Rouse: Kansas Speedway News
KANSAS SPEEDWAY CONFIDENT OF CHANCES TO SECURE 2ND RACE, by Charles Rouse
KANSAS CITY, Kan – At a time when some once-popular motorsports venues are scrambling just to keep one NASCAR race on the schedule, Kansas Speedway is pulling out all the stops to get a second NASCAR event added to its annual race calendar. And Speedway officials are very optimistic that they will be successful in their efforts. Kansas Speedway owners, International Speedway Corporation, filed a formal application last week with the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing to bring a second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to the Kansas City area.
ISC said it hopes to receive an answer to its application to secure a second Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway before the end of the summer, which would be before NASCAR announces its 2011 schedule. “We’re hopeful. It’s a great facility and a great market,” ISC spokesperson Lenny Santiago told the Associated Press last weekend while attending the Coke Zero 400 Sprint Cup race at Daytona International Speedway, another ISC race track.
Santiago added that Kansas Speedway is a strong candidate for another NASCAR race because of the track’s history of outstanding attendance and the construction that is under way of a $520 million hotel and casino to be located overlooking Turn 2. “We think the addition of the casino will continue to draw more people and be able to support two full Sprint Cup weekends.” Another factor working in favor of the request to hold an additional Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway is the not-too-insignificant fact the Sprint Nextel Corporation, NASCAR’s primary sponsor, is headquartered in Kansas City.
Kansas City already hosts a Sprint Cup event in October as part of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship held at the end of every season. Kansas Speedway also is the host site for an IndyCar Series race and the NASCAR Camping World Series trucks every spring. All three races have been part of the Kansas Speedway annual schedule since the track opened in 2001. Kansas Speedway President Pat Warren also is very excited about the opportunity to bring a second Sprint Cup race to Kansas City for the foreseeable future.
“We believe we are a strong candidate to receive a second NASCAR Sprint Cup date based on our history of well-attended events and the new Hollywood Casino currently under construction,” Warren said. NASCAR has not given any indication that it is willing to expand its current 36-race Sprint Cup schedule. What this means is, if Kansas City is awarded a second race, it would likely involve taking a date from one of the other existing race venues. Insofar as ISC is concerned, that would mean eliminating a Sprint Cup event at Daytona, Talledega (Al.), Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, Calif.), Martinsville or Richmond (Va.), Michigan, Phoenix, Watkins Glen, Darlington, Chicagoland or Homestead-Miami.
Of the 14 race tracks that currently host two Sprint Cup events every year, seven are owned by ISC (Daytona, Auto Club Speedway, Martinsville, Phoenix, Talladega, Richmond and Michigan). Because Kansas Speedway already hosts a Sprint Cup race in October, if a second date is granted, it most likely would be much earlier in the season. With a struggling economy, attendance at NASCAR-sponsored events has been on the decline for the past couple of years. Attendance at the October Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway, however, has not been affected as much as it has at other Sprint Cup race sites on the schedule.
Seating capacity in the grandstand area at Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile tri-oval track design, is 82,000, and there is room in the infield area for an additional 8,000 to 10,000 people. It will be interesting to see how NASCAR officials respond to the petition for a second Sprint Cup weekend in Kansas City and, if the request is granted, what adjustments are made to the schedule to accommodate the decision. The fact that there will be a winner and a loser makes the decision all that more difficult.
Charles (Chip) F. Rouse III, the Kansas City Sports Examiner, has spent over 40 years working in and with the news media. Rouse, a journalist by training and a graduate of the University of Kansas, has served in the role of newspaper reporter; in addition to radio and television. To view Chip’s sports articles, including this one, on Examiner.com, please click here. He welcomes your comments at crouse@massappealnews.com.