Kentucky’s inaugural race was uneventful

On Thursday I sat in the Kentucky Speedway media center and happened upon an article by Yahoo’s Jay Hart. He said that NASCAR’s move to Kentucky was a bad move. The race would be bland.

The green flag drops on the inaugural Quaker State 400 at Kentucky

“Nothing against the good people of the Bluegrass State, who have done their damndest to earn a Cup date, but I can’t get behind it,” he opined.

I thought, he can’t be right. The bumpiness of the track in Sparta made for some interesting races in the years I was there. The racetrack was going to be great for racing, drivers were going to search for multiple grooves in the track and the track was good enough to promote a lot of side-by-side racing.

I was wrong.

“If that weren’t enough, the racing at these cookie-cutter tracks tends to be really, really – what’s the word? – oh yeah, boring,” Hart said.

A view of the Quaker State 400 racing action from turn one at Kentucky Speedway

And after sitting back and thinking about it, I’d be hard pressed to do much but agree, and I’m not the only one.

Don’t get me wrong, I love NASCAR with every fiber of my being. I enjoyed being at the track this past weekend and truly enjoyed seeing NASCAR’s big boys at the track closest to my house. But the Quaker State 400, dare I say it, was boring.

Kurt and Kyle Busch ran away with the first part of the event, and due to long, green-flag runs, clean air was paramount.

A few weeks back Carl Edwards was angry about having to race downforce at tracks like Michigan rather than racing his competition.

“Sadly, downforce is such a big factor in these (current) cars, and I am really hoping NASCAR will take the opportunity in 2013 to take downforce away so the fans can see the guys race race cars and not race downforce,” Edwards said.

A view of the stands at Kentucky late in the race

He continued with, “Let's say all of the cars are a tenth (of a second) apart and you are behind two or three cars, your car is two-tenths of a second slower. You can't make (it) up. I'm not whining; Denny (Hamlin) earned this win and those are the rules we are under. Track position was huge, and I just wish it wasn't like that.”

“Track position is the name of the game,” said Lance McGrew to Mark Martin before the green flag dropped on Saturday night.

Even though there were a lot of late race passes, the first 150-plus laps were little more than a parade. At one point Busch had a ten-plus second lead.

I often hear non-NASCAR fans criticize me. ‘It’s so boring. I don’t know how you watch them just drive in circles,’ people tell me.

This week was NASCAR’s chance to impress first-time visitors to the track in Sparta. A lot of non-NASCAR fans were coming to Kentucky from Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington for the first time. And if they feel that NASCAR is boring because it’s just guys driving in circles, I feel their feelings were confirmed by the first part of the race at Kentucky.

Even some NASCAR fans who were watching on TV tweeted at me during the race that the race was a little bland and boring.

And that is sad. I love Kentucky Speedway, but it’s going to be tough to sell people to come to a track that has a horrendous track record with parking and has questionable racing.

I wish it was better, but we’ve got one year to see if Kentucky will fix anything. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see what kind of improvements Bruton Smith and SMI make to the facility in Kentucky. They’ve got a long list of things to fix. We have to have faith that they’ll get it done.

But I’m afraid the damage has already been done.

Quaker State 400 Countdown: Bruton Smith and SMI bring Cup to Kentucky

“This place reminds me a lot of Bristol, Tennessee. The people seem to be the same, wonderful people that are involved in our sport. And you have a lot of race fans in this area. I told somebody recently, I said, ‘Racing here is like a second religion.’ They really, really love it.”—Bruton Smith (June 13, 2009)

When Jerry Carroll, the man who turned cornfields into a racetrack in the foothills of Gallatin County Kentucky, failed in every which way—including suing NASCAR and the France family—to get a Cup date at his track, he turned to Bruton Smith, Chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., to save him.

Smith purchased Kentucky from Carroll and promised fans in the Bluegrass State that NASCAR’s big stars would one day drive around the track. It was the same promise Carroll made in 1999, but this message had some backing to it. Smith actually could make it happen, whereas Carroll just wished it would.

“With the belief that we have a market and we were building in the right place, yes I would do it again with that in mind. I believe we had the right market, I believe we had the right track, and I believe we did everything right,” Carroll told Bob Pockrass of SceneDaily.com late in 2009. “But in retrospect of understanding the difficulty of getting a race, I would not do it again.

A panoramic view of Kentucky during the June 1st test at the track

“If you’re an entrepreneurial person, you never want to try to win something on merits and doing it real good and realizing later on that you never had a chance. We never, ever had a chance. Call us a little bit naïve when we got in, but we’re risk takers. That’s what makes this world go round.”

And in the NASCAR world, if it’s not the France family that makes the world go around, it’s certainly Bruton Smith.

Earlier this week Smith lambasted the Kentucky government for the horrible conditions of the stretch of I-71 that leads into his newest track. He even went so far as to say I-71 is, “the worst interstate highway that I have ever driven on in my life.”

May I remind you that Bruton Smith is 84 years old. He knows bad highways when he sees them.

His son, Marcus Smith, who holds the title of president and chief operating officer of SMI, showed up to the June 1st Goodyear tire test at Kentucky and proclaimed the same message that his father would have given had the elder Smith made it to Sparta that afternoon.

Marcus Smith (left) and Greg Biffle talk during a break in the Goodyear tire test at Kentucky on June 1st

“You can’t go to a manual somewhere, you can’t go to a class and figure out how to put on a party for 80,000 people. It just doesn’t happen. We haven’t written a book yet but maybe we should,” said Marcus Smith.

“When you put on an event this big, it’s bigger than the Super Bowl, it’s bigger than the Olympics even. And what we do in one place is really unlike anything else that happens in the world,” he added.

Bruton Smith even told Ken Broo of Cincinnati’s WLWT-Channel 5 that the residents of Kentucky don’t know what’s about to happen to them.

Race fans in Cincinnati who have traveled to other races in such places as Daytona, Indianapolis, Bristol and Talladega know and understand. But the average person in Cincinnati may not understand the passion race fans have for this sport.

“When you have a race it’s not just an event. It’s not just ‘When does the green flag drop?’ You really need to know when the whole weekend starts because it’s more than anything else, a festival,” Marcus Smith noted. “It’s an entire weekend plus for fans that come in from all over the country to enjoy this inaugural weekend here at Kentucky Speedway. And that’s what makes it a special thing because it’s so much more than a race.”

Greg Biffle, who won the inaugural Camping World (nee Craftsman) Truck Series race at Kentucky said the facility is “impressive.”

“Well the facility has always been very impressive, from the open, when they started it. It’s neat to see it coming to life with the added grandstand and all the other things going up around it,” Biffle said.

There’s no doubt that the party will be hopping in two weeks at Kentucky Speedway. It’s a triple-header weekend for NASCAR’s three biggest series and I’ll be there to cover it all both here and at FOX19.com. Keep checking back as the countdown roars toward raceday in Kentucky.

Opinions on Kentucky Speedway hosting Sprint Cup race in ’11

Twelve or so years ago I heard about this faraway land called Sparta, Kentucky, where men I had never ever heard of were chasing a dream. The dream, of course, was to bring the stars of what was then called the NASCAR Winston Cup Series to the place they dubbed the Kentucky Speedway, closer to my home than the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile D-shaped oval in the hills of Kentucky.

Horsepower in the hills of Kentucky

And here I sit in August of 2010, a decade after Greg Biffle won the track’s inaugural Craftsman Truck Series race, looking at all the happy comments on the mission accomplished by Jerry Carroll, one of the track’s original owners, and Bruton Smith, the track’s current owner.

Smith, an 83-year-old badass (my opinion), told the folks of Kentucky when he bought the track in 2008 that he would accomplish the goal of bringing a Sprint Cup date to the track located 40 miles southwest of Cincinnati and 65 miles northeast of Louisville.

In less than 11 months the big boys will be gracing the track in Sparta. Is Joey Logano the favorite? I'll discuss as the countdown to NASCAR in Kentucky begins (before the Brickyard countdown I guess)

And looking back at that June night in 2000, I’ve come to realize that my love-hate relationship with the track should be put aside, and I should wear a proud smile on my face. Hey, as the popular song states, “Two is Better Than One,” and two NASCAR Sprint Cup races within one month for me wouldn’t be a bad way to close out the short summer vacation I have.

As I have stated numerous times, my first thoughts of Kentucky Speedway are of anger and resentment. We scored free tickets for the track’s first race in 2000 and left Cincinnati around 3:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. event. We never made it.

Stopped three miles short of the exit for the track, we shut off the van and played football on the highway around all the other stopped vehicles. When we got back in the van to get turned around and head back to Cincinnati (because the state police had told us to turn around because the exit to the speedway had been shut down) the van wouldn’t start. Thanks to some friend—and some heavy duty jumper cables from the Kentucky State Police—we got back to Cincinnati in time to watch the results of the race flash across the screen on ESPN.

So my first experience with the Kentucky Speedway wasn’t a positive one. In fact, my dad still believes that Jerry Carroll still owes us $45 for a new car battery.

In fact, the track’s first race drew ire from many fans due to the horrid conditions of traffic and parking. Rain soaked the area for almost the entire week heading up to the race and numerous campers were stuck in their parking areas until Tuesday after the Saturday night race.

But as bad as the conditions were, those who got to see the race were thoroughly impressed with the facility and couldn’t wait for the big boys to finally embark on a journey to the Bluegrass State.

In 2003, we again scored free tickets, this time from family, and headed down to Sparta. For the 8 p.m. race we left at 5 p.m. and I was visibly nervous. I kept asking my dad if we would make it in, citing the 2000 example. He assured me that it was fixed and if it wasn’t, there was zero chance we’d ever go back to the track.

We made it there, and a young gun driving one of Jack Roush’s trucks won that evening. The kid from Columbia, Mo., got out of his truck after doing some donuts and performed a very unique celebration. Little did we know that Carl Michael Edwards would make it big one day, and we enjoyed the backflip he did off the bed of his #99 truck.

It took me six years to make it back to the track in Sparta, and this time it was with the assistance of the TV station I was interning for. I stood within inches of Edwards and NASCAR’s newest young gun, Joey Logano, and interviewed them for WCPO.

From left: FOX19's Dan Wood, me and WCPO's Mark Slaughter at the 2009 Nationwide practice day (NASCARMedia.com picture)

It was here that my hatred for Kentucky Speedway started turning around. And after I attended that Camping World Truck Series race one month later, I was all but cemented in my stance: Kentucky deserved a Sprint Cup race, but the Cincinnati-area media didn’t act like they wanted one.

Carl Edwards answers questions in 2009 (Bob Pockrass of SceneDaily.com stands in the background)

I got into heated debates with others about how the local TV and newspapers don’t care about NASCAR, and got the same old, tired responses that they don’t have the time or energy to cover motorsports. Well, they better get up on the wheel—literally and figuratively—if they want the Kentucky Speedway to continue to thrive as a legitimate Sprint Cup destination.

I know it’s unfair to compare the track in the rolling hills of Kentucky to the flat track on Indianapolis’s west side, but the media coverage of the Brickyard 400 is astounding, and I’m not sold on the fact that Cincinnati-area TV stations care as much as they need to. (Note: I’m working on changing that perception and will admit I was extremely happy to be at WXIX-FOX19 this year to cover both the Nationwide race at Kentucky and the Brickyard at IMS)

Me, in the aqua shirt on the right, stickying a microphone in front of Brad Keselowski before this year's Nationwide race at Kentucky (Getty Images)

So my love-hate relationship might be almost all love, with one caveat: the Kentucky Speedway needs to update their infrastructure including the garage area and media center. But, Bruton Smith (remember, 83-year-old badass) can and will get it done.

And fans of racing in Cincinnati, Louisville and everywhere in between, will be happy when the green flag drops on the unnamed 400-mile race next July.

I’ll probably be there. Will you? Drop me a line in the comments section if you will.
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*Note: I’ll be out at Camp Higher Ground for UC football training camp for the next two weeks. Of course we have internet access out at camp but it’s very spotty. I’ll be using it each day to check e-mail, check the news and reports about NASCAR. It’s highly unlikely I’ll be blogging (about football, NASCAR or anything else) until I get back in town on August 27th.

Until then, or until I have the time to check back in, enjoy your August. And remember to drink plenty of water because it’s hot outside.

Kentucky Speedway out of 2011 Cup mix?

Well, Twitter has been a blaze the past few hours and amongst all the NBA free agency “news” and tracking LeBron James’s every move (did he eat lunch yet today?) there was a tweet that should catch the attention of every NASCAR fan in this humble city of Cincinnati.

Last weekend the town was buzzing with news that Speedway Motorsports Inc. had requested a schedule change for 2011, most likely asking Kentucky Speedway for the coveted Sprint Cup date fans in the Cincinnati and Louisville area have been waiting a decade for.

Apparently that’s not the case.

According to Jim Utter, a NASCAR writer for the Charlotte Observer, via his Twitter account, “Hearing SMI has requested second NASCAR Cup date for Las Vegas in 2011 and it to be in the Chase.”

Now, I hate using Twitter as a “source” of information, but I’ve got to hope that this is true. Weeks ago I told my dad (and you can ask him, on my honor) that Kentucky won’t get a race before Las Vegas has two.

Bruton Smith may love the Kentucky Speedway, but his baby is the diamond in the desert, Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Chew on that for a few hours. I’m sure I’ll be back tomorrow with some more NASCAR news and notes, and maybe even some more coverage.

The Brickyard 400 countdown is on hold until next week. Until tomorrow, have a good one.

Kentucky gears up for Nationwide Series

I enjoyed the afternoon and early evening down in Sparta, Kent., roving around the Nationwide Series garage area and talking to drivers. I got to speak to 68 year old NASCAR legend Morgan Shepherd, and you can see my video story on him here: http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=12638320

Other news and notes heading into the race tomorrow night:
Tayler Malsam will make his second career Nationwide Series start for Braun Racing. The 21-year-old led seven laps in last year’s truck race at the 1.5-mile tri-oval. However, this weekend he’s driving a Nationwide Series car.

Malsam was 37th in the first practice session

And he’s excited for the opportunity. “I learned a lot last week,” he said. “I’m just here to learn more and see what I can learn about these cars compared to the trucks.”

Brad Coleman sat in Kyle Busch’s car last year for Friday’s practice, something he’s excited that he doesn’t have to do this year. “I got to practice Kyle’s car here last year, but didn’t get to race. So I’m excited to be able to practice and race,” he said. “It’s not too much fun when you get to practice it and then you have to sit on the pit box and watch him race. I’m excited to race and have a good, solid weekend.

Brad Coleman gets to race the No. 18 car this year along with practicing it

His Joe Gibbs teammate, Joey Logano, is perfect at Kentucky. Two poles and two wins for the 20-year-old at Kentucky. He has been making headlines for what he said last weekend in Pocono though. “That’s in the past,” the youngster told me. “I’m looking ahead to getting a win this weekend here in Kentucky.”

Logano's No. 20 sits in the garage during Nationwide Series practice yesterday

He also knows what it takes to get it done at the small track that sits halfway between Louisville and Cincinnati. “It’s a fun place for me. It’s a place I feel I have a lot of experience at, and I know what I’m looking for when I get out there,” he said.

Everyone is chasing Nationwide Series points leader Brad Keselowski. Keselowski was able to turn a few laps in the first practice session and ended up 8th fastest.

“This car here is even better than the car we had last week,” the Penske driver said. “I feel really good about all the momentum we have going on at Penske Racing, especially with this team.”

Keselowski arrives from Michigan just in time for practice

But the burning question for most media members—and fans alike—is when Kentucky will get that Sprint Cup date. Almost every driver I spoke to yesterday told me that the fans at Kentucky are just fantastic.

Yet I’m under the opinion that it doesn’t matter how many fans show up to the facility if the track won’t allow racing. It’s been raining in the Cincinnati area all day, and a track official at Kentucky Speedway mentioned that heavy rains in the area on Wednesday brought the old problem of “weepers” back up at the tri-oval.

So if it continues to rain today, even if the track can be dried from the top, will water seep up through the bottom of the track and delay this race?

I’ll be in Kentucky this evening to see what happens.

Kentucky Speedway closer to 2011 Sprint Cup date

Lost in the storylines surrounding the Daytona 500, and a now infamous pothole, was the news that the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati denied a request by Kentucky Speedway’s former owners for a rehearing in their antitrust case against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp.
The track’s former owners, Jerry Carroll and Richard Duchossois have about three months to decide if they want to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to current Kentucky Speedway owner, Chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., Bruton Smith, Carroll will not pursue any more legal action.

This was released via Sirius/XM’s NASCAR radio channel’s Twitter page last night: “Jerry Carroll has told me they will not file another lawsuit.”

This opens the door for Smith to make a decision on how to get the stars of NASCAR into Kentucky. In December he told ESPN.com’s Terry Blount, “It’s not going to be easy, but we have some time to figure it out. We probably have about six months or so to work it out.”

Joey Logano ducks his No. 20 Game Stop Toyota into turn three during practice for last year's Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway. Logano won the race the next evening.

Smith has many options to get Kentucky a race, the most often batted around idea is moving a Cup date from another SMI owned track. SMI owns seven tracks that currently hold Cup races: Atlanta, Bristol, Infineon (Sears Point), Las Vegas, Charlotte, Texas and New Hampshire along with Kentucky. Those seven tracks hold 12 events—one-third of the NASCAR season.

For now, Smith will have some time to sit back and think through his decision. In the next three weeks NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series will put three SMI tracks in the spotlight. It could be at those three tracks that Smith—an openly, and occasionally brutally honest guy with the media—will answer the tough questions about his tracks.

The flyover before the Nationwide Series race in 2009. Packed grandstands have been the highlight of the second-tier series, will fans be treated to a Cup race in 2011.

Check back in a few months to see the final decision on Kentucky Speedway. I have a feeling that Smith might announce the plans during the track’s biggest weekend in June when the Nationwide Series visits. We’ll see if my prognostication is correct.

NASCAR’s Cup future at Kentucky Speedway on the fast track

When Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc. took over Kentucky Speedway last year the famed NASCAR track owner had grand plans for the Sparta, Ky. Facility. Unfortunately those grand plans had one hitch: until the former owners of the track dropped their lawsuit against NASCAR and parent company International Speedway Corp. there would be no NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the 1.5-mile oval located halfway between Louisville and Cincinnati.

Kentucky Speedway has hosted successful Nationwide (Busch) Series and Camping World Truck Series races. When will the Sprint Cup come knocking?

On December 11, 2009, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s judgment in the suit which claimed NASCAR was running a monopoly by choosing where they wanted to run races. Carroll released a statement that read, “I appreciate the continuing opportunity to assist and consult with Bruton Smith and [Kentucky] Gov. Steve Beshear to realize our shared dream of bringing a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to Kentucky.”

Smith hasn’t set a time frame for his decision on when Kentucky’s 2011 race will be, but after the court decision in December he told ESPN.com’s Terry Blount, “It’s not going to be easy, but we have some time to figure it out. We probably have about six months or so to work it out.”

By the mid-summer race fans in Cincinnati and Louisville will know if the sport's biggest attraction--a Sprint Cup race--will be visiting the track nearest them

Among the biggest plans Smith has to work out is his plan to expand seating at Kentucky, which currently seats 66,000 race fans. He has planned to add nearly 50,000 seats at Kentucky, which has seen sweeping changes since it opened in 2001.

Traffic flow in and out of the speedway was horrendous, and that’s being nice, when the facility opened. Since then one lane in both directions on I-71 has been opened and a second exit near the track has allowed overflow parkers a “back way in”.

Behind the main grandstands used to be a large, sloping hill used for parking. After Smith and SMI purchased the facility they made a commitment to filling in the area. Construction crews filled the hill in with millions of cubic tons of dirt and gravel, creating a flat parking area for race fans to enjoy tailgating both before and after races.

The main grandstands are in the background, undershadowed by numerous race fans looking to have a good time before the race.

One of the main theories proposed by fans and media alike is moving a race from a current SMI track to Ketucky. Smith isn’t sure which track he’d take a race from, but would rather purchase one from another track that isn’t owned by SMI.

“I would prefer to buy [a Cup race]. But I promised those people in Kentucky I would get them a Cup date, and I like to keep my promises,” Smith said.

So the NASCAR fanbase in my area of the country should get ready for a race nearby. A track I used to vehemently hate became a track I warmed up to last year when I visited it for the Nationwide (nee Busch) Series race in June and the Camping World Truck Series and ARCA doubleheader in July.

FOX 19's Dan Wood (left), myself and WCPO's Mark Slaughter pose for a quick photo between interviews of Carl Edwards and Joey Logano (NASCAR Media.com)

I still think the facility needs a ton of work before the big time stars arrive, but Kentucky Speedway, with Bruton Smith in charge, is moving in the right direction. And ten years ago I would have been hard pressed to say that about the nearest NASCAR track to my home.