville is a .526-mile oval that has the smallest seating capacity of the ISC tracks with two dates, while the much-bigger 2-mile California and Michigan ovals have faced challenges in filling seats at their tracks. The Kansas track is a 1.5-mile oval.
“I’ve seen comments from others that tried to speculate, and I’m not going to get into the speculation game,” Harris said. “We’ve got time, we’re going to go through the review in a very thoughtful way. We’re going to work with NASCAR on that process. … There probably will be a lot of questions, and there will be a lot of speculation.
“Clearly we want to move through the process on our end as efficiently as possible but give it a lot of thought.”
ISC is a publicly traded company, but the majority of voting stock is owned by the France family, which also owns NASCAR.
“NASCAR is going to take a look and see what they think is in the best long-term interest of the sport,” Harris said. “From ISC’s analysis, clearly the financial impact, as a public company, would have a big part of that analysis.
“What would be the impact potentially on our other facilities? Is there a positive impact? Or is there a potential negative impact? We want to do what is in the best long-term interest of our shareholders, but it also has to make sense for the sport.”
Harris said that the Kansas City market is an attractive market for a second date for racing, and the casino will enhance that.
“It really rounds out a weekend, a multiday experience,” Harris said. “With the racing component, it makes it very attractive to consumers and corporate America,”
Richard Childress Racing’s Clint Bowyer, a Kansas native, welcomed the news.
“That’s where I call home, and to see what Kansas Speedway has brought to that whole area … everything that is out there is because of Kansas Speedway, and I think bringing in the casino is just going to be another asset to an already awesome place to go,” Bowyer said. “I look forward to being part of that.”
The casino is a joint venture of ISC and The Cordish Co. The 1.5 million square-foot casino, with a cost of approximately $705 million to construct, will include a 300-room luxury hotel, 3,000 slot machines and 140 gaming tables. It will also have 275,000 square feet dedicated to retail, restaurants, convention facilities and an entertainment venue.
The casino will be located outside Turn 2. The development project will also include the construction of a permanent infield road course. The state of Kansas will receive two free trackside billboards to promote tourism and Camping World has committed to bring its annual national RV rally to the track.
