Kentucky Speedway

Kentucky Speedway

Address: 5120 Sparta Pike, Sparta, Kentucky 41086
Sparta , Kentucky , USA
Route type:	permanent race track
Speedway oval
Tri-oval
Route data
Important events:	Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Buckle Up in Your Truck 225
Route length:	2.415  km (1.5  mi )
Curve superelevation:	Curves: 14 ° start-finish straight: 8 ° - 10 ° back straight: 4 °
Audience capacity:	107,000
http://www.kentuckyspeedway.com

Coordinates: 38 ° 42 ′ 34 "  N , 84 ° 54 ′ 58"  W.

The Kentucky Speedway is a 1.5 mile long oval racing circuit north of central Kentucky near Sparta , about halfway between Louisville and Cincinnati . It was designed to host NASCAR Sprint Cup races. Until 2010 only races of the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series as well as the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights took place. Since 2011 there has also been a Sprint Cup season race on this racetrack.

In July 2005, Kentucky Speedway sued NASCAR and the International Speedway Corporation for not allowing bids to be submitted for NASCAR races if the venue met the requirements. The lawsuit came just one year after the so-called Ferko trial , according to which the prestigious Southern 500 in Darlington had to be abandoned in favor of a second race at the Texas Motor Speedway . The Kentucky Speedway organizers cite this ruling as a precedent. Although NASCAR asked for jurisdiction to be moved to Florida, the request was not granted. On January 7, 2008, the lawsuit was dismissed.

In response to the lawsuit, over 40,000 signatures were collected to end the lawsuit with a settlement. The background to this signature campaign were concerns that if the lawsuit were successful, admission prices would rise and smaller racetracks could lose their races.

There were also rumors that the owners of the Kentucky Speedway could possibly buy the Pocono Raceway to bring one of the races from there to Kentucky. However, the Mattioli family, who owned the said racetrack, rejected this project.

In the meantime, the circuit has become a popular course for test drives of the Sprint Cup race cars after NASCAR issued a restrictive test ban in 2005. After that, the teams are only allowed to test on a total of seven specific race tracks authorized by NASCAR. Since there was no Sprint Cup event in Kentucky, private test drives were allowed without restrictions. Since 2011, the test ban has also applied to the Kentucky Speedway. The test drives therefore avoided the Rockingham Speedway , which lost its Sprint Cup race in 2005.

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kentucky Speedway's lawsuit with ISC dismissed