Kansas: Give Me Gambling, Give Me A 2nd Cup Date

The president of International Speedway Corp., Lesa France Kennedy has said that she will ask NASCAR for a 2nd Sprint Cup date for Kansas Speedway if approval is granted to build a hotel and casino at the facility.

At the earliest, a second date would not happen until 2010, ebing that the 2009 schedule is near completion.

The Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board has been given the plans to consider and will be looking at them in late September. If they approve the opportunity, Kennedy will ask NASCAR for that second Cup date.

On the short end of the stick, Kennedy indicated that a 2nd race at Kansas would not add a race to the already insanely busy 36-race Cup schedule, but they will hose another community by taking a race from another ISC facility.  ISC has 12 other speedways that they can disappoint thousands of fans at when they do this.

I think if this happens, you'll see some interesting lawsuits from a municipality that loses one of the races.  If a race at Kansas means a $243 million impact on a community, that's a lot of community that is going to suffer when one of their races gets pulled.

The other tracks that ISC owns are

Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA:  A 2 mile track that seats 92,000
Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL: A 1.5 mile track that seats 75,000
Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC: A 1.366 mile track that seats 63,000
Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL:  A 2.5 mile track that seats 168,000
Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, FL:  A 1.5 mile track that seats 65,000
Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, KS:  A 1.5 mile track that seats 81,687
Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, VA:  A .526 mile track that seats 65,000
Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI:  A 2 mile track that seats 137,243
Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, AZ:  A 1 mile track that seats 76,812
Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, VA:  A .75 mile track that seats 107,097
Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, AL:  A 2.66 mile track that seats 143,231
Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, NY:  A 2.45 mile track that seats 41,000

Source:  http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=news/sports/pro/motor_sports/nascar&sa=RPM&eid=3533883