Many thoughts run through my head when I hear “Cup race” and “Kentucky Speedway” in the same sentence. So let’s run through everything I’m thinking right now.
A view of practice from this year's Nationwide race, held in June
First, where is this date coming from? Bruton Smith was pretty adamant in June about possibly dropping one date from New Hampshire to give to his newest acquisition in the hills of Kentucky. But, the AP report stated that this race will take place in the “first 14 days” of July. And that leads us to many more problems.
The first of which is an oversaturated market in this area of the country. The current schedule in July saw one race at Daytona in the early part of the month, followed by a race at Chicago, and then an off week before the Sprint Cup series hit the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the end of the month.
If NASCAR adds Kentucky in July, something has to give. The options: move Chicago’s race, move Daytona away from its traditional July 4th weekend date, put Kentucky in the off week and move the off week somewhere else, or move Indianapolis. Being that Indy is at the end of the month, I don’t see the Brickyard 400 moving any time soon. Ditto for the “Firecracker 400” or whatever Daytona’s July race is now called.
One of the things that could happen is moving Chicago’s race to the end of June in place of New Hampshire, and substituting Kentucky where Chicago currently is—right after Daytona. However, that would make July a busy time for NASCAR in this region of the country.
In this hypothetical situation, NASCAR’s big boys would run at Kentucky, which is about 40 miles south and west of Cincinnati, take a week off, and then run at Indy, about 100 miles north and west of the Queen City.
One race at Kentucky and then one race at Indy in July would be a Cincinnati-area NASCAR fan's biggest dream
As a fan of the sport, I think this is awesome, and as a working media member, I’d love to have nothing but two or three weekends of talking NASCAR on local TV.
Another burning question is what to do with Kentucky’s current “standalone” Nationwide race? Common sense says it will no longer be held in June, and Kentucky’s new Cup date will have a Nationwide race with it.
Unfortunately, all this speculation is just that, speculation, until the press conference eight days from now in Kentucky. We’ll see how it all pans out, and although I’ve been rather rough on the track in Sparta since its opening in 2000, the fan in me couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to see two races in one month.
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