SMI's Smith still hopeful Kentucky Speedway can land on 2010 Sprint Cup schedule
CONCORD, N.C. – Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith says he is still confident that he can get Kentucky Speedway on the 2010 Sprint Cup schedule, even as a NASCAR spokesman says time is running out.
Smith’s only hope to get on the schedule appears to be for the Kentucky Speedway’s founders to drop an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp.
“We’re trying to persuade these people to try to drop that appeal, and then they are out of the way of NASCAR, and it would make it much simpler,” Smith said Monday, two days after he was in Kentucky for the Kentucky Derby. “We haven’t been able to make that occur. There’s only two people [among the founders] that’s holding it up.”
A NASCAR spokesman indicated that the 2010 sanctioning process has begun and that the litigation must be resolved before a realignment request is considered.
“NASCAR has not received a formal request to realign a race to Kentucky,” NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. “As we have consistently said, no request will be considered until the pending litigation is resolved. Furthermore, the window for realignment requests is rapidly closing.”
SMI bought Kentucky Speedway in December, but the founders retained their rights to pursue their lawsuit, which alleges that the France-owned sanctioning body of NASCAR illegally conspires with the publicly-traded, France-controlled track operating company ISC to keep tracks such as Kentucky from obtaining Cup dates. SMI is considered a co-conspirator in the case.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled in January 2008 that there was not enough evidence for trial, and the case is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals. No hearing date has been set, and it’s highly unlikely that without the Kentucky Speedway founders dropping the case that the case will be resolved before mid-July, when NASCAR has its 2010 schedule virtually set.
SMI currently has two Cup races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Atlanta and New Hampshire are considered the two candidates to lose a race.
Smith said he has had discussions with NASCAR about where he would move the date but has not filed the formal request “because when I do, then I will have to name the place and that type of thing, and I have not done that. That will do a lot of damage to a lot of people if I sat here [and speculated].”
Talking to reporters after unveiling the trophy for this year’s Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Smith also offered his thoughts on other issues in the sport:
• On television ratings: “TV ratings on all sports are sagging. ...Everything I looked at, TV is down. I think it’s just maybe we in racing, maybe we’re not producing the greatest racing that we should, but we’re going to do it this month here.”
Smith said drivers are still learning how to compete in the new model Cup car and urged NASCAR to have a two-day test at a NASCAR track. NASCAR banned testing at all tracks where the teams race on as well as tracks in other regional and national NASCAR series.
“We have some very intelligent people in the garage; they’ll figure it out,” Smith said. “That’s what we need to do, give them some time, Two days at a particular track, and they’ll find out what they need to do with the car, and they’ll do it.”
• Smith said he did not expect Chrysler’s filing for bankruptcy and request for a court to approve a sale to Fiat SpA will go as smoothly as hoped. He said he expects it to take longer than a couple of months.
But he also said he did not expect it to have an impact on NASCAR.
And as the owner of one of the biggest automobile dealership chains in the United States, he delivered this quip: “I’m surprised that your president is getting in the automobile business. I never did look at him as a competitor. It looks like he’s trying to get in the automobile business.”
