NASCAR expects to hear from Speedway Motorsports this week on requests for 2011 Cup schedule
Bruton Smith and Indy Racing League Chief Executive Officer Randy Bernard answer questions about future NASCAR and IRL races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. // Jeff Velte, NASCAR Illustrated
LOUDON, N.H. – Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith says fans shouldn’t listen to rumors about the possibility of New Hampshire Motor Speedway losing one of its two Sprint Cup dates.
In announcing Sunday that he is bringing an IndyCar Series event back to the track in July 2011, Smith wouldn’t offer any hints about what he will ask NASCAR to do for the 2011 Cup schedule. Smith threatened to move a race from New Hampshire to another SMI track because of a dispute with local police in Loudon.
“The last three weeks, you’ve read and you printed and you’ve seen a lot of the stuff that is going on and we don’t like that,” said Smith, who is in a dispute over a bill $170,000 for police protection on NASCAR race weekends. “We couldn’t [move a race] without talking to NASCAR first. … If we have something to announce, we’ll announce it. But let’s not rely on rumors.”
NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Steve O’Donnell said he expects to hear from Smith this week about potential realignment of dates for 2011. SMI has two Cup Series races at Charlotte, Bristol, Texas, New Hampshire and Atlanta as well as one at Las Vegas and Infineon. He doesn’t have a Cup date at Kentucky Speedway, which SMI purchased last year.
Atlanta and New Hampshire are the two smallest venues in terms of seating capacity that have two races in SMI’s Cup portfolio.
“We expect to hear something this coming week [from SMI],” O’Donnell said Sunday. “Last year we didn’t get the schedule until early September. We’ve got enough time to look at it, make a decision and work with all the tracks out there. … We’ve got a pretty long streak of great support in New Hampshire, but I’m not going to speculate on what may be out there.
“We look at TV markets, the race track, attendance trends, marketplace saturation – there’s a lot of different factors, [including] where things fall in the schedule.”
The France-controlled International Speedway Corp. has asked NASCAR to realign one of its current Sprint Cup dates to a second Cup event at Kansas Speedway, a condition of ISC’s landing a casino license for the track.
ISC’s current smallest venues – all under 100,000 seats – with two dates are Auto Club Speedway, Martinsville and Phoenix.
Not saying where that date would come from, O’Donnell said NASCAR can’t do much in figuring where that second Kansas date will fit into the schedule until it hears from Smith this week. O’Donnell said the earliest in the year a race could be held in Kansas is in late April.
In other scheduling news, Indy Racing League Chief Executive Officer Randy Bernard stated that the start of the Indianapolis 500 could move to 11 a.m. EDT, which would allow drivers to compete in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on the same day.
Smith has said he would like to work with Bernard to offer a $20 million bonus to anyone who can win both races.
“Mr. Smith and I have had some dialogue, of course, and we have some big ideas,” Bernard said. “Part of those big ideas is we’ll have to move the start time to 11 a.m.; Jeff Belskus, who is the CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will have some say on that as well.
“I think we are all in agreement that an 11 a.m. start has never been a deterrent from IMS. I think it is one step in a positive direction to help Mr. Smith and I for our big thinking.”
Quipped former NASCAR driver and 2010 Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti: “It’s not just the driving, you’ve got to win to get the $20 million. That would be a long day.”
