Chances for second LVMS Cup race take hit

The prospect of Las Vegas Motor Speedway getting a second annual NASCAR Sprint Cup race might have diminished with Speedway Motorsports’ acquisition of Kentucky Speedway.

Bruton Smith, founder and chairman of Speedway Motorsports, announced Thursday that SMI has purchased the Kentucky track and said it figures prominently in his Cup plans.

“We expect to have a Cup race at Kentucky next year,” said Smith, whose publicly held corporation owns seven tracks, including the Las Vegas facility, that host 12 of 36 Cup races each year.

Smith did not say how he would get the Cup race for his latest acquisition.

NASCAR chairman Brian France has been steadfast the past few years that new Cup dates would be created only for a track built near New York City or in the Northwest.

On Thursday, Smith moved off his previous stance of refusing to move a Cup race to Las Vegas — or now Kentucky — from one of his other tracks.

“We’ll be looking at all kinds of things,” Smith said. “We’re in a position we have to look at everything.”

Before adding Kentucky to his portfolio, he was adamant about landing an additional date for the Las Vegas track, which Speedway Motorsports bought in 1998, three years after it opened.

“At this time, I’m not prepared to discuss that,” Smith said in Thursday’s national teleconference from Lowe’s Motor Speedway, which will host Sunday’s Cup race near Charlotte, N.C.

He said he is leaving the prospect of a second Las Vegas race “in other people’s hands in Las Vegas. Now we’re thinking about Kentucky Speedway.”

Smith has sought a multiyear agreement with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in which the public entity would pay Speedway Motorsports $10 million a year for a second Cup date, according to a source close to the LVCVA. The source said LVCVA officials called Smith’s request too steep.

Speedway Motorsports late last year paid $340 million for New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which hosts two Cup races. The purchase price for the Kentucky track, which opened in 2000, was not disclosed.

The 1.5-mile oval in Sparta, Ky., seats 66,000 and is between Cincinnati and Louisville. It is the country’s 24th-largest TV market; Las Vegas is 41st.

Smith plans to add at least 50,000 seats at Kentucky, which currently has NASCAR Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series races.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.