SMI's Bruton Smith hopes to have Cup race in Kentucky by 2010
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Friday, October 24, 2008
Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith addresses the media at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
David Griffin
NASCAR Scene
HAMPTON, Ga. – Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith said Friday he is still hoping to have a Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway in 2010.
SMI is scheduled to close on the 1.5-mile oval in December.
Smith has said NASCAR has told him that it won’t even consider putting Kentucky on the Cup schedule until the antitrust lawsuit by the original track ownership group against NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp. is finished.
Jerry Carroll, the track founder, has said he has had no intentions of dropping the suit.
Carroll's group alleges in the suit, filed in 2005, that the France-family owned sanctioning body, NASCAR, illegally works with the France-controlled race-track operating company, ISC, to keep tracks such as Kentucky Speedway from getting a Cup date. NASCAR and ISC deny those claims.
The lawsuit currently is in U.S. Appeals Court in Cincinnati. In January, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of ISC and NASCAR without the case going to trial because he ruled Kentucky Speedway's expert's theories were inadmissible. If Carroll's group wins its appeal, the case would then go to trial.
Final briefs in the appeal are not due until Dec. 16. A hearing on the appeal isn’t expected until January or February 2009 at the earliest.
“I talk to Jerry all the time,” Smith said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “He’s tried like the dickens to get it [settled] but we have not been able to be successful on that.
“We will have a Cup race there in 2010.”
Smith, who is buying Kentucky Speedway for $78.3 (including the assumption of $63.3 million in debt) has not indicated which track he would move a Cup race from to Kentucky.
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8 responses to "SMI's Bruton Smith hopes to have Cup race in Kentucky by 2010". Post a Comment.
Carol Hohman said:
Oct 24, 2008 at 7:53 PMdont take a date from another track and the fans that have tickets there DON"T TRED on MY TRACK!!!!!
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» Confirm Abuse ReportAndrew Briscoe said:
Oct 24, 2008 at 8:16 PMFor some reason, call me crazy, but I don't think Kentucky needs a Cup date. The schedule right now, as screwed up as it might be, is pretty decent. Adding Kentucky would be an advantage only to those that have tested there all the time to get better.
Report as AbusePlus, all indications are Martinsville would lose a date. Since I doubt SMI would spend $78M for a track to get a bland March date, I think it'd be a swap of the Chase race, and we've already got Kansas and Homestead that are tracks with only one race that are in the chase. No more, please.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportKenneth Farley said:
Oct 25, 2008 at 2:14 PMMaybe they could take one of the dates from the all too boring California Speedway (and yes, I am from California) and let Kentucky have a shot at it. Who knows, maybe NASCAR track owners could dome some tracks and they could run all year. And if the drivers don't like the schedule, they could have more drivers to take up the slack, it would open up more opportunities for more drivers, and more people could see races.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportLORETTA DUGGER said:
Oct 25, 2008 at 4:32 PMHEY ANDREW...I THINK YOU'RE CRAZY!!!!!! I LIVE SOUTH OF INDY. IF KY COULD GET A SPRING OR FALL RACE I'D LOVE IT! I HAVE MS AND CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT AT INDY IN JULY. HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE TRACK? ITS NOT A LARGE VENUE BUT THEY SOLD OUT FOR THE NATIONWIDE RACE THIS YEAR.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportGraceann Jackson said:
Oct 25, 2008 at 5:00 PMKy Speedway is a good track. It sells out the Nationwide and Trucks races every year. There is not a bad seat in the place. I agree with Kenneth take a boring California race and give it a try.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportchris beard said:
Oct 25, 2008 at 7:57 PMLoretta IF they sold out NW & Truck shows NASCAR & Smith would have jumped all over it long ago.Martinsville did not sell out!and you want more boring MILE AND HALF TRASH no thanks.I'll smoke grass before I go to the Blue grass state for a race.Domed tracks? remember when NASCAR ran like 56 races a season,small tracks(OPS)no planes,copters no TV
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» Confirm Abuse ReportTim the Fan said:
Oct 26, 2008 at 10:43 AMWhy doesn't Bruton take a race from Bristol? He owns it. So did that make someone mad that I suggested Bristol? Well, that's how I feel about Martinsville. I have season tickets to both of those wonderful half milers and would hate to see either give up a race. I know there are those that argue Martinsville doesn't sell out, but I'm telling you there isn't but a handful of seats then, because setting in the stands you couldn't tell. Martinsville has just to much personality to give away, so take a race from Ca. or anyother of the cookie cutters, really, who would care?
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» Confirm Abuse ReportKenneth Farley said:
Oct 28, 2008 at 7:10 PMHey Chris, if you had a domed track you wouldn't need copters or planes or a blimp. You could run the cameras on rails on the dome. The problem would be air circulation, getting all the exhaust out of the stadium without creating a windstorm or killing the drivers and race goers. It was a joke son, a joke...
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