Kentucky Speedway may have 2010 Cup date

A lot of NASCAR media members love Bruton Smith. He’s always opinionated, occasionally funny and very, very brazen. Monday he announced he will petition for a 2010 Sprint Cup race at his newest acquisition, Kentucky Speedway.

The 1.5 mile tri oval located in Sparta, Kentucky—just 40 miles from Cincinnati and 60 miles from Louisville—has been open since June of 2000. Originally owned by Jerry Carroll, the track was sold to Smith and his company, Speedway Motorsports Incorporated (SMI) last October.

Kentucky Speedway got off to a grand start with much fanfare, until the first major race held there. It was June 16^th of 2000 and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was slated to hold the “Kroger 225”. It had rained for most of the week in the area, leaving parking lots better off used as marsh lands. This also had nothing to do with the traffic pattern getting into the track.

For full disclosure I should note that in 2000 we received free tickets to go to the Kroger 225 and I was more than excited to check out the new facility, which I hoped would earn a Winston Cup date because it was about half the drive that Indianapolis Motor Speedway is from my home here in Cincinnati.

We left at 3:30 PM for a 7 PM race, giving ourselves plenty of time to get to the track and check it out. We were fifteen miles away from the exit for Kentucky Speedway when we were stopped cold in the two lanes of traffic on I-71. We crept along for around two hours before the race started, which we listened to on the radio.

We also flipped around to hear what the deal was with the traffic pattern getting into the new facility. Radio reports noted that the exit that all race fans needed to use to get to Kentucky Speedway was closed off by police. We had the van stopped cold on the highway. In fact, we were playing touch football on I-71.

When we got back in to turn around and head back home the van wouldn’t crank. Lucky for us, some friends were about one mile back and happened to see us as they drove forward. They gave us a jump start and we all headed back to the West Side of Cincinnati, angry and disappointed.

So, if I sound like I hate Kentucky Speedway, at least now you know why.

We did make it back for a return visit in 2003 when a young gun driving a truck emblazoned with a bright red #99 on it, owned by Jack Roush, won the Craftsman Truck Series event at Kentucky Speedway. He got out and did a backflip off the deck lid of his truck. I think we all know who he is now.

But, my hatred for Kentucky Speedway and consequent hopes against the track landing a Cup date aren’t just blind hatred for a place that didn’t know how to handle the 63,000 people for their inaugural big day. I have a few reasons and I hope you the readers will at least be open to my viewpoints as to why the newest SMI track doesn’t deserve the sport’s highest level of competition.

First, if you aren’t from Cincinnati or the surrounding areas I don’t expect you to know this, but if you are, I think you may find this to be at least somewhat true: The media coverage of motorsports, especially NASCAR, in Cincinnati is horrendous—at best.

The only newspaper in Cincinnati, The Cincinnati Enquirer, barely gives NASCAR more than 200 words on Saturday mornings. That’s enough space to notify who won the pole on Friday night and maybe a quick mention of the second or third place qualifier as well. Hardly has there ever been a longer story in the paper here in Cincinnati when it comes to NASCAR.

Now let me mention that The Enquirer has cut back significantly and combined many sections of the newspaper, like the Local and the Arts and Entertainment sections, in the past few months, so maybe they don’t have the room anymore for NASCAR coverage. That signals to me that they don’t care about NASCAR and therefore there is no market for NASCAR in Cincinnati.

***Not that I work for a news gathering source in this city, but even the TV coverage is lacking. During a fifteen minute sports show on Friday evenings at WCPO, Channel 9, the local ABC affiliate, NASCAR might get 30 to 45 seconds of coverage.

Once again it’s enough time to maybe show a clip or two of qualifying and mention who will start from the pole for the weekend’s race. Sometimes it’s barely even fifteen seconds long on WCPO. The news and the media in Cincinnati don’t care about NASCAR, and this is my first piece of evidence against Kentucky Speedway’s persistence to getting a Cup date.

It might be my big ego, but I consider myself to be one of the leading NASCAR media members in Cincinnati. I know that I’m not widely published, but I do care about NASCAR and covering NASCAR. The same can’t be said for The Cincinnati Enquirer or any of the television stations in Cincinnati.

Another point and it’s a point that I’ve held since Kentucky opened, is the fact that NASCAR won’t give Kentucky a race because of its similarity to other tracks which were added to the Cup schedule at the same time.

Let’s go over some quick stats and figures:

Kentucky is a 1.5 mile tri-oval with fourteen degrees of banking in its turns. Kentucky holds 66,000 fans. Kansas—added to the Cup schedule in 2001—is a 1.5 mile tri-oval with fifteen degrees of banking in its corners. Kansas seats 81,600 fans. Chicagoland—also added in 2001—is another 1.5 mile d-shaped oval with eighteen degrees of banking in the corners. The track, located an hour from Chicago holds 75,000 people. Finally, we look at Las Vegas, another SMI track, which was added just a few seasons earlier in 1998. Vegas is also a 1.5 mile d-shaped tri-oval with twenty degrees of banking in its corners. Las Vegas holds seating for 142,000 fans.

NASCAR added all of these similar tracks at nearly the same time as Kentucky was emerging onto the scene. Also, just 106.5 miles away—measured as the crow flies—is the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Kentucky is also within driving distance of many other NASCAR tracks including Michigan, Bristol, and Chicago. To some stretches Richmond and Charlotte are lengthy drives away as well.

The market is seemingly saturated with NASCAR Sprint Cup events. The local media really doesn’t care about Cincinnati. As a NASCAR fan from the Queen City I grew up very alone in my fandom. Very few other people seemed to care about NASCAR when I was growing up (and I’m only 20 years old), and even now it’s tough to find people who are huge fanatics like I am.

Call me crazy, but I am one man that will pray NASCAR makes the right decision and doesn’t grant Kentucky Speedway a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. About the only good thing that would come from it is the fact that I’d have one more NASCAR event to see in person. That is, if I can get there.

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***To my readers who may not know, I must disclose that since the beginning of April I have been a student intern at WCPO-TV Channel 9 in Cincinnati. My comment above was meant to be sarcastic. I have a tendency to be sarcastic at times. I hope you understand.