3 PM Thursday Press Conference - Bruton Smith buys...

[Triple Nickel II]

Kentucky Speedway.

News Story Link

Bruton continues to bring more and more track's under his motorsports umbrella.

Does the bode good or bad for a potential sanctioning body purchase?

 

[DrRocket]

I was this ---------><-------------- close to thinking I was going to have to post this again......

 

[StockersRock]

Does it matter? There's not a drag strip there, right?

 

[JL]

Not YET...

 

[MM]

Not YET...

yea what he said...there wasnt one in Charlotte when he bought it either

 

[Wes]

This coming a day or so after Humpy Wheeler resigned as vice president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway. Wasn't Humpy part of Bruton's team going after the purchase of "X"HRA?

 

[Rajunz]

Not YET...

After the packed grandstands this past weekend in Bristol, he may be having second thoughts on building any more drag strips!

 

[MM]

This coming a day or so after Humpy Wheeler resigned as vice president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway. Wasn't Humpy part of Bruton's team going after the purchase of "X"HRA?

HAHAHAHA........Humpy

 

[PJ]

ESPN - Sources: Key NASCAR track owner buying Kentucky Speedway - Racing

 

[Triple Nickel II]

ESPN - Sources: Key NASCAR track owner buying Kentucky Speedway - Racing

Bruton is a smart guy. This purchase may show that he is a "really" smart guy.

This is from the ESPN story...

Kentucky Speedway later amended its complaint, demanding that NASCAR produce objective parameters for awarding Cup dates, for the France family to choose either NASCAR or ISC -- the publicly traded side of the company that operates the family's 12 racetracks -- and for ISC to sell at least eight of those 12 tracks. It also requested more than $200 million in damages.

Consider the fact that Bruton's SMI company is a direct competitor of ISC when it comes to being a host of Nascar events.

If the judge were to rule against ISC in the Kentucky Speedway lawsuit appeal, Bruton could gain events for Kentucky Speedway and possibly more without having to give up any of his existing venue's dates.

 

[PJ]

This is the first of this lawsuit I've heard of.

Unless I'm missing something it seems odd though. It's their racing organization and they should be able to pick where the race.

I can't sue to nfl because I want a team or to get the Lions to play in my backyard.

 

[MM]

from what i understand that track was built with the word from NASCAR that they would be getting an event.....it's the equivalent of Bruton building his Charlotte strip and then NHRA saying....umm we changed our mind

 

[Triple Nickel II]

This is the first of this lawsuit I've heard of.

The lawsuit has been going for quite a while. I believe the successful suit involving the 2nd event at Texas got the ball rolling.

Kentucky Speedway lost the first case but is in the appeal process.

 

[badger]

I was this ---------><-------------- close to thinking I was going to have to post this again......

Every time this avatar comes up, I laugh my head off. It puts things in their proper prospectives!

Have a great Memorial Day everyone!

 

[Eddie]

This coming a day or so after Humpy Wheeler resigned as vice president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Not to sound nit-picky, but: Humpy is RETIRING not resigning (big difference between the two); AND, he is PRESIDENT, not Vice-President of the speedway (big difference in those two positions as well).

 

[CrewGuy]

Not to sound nit-picky, but: Humpy is RETIRING not resigning (big difference between the two)

Umm.......He was asked to RESIGN (not retire). This was from an interview he gave to Dave Moody yesterday. He went on to say he would have liked to hung around for the speedway's anniversary next year, but it didn't work out that way.

 

[Nitrohelper]

I can't sue to nfl because I want a team or to get the Lions to play in my backyard.

The NFL doesn't own the stadiums, the France family owns Nascar & the some of the tracks.
That is what the suit was about, ie. the company owned tracks get an unfair advantage in securing races.

 

[vegasnitro]

The lawsuit has been going for quite a while. I believe the successful suit involving the 2nd event at Texas got the ball rolling.

Kentucky Speedway lost the first case but is in the appeal process.

The lawsuit for Texas was only successful in getting Bruton money from NASCAR/ISC, it was NOT successful at procuring the second date for Texas. Texas did not get their second date until Bruton bought Rockingham and moved their date to Texas. There has been rampant speculation in Vegas that since Bruton bought New Hampshire, he is going to move one of their 2 Cup dates to Vegas for a Vegas race in the chase, giving us 2 dates a year.

The Kentucky suit is different from Bruton's Texas suit in that the Kentucky suit alleges anti-trust conflicts of interest in the sanctioning body owning fully half the race dates for the series thereby preventing free market promoters from procuring dates for races. Bruton's Texas suit simply alleged NASCAR rpomised him a second date and they failed to deliver in a reasonable amount of time, and he won some money.

I think the purchase of both New Hampshire and Kentucky within the last year makes it LESS likely he will buy NHRA, simply because of the money he has spent on both speedways has to have depleted the company coffers a fair amount. However, I do believe the Kentucky location would be a good location for a new Drag Strip, as it is perfectly in the Cincinnati-Louisville-Lexington triangle, and their Busch/Nationwide and IRL races are well supported.

 

[jackass]

Yep Bruton is buying Kentucky Speedway.... expect one of the New Hamshire races to be moved in or by 2010.

Humpy is being forced into an early retirement... its pretty much the talk of the Concord area and the teams shops... its also on the JAYSKI web site.

Bruton is getting his son ready to take the head of the company in a few years. But Bruton will still call the shots till he is in the ground.... and his son will be perfect for the job.. he knows who butters his bread and is one heck of a yes man.....

It all has nothing to do with drag racing...