Kentucky Speedway NASCAR Race Track

NASCAR's Kentucky Speedway

Kentucky Speedway is found in north-central Kentucky, close to Sparta, Kentucky. It is about halfway between Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky and is only another 70 miles from Lexington, Kentucky. The track was specifically designed to hold the NASCAR Nextel Cup race and has already hosted the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series and Busch Series, as well as all the IRL races.

In mid 2005, Kentucky Speedway filed a lawsuit against International Speedway Corporation and NASCAR saying that they had dishonored their federal antitrust laws because they would not allow tracks to bid for NASCAR races even if they meet all the necessary requirements. Kentucky took this lawsuit out a year after Francis Ferko, a shareholder from Speedway Motorsports, who sued NASCAR and ISC successfully. This caused tremendous problems forcing NASCAR to write off the prominent Southern 500 in Darling, SC, and instead the Texas Motor Speedway was given preference as stated by the terms of the lawsuit. NASCAR appealed the lawsuit asking that the suit be dismissed or alternatively be moved to Florida, NASCAR's headquarters.

While all these lawsuits were taking place the Kentucky Speedway was classified as one of the best tracks for Nextel Cup car testing because restrictions had been implemented on NASCAR for testing in 2005. The new testing restrictions resulted in teams having to test at only NASCAR-authorized testing sessions at five of the Nextel Cup circuits that have been selected. Kentucky Speedway is not classified as a Nextel Cup circuit and so private testing of such cars are allowed and hold no restrictions. Spectators are often invited to attend these sessions.

The response of the NASCAR fans and union members of Teamsters and UNITE HERE, to the Kentucky Speedway's lawsuit may be quite lethal. Fans and union members have over 40, 000 signatures asking NASCAR to cut any ties with Kentucky Speedway while the lawsuit continues. They are concerned about what the results will be if the lawsuit is successful. The suit encourages a competitive bidding process that could cause ticket prices to these events to rise as well as having smaller tracks lose their races.

There have been discussions about Kentucky Speedway owners buying the Pocono Raceway and moving a Nextel Cup race to Kentucky. But this has not amounted to much as the Mattioli family, who owns both the South Boston Speedway and Pocono Raceway, as well as managing the Music City Motorplex, has as of yet shown no interest to do so.