MRN to broadcast June race at New Hampshire

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

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Motor Racing Network will handle the radio broadcast of the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races June 28-29 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, spokesman Wes Harris of MRN parent company International Speedway Corp. said Tuesday afternoon.

Motor Racing Network, owned by the France family-controlled ISC and rival Performance Racing Network are involved in lawsuits over the radio broadcast rights stemming from PRN parent company Speedway Motorpsorts Inc.'s purchase of the track in January.

PRN typically broadcasts the Nationwide and Cup races from SMI tracks.

A partial settlement in their court battles has resulted in MRN being granted the exclusive broadcast rights for June and for the two sides to enter mediation in hopes of settling which network will broadcast the September 2008 weekend as well as the 2009 and 2010 weekends, Harris said.

If the two sides can’t agree on a settlement on what should happen beyond June, they will return to court in 60 days, according to court
documents.

Without an out-of-court agreement on who would broadcast the June races, a court decision on who would be allowed to broadcast the race likely would have come only a few weeks prior to the event.

“Clearly we didn’t want to damage the race weekend,” Harris said. “Everybody had a lot to lose. … It’s going to be in the best interest
for everyone moving forward for it to go well June. We have complete confidence that we’re going to deliver a top-qualify product and great show just like we do week in and week out.”