Kentucky Speedway construction on schedule

It’s a place that used to make my blood boil, used to make me extremely angry. It’s a place that I hated. Bring up those two words together and my heart rate would raise and I would start on my rant.

Those words? That place?

Kentucky Speedway.

As Greg Biffle was driving a truck around the 1.5-mile oval in Sparta, Kentucky in 2000, I was sitting in traffic in the family van on I-71, miles away from the speedway.

Needless to say, I never saw the inaugural race at the speedway, and I wasn’t alone.

So it’s taken some time for me to warm up to the place, but after two years of covering NASCAR Nationwide and Camping world Truck Series races at the track, I’ve come to appreciate the little D-shaped track in the foothills of Kentucky.

When Bruton Smith announced last August that the boys of the Sprint Cup Series would be coming to the track in July of this year, I was excited. A decade ago would have been nice, but good things come to those that wait, or so they say.

And I’m not the only one excited. Local NASCAR fans are all pumped up. And so is A.J. Allmendinger.

“Something for me that has me excited about the event is just in the past couple years with the Nationwide event coming here you could see how big the crowd is, and how excited the fans are here,” he said. “For me as a driver, that’s something that knowing what just the standalone Nationwide race was compared to what the Sprint Cup event is going to be with over 100,000 people gets me pumped up to get in the racecar and drive it.”

“The fanbase here is huge and with all the construction that’s going on,” he continued. “Just in the three years I haven’t been here, just to see how far along that this place has come is absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to get here.”

Wait, did he say construction?

It’s hard to go the Kentucky Speedway today and not find a dump truck moving land or a guy in a hard hat working on the reconstruction of the newest Sprint Cup venue.

With the addition of 40,000 seats in two new towers, Kentucky Speedway will now hold over 100,000 race fans on raceday. Pit road is moving some 200 feet closer to the racing surface and speedway officials are excited to open the “Pit Road Club,” at the entrance to pit road near the exit of turn four.

It’s a two-story temporary structure that will hold as many as 2,000 fans.

Also, the track has dealt with a massive amount of spring rain, and is working on correcting the issue of “weepers” in turns one and two. By sealing the track, groundwater can’t seep up through the track.

Allmendinger didn’t talk about the construction going on around the track too much, but did say he was eager to see how the track has changed in three years since he’s driven on it.

“When I tested here it always had a decent amount of grip so it’ll be interesting to see how the track has changed over the last three years and what bumps have built into it,” he said. “It will be a lot of fun to see.”

Kentucky Speedway GM Mark Simendinger mentioned that the track is also moving out the inside retaining wall in turns one and two for safety.

All signs point toward one heck of a race weekend at a darn good looking facility. I doubt I would have said that ten years ago, but I can’t wait for the Quaker State 400 coming up in July.