SPARTA, Ky. (AP) -- Kentucky Speedway routinely packs in the fans, is wildly popular with drivers and has all the amenities one would expect in a $152 million facility that's just five years old.
What it doesn't have, though, is what its ownership group most covets: a NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Track officials long have been vocal about their lack of a Cup date and NASCAR officials have been equally as adamant that there is no room on the 36-race Cup schedule to accomodate Kentucky Speedway.
Now the dispute is in federal court and there seems to be no shortage of animosity on either side. On July 13, Kentucky Speedway sued NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., alleging the companies have violated federal antitrust laws by illegally restricting the awarding of Cup races.
NASCAR sanctions and oversees its racing series, while ISC owns or controls 12 of the 22 tracks at which Cup cars currently race. Both companies are controlled by the France family.
The speedway wants the court to require NASCAR to award the track a 2006 Cup date and implement a competitive bidding process "to permit full and fair competition for the right to host a Nextel Cup race," according to the lawsuit. The speedway also asks for $400 million in damages, an amount that could be tripled if the track wins the case.
A high-profile attorney, Stan Chesley of Cincinnati, is representing the speedway. Chesley is known for pioneering work in product liability cases and also represents clergy abuse plaintiffs who have reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington.
Drivers like Rusty Wallace have wondered about the track's absense from the Cup schedule, and the veteran said in June that "there are a bunch of them out there that are crappy tracks that need to give up one of those dates so they can have one here."
Track officials might phrase it more delicately, but that's basically their stance, too -- which has led to the long-simmering dispute with NASCAR. The rhetoric from both sides increased in the weeks before the suit was filed.
"I respect NASCAR," Jerry Carroll, the leader of the track's five-man ownership group, said on June 18, the day of a Busch Series race at the speedway. "But the situation is, we've got something here that is begging, that is yelling out, that is successful. This is a different kind of situation than exists anywhere in the country. So admit that."
Six days later, Bill France Jr. -- now retired after decades as NASCAR's president -- openly criticized Kentucky Speedway's efforts, focusing on Carroll.
"You've got the guy whining over there who was told years ago when he built the place there wasn't a Cup race in his future," France said. "Yet he's down there crying wolf. I guess that's what life is. That's the America we all know and love."
NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter did not return repeated phone messages left at his office by The Associated Press, and since the lawsuit was filed, Carroll has declined interviews. NASCAR has until Aug. 3 to respond to the suit.
NASCAR racing is so seriously regarded in Kentucky that the track's quest for a Cup race became a campaign issue in the 2003 gubernatorial race, in 2003. As a candidate, now Gov. Ernie Fletcher promised he'd help secure such an event. That Fletcher is a Republican and Carroll is a longtime Democratic supporter didn't seem to matter.
The state already has done extensive work on roads leading to the track, and Fletcher has appointed Carroll to the Kentucky Sports Authority, which tries to lure major sporting events to the state.
Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said a Nextel Cup race would "have the ability to become annually an event as large or larger than the (Kentucky) Derby in financial benefits to the state."
But since it opened in 2000, Kentucky Speedway has had to be satisfied with races on NASCAR's second- and third-tier circuits, the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series, as well as an Indy Racing League event. It's also become a popular testing spot for drivers preparing for Cup races at other tracks.
The Busch Series race this June attracted top Cup drivers including Wallace, Greg Biffle, Sterling Marlin, Michael Waltrip and the eventual winner, Carl Edwards. For the fifth straight year, the 66,089-seat facility was sold out. Track officials say the facility could expand to 100,000 seats for a Cup race.
"It's a mystery to me why the track doesn't already have a Nextel event," Wallace said. "It's definitely a Nextel Cup track. It's beautiful. It's wide. It's shaped perfect. It's got the grandstand capability. They've proved they can pack them in with a lot of drama and excitement. It's just a fun place to go."
The 1 1/2-mile oval is nestled in the northern Kentucky countryside just off Interstate 71. It's within a 30-minute drive of Cincinnati and a 90-minute drive from Kentucky's two largest cities, Louisville and Lexington. Track officials also say Kentucky Speedway draws fans from two other major Ohio cities, Columbus and Dayton.
Carroll, meanwhile, has a proven record in the sports arena. In 1986, he bought a financially ailing horse racing track, then known as Latonia, in Florence, and turned it into Turfway Park, which has a major Kentucky Derby prep race each March. He sold Turfway Park to finance the Kentucky Speedway project.
In the past, he has said the speedway's status as an independent hurts its standing with NASCAR. Only four independent tracks -- Dover, Pocono, New Hampshire and Indianapolis -- have Cup races.
Carroll has said Kentucky Speedway has discussed purchasing one of those tracks and moving a date, without success. He's even considered the idea of putting on a race outside of NASCAR's purview and offering a purse large enough to attract Cup drivers.
"We were trying every way we could because we're so assured of our market here," Carroll said before the suit was filed.
What has particularly galled Kentucky Speedway officials is NASCAR's announced plans to build tracks in Seattle and the New York area.
"I don't want to call it greed, but it certainly does get disconcerting when they talk about New York or Seattle, that could be five to 10 years away, and yet there's a venue behind me that's operating, doing the right things and can't get there," the track's general manager, Mark Cassis, said before the lawsuit was filed.
The investors, Cassis said, "have been good soldiers for five years. They've elevated our sport in the marketplace. They deserve it. But unfortunately, it doesn't work that way."
Kentucky Speedway's lawsuit isn't the first such filing against NASCAR. Francis Ferko, a shareholder in Speedway Motorsports Inc., which controls six tracks on which Cup cars race, settled out of court with NASCAR last year. That suit contended NASCAR breached agreements by not awarding a second Cup date to SMI-owned Texas Motor Speedway.
As part of the settlement, SMI paid $100.4 million to buy North Carolina Speedway from ISC, closed the track and put its only remaining Cup race in Texas.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
What it doesn't have, though, is what its ownership group most covets: a NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Track officials long have been vocal about their lack of a Cup date and NASCAR officials have been equally as adamant that there is no room on the 36-race Cup schedule to accomodate Kentucky Speedway.
Now the dispute is in federal court and there seems to be no shortage of animosity on either side. On July 13, Kentucky Speedway sued NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., alleging the companies have violated federal antitrust laws by illegally restricting the awarding of Cup races.
NASCAR sanctions and oversees its racing series, while ISC owns or controls 12 of the 22 tracks at which Cup cars currently race. Both companies are controlled by the France family.
The speedway wants the court to require NASCAR to award the track a 2006 Cup date and implement a competitive bidding process "to permit full and fair competition for the right to host a Nextel Cup race," according to the lawsuit. The speedway also asks for $400 million in damages, an amount that could be tripled if the track wins the case.
A high-profile attorney, Stan Chesley of Cincinnati, is representing the speedway. Chesley is known for pioneering work in product liability cases and also represents clergy abuse plaintiffs who have reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington.
Drivers like Rusty Wallace have wondered about the track's absense from the Cup schedule, and the veteran said in June that "there are a bunch of them out there that are crappy tracks that need to give up one of those dates so they can have one here."
Track officials might phrase it more delicately, but that's basically their stance, too -- which has led to the long-simmering dispute with NASCAR. The rhetoric from both sides increased in the weeks before the suit was filed.
"I respect NASCAR," Jerry Carroll, the leader of the track's five-man ownership group, said on June 18, the day of a Busch Series race at the speedway. "But the situation is, we've got something here that is begging, that is yelling out, that is successful. This is a different kind of situation than exists anywhere in the country. So admit that."
Six days later, Bill France Jr. -- now retired after decades as NASCAR's president -- openly criticized Kentucky Speedway's efforts, focusing on Carroll.
"You've got the guy whining over there who was told years ago when he built the place there wasn't a Cup race in his future," France said. "Yet he's down there crying wolf. I guess that's what life is. That's the America we all know and love."
NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter did not return repeated phone messages left at his office by The Associated Press, and since the lawsuit was filed, Carroll has declined interviews. NASCAR has until Aug. 3 to respond to the suit.
NASCAR racing is so seriously regarded in Kentucky that the track's quest for a Cup race became a campaign issue in the 2003 gubernatorial race, in 2003. As a candidate, now Gov. Ernie Fletcher promised he'd help secure such an event. That Fletcher is a Republican and Carroll is a longtime Democratic supporter didn't seem to matter.
The state already has done extensive work on roads leading to the track, and Fletcher has appointed Carroll to the Kentucky Sports Authority, which tries to lure major sporting events to the state.
Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said a Nextel Cup race would "have the ability to become annually an event as large or larger than the (Kentucky) Derby in financial benefits to the state."
But since it opened in 2000, Kentucky Speedway has had to be satisfied with races on NASCAR's second- and third-tier circuits, the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series, as well as an Indy Racing League event. It's also become a popular testing spot for drivers preparing for Cup races at other tracks.
The Busch Series race this June attracted top Cup drivers including Wallace, Greg Biffle, Sterling Marlin, Michael Waltrip and the eventual winner, Carl Edwards. For the fifth straight year, the 66,089-seat facility was sold out. Track officials say the facility could expand to 100,000 seats for a Cup race.
"It's a mystery to me why the track doesn't already have a Nextel event," Wallace said. "It's definitely a Nextel Cup track. It's beautiful. It's wide. It's shaped perfect. It's got the grandstand capability. They've proved they can pack them in with a lot of drama and excitement. It's just a fun place to go."
The 1 1/2-mile oval is nestled in the northern Kentucky countryside just off Interstate 71. It's within a 30-minute drive of Cincinnati and a 90-minute drive from Kentucky's two largest cities, Louisville and Lexington. Track officials also say Kentucky Speedway draws fans from two other major Ohio cities, Columbus and Dayton.
Carroll, meanwhile, has a proven record in the sports arena. In 1986, he bought a financially ailing horse racing track, then known as Latonia, in Florence, and turned it into Turfway Park, which has a major Kentucky Derby prep race each March. He sold Turfway Park to finance the Kentucky Speedway project.
In the past, he has said the speedway's status as an independent hurts its standing with NASCAR. Only four independent tracks -- Dover, Pocono, New Hampshire and Indianapolis -- have Cup races.
Carroll has said Kentucky Speedway has discussed purchasing one of those tracks and moving a date, without success. He's even considered the idea of putting on a race outside of NASCAR's purview and offering a purse large enough to attract Cup drivers.
"We were trying every way we could because we're so assured of our market here," Carroll said before the suit was filed.
What has particularly galled Kentucky Speedway officials is NASCAR's announced plans to build tracks in Seattle and the New York area.
"I don't want to call it greed, but it certainly does get disconcerting when they talk about New York or Seattle, that could be five to 10 years away, and yet there's a venue behind me that's operating, doing the right things and can't get there," the track's general manager, Mark Cassis, said before the lawsuit was filed.
The investors, Cassis said, "have been good soldiers for five years. They've elevated our sport in the marketplace. They deserve it. But unfortunately, it doesn't work that way."
Kentucky Speedway's lawsuit isn't the first such filing against NASCAR. Francis Ferko, a shareholder in Speedway Motorsports Inc., which controls six tracks on which Cup cars race, settled out of court with NASCAR last year. That suit contended NASCAR breached agreements by not awarding a second Cup date to SMI-owned Texas Motor Speedway.
As part of the settlement, SMI paid $100.4 million to buy North Carolina Speedway from ISC, closed the track and put its only remaining Cup race in Texas.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
