Bruton Smith ticked about Kentucky highway

Ten years ago I hated Kentucky Speedway. Strong words I know, but it’s the truth. In 2000, before the track’s inaugural Craftsman Truck Series race (won by Greg Biffle) I was stuck in traffic, my dad behind the wheel of our van, with a few friends in the backseats.

I was pumped. I’d been to two Brickyard 400s and the 1998 IROC at Indy, but never had I been to this newer, closer track just down I-71 in Sparta. The only problem with the new track was the only way into the place: I-71, a two-lane highway that winds toward the track.

We were stuck three miles from the track for over half an hour with the engine on the van completely off. We listened to the beginning of the race on the radio. I was angry.

I never got to see that race, and I began my anti-Kentucky Speedway campaign from there. There was no way I wanted my heroes in the then-Winston Cup Series to ever visit this track. We left more than four hours before the scheduled start for a track that took us 40 minutes to get to five days before the race (that’s right, we tested it!).

Even though recent improvements have widened I-71, the track’s new owner O. Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., is clearly pissed off about the state of the interstate heading into his newest track.

“The only negative we have right now is this Interstate 71, which is the worst, the worst interstate highway that I have ever driven on in my life,” Smith said, as reported by Kevin Kelly of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “If I was an elected official in this state, I would e absolutely devastated by that. I don’t know why they’ve allowed this to happen. That highway should have been rebuilt five years ago because it’s so antiquated and falling apart. That’s the only negative we have right here in this area.”

Amen Bruton, amen. If only Jerry Carroll had been smart and not tried to sue NASCAR for a race, and instead taken the Bruton Smith approach, he might have landed a Cup date sooner.

A look into turn three at Kentucky during the June 1st tire test

Bruton Smith (who I described as a “badass” last year) doesn’t mince words. He threatened the city of Charlotte that he would move the Charlotte Motor Speedway a few years back if they didn’t give him some tax breaks on land to build a new dragstrip. He had construction plans and everything in place to move the track and dragstrip outside the city.

Message to the state of Kentucky: Don’t mess with Mr. Smith.

I agree with Bruton, and although my hatred has been turned around in the past few years (I now enjoy traveling to Sparta and covering the events at the track) the sights of orange barrels on I-71 make me shudder.

Kentucky Speedway has one shot to get this right, and if they screw up anything heading into the Quaker State 400, people like me will point to the 2000 Craftsman Truck Series race as a reminder that Kentucky Speedway has come so far, only to come up so short.

There are 17 days until the Quaker State 400, and while Bruton Smith worries about I-71, I worry about the countdown to the big day. Later today I’ll talk about the last time the Cup Series raced on July 9th and the mini-rivalry that flared up again on that day.