by Joe Beasley

Created on: February 17, 2009   Last Updated: March 03, 2009

Bruton Smith, the Chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., purchased the Kentucky Speedway in May of 2008. At 81 years old, Smith continues to grow SMI, which currently owns the Nascar tracks of Atlanta, Bristol, Infineon, Las Vegas, Lowes Motor Speedway, New Hampshire, and Texas. Now that SMI owns the Kentucky Speedway, its likely-hood of receiving a Spring Cup race have grown tremendously.

Smith was hopeful for the speedway getting a 2009 Sprint Cup race, however at the time of purchase, Nascar had already finalized the 2009 schedule. Smith and SMI remain hopeful that the speedway will receive a race for the 2010 season. As of this writing, no firm plans have been put in place for the track to get a race from Nascar's elite series. In 2005, prior to SMI purchasing the track, a lawsuit was filed against Nascar demanding a Cup series race. As of the 2009 season, that lawsuit has been thrown out, although it can be appealed.

The Kentucky Speedway, located in Sparta, KY, is a 1.5 mile tri-oval. It sits on over 800 acres of land and has more than 1500 camping sites around the track. It is a marvelous facility which currently hosts races from the Nascar Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series, as well as the IndyCar series.Among its supporters are Championship driver Rusty Wallace, who has publicly stated how impressed he is with the facility and the racing. The Nationwide Series puts on quite a show at the track, and it can only be assumed that the Sprint Cup series would do the same.

SMI's purchase of Kentucky Speedway can mean many things for Nascar. One speculation is that Kentucky could receive one of the two dates that Pocono currently has on the Sprint Cup schedule. While some fans feel that their are too many 1.5 mile tracks as it is, others argue that it is the most exciting form of racing outside of the Superspeedway tracks of Daytona and Talladega. Factored in to the issue is that fact that Bruton Smith already wants a second race each year for his Las vegas Motor Speedway. Love him or hate him, Smith has a winning formula with the tracks he owns, and adding Kentucky to that mix would certainly be interesting. SMI tracks currently host some of the most exciting races in Nascar, especially Bristol, Texas, Lowes, and Atlanta.

Whether or not Kentucky is on the Nascar radar for a race in 2010 will not be known for several months, but as for the future of SMI and Bruton Smith's famed collection of exciting race tracks, the sky is the limit.

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