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CUP: Kansas Casino, Second Cup Date On Hold
Written by: Tom Jensen   
12/05/2008
New York, New York
 
Deteriorating U.S. economic conditions have put an indefinite hold on plans to build a $705 million Hard Rock Hotel & Casino at Kansas Speedway. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos

Deteriorating U.S. economic conditions have put an indefinite hold on plans to build a $705 million Hard Rock Hotel & Casino at Kansas Speedway, the track announced Friday. That also means the track will table its plans to add a second NASCAR Sprint Cup date at the 1.5-mile facility and build a road course there.

NASCAR officials previously had said that they would be amenable to shifting a second race to Kansas. In fact, just three days earlier, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said that Kansas could get a second Cup date as early as 2010.

But that won’t happen now. Kansas Entertainment LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between The Cordish Co. and Kansas Speedway, has withdrawn its application for Lottery Gaming Facility Manager for the Northeast Kansas gaming zone, with the intent to re-apply upon the re-opening of bidding for the zone.

“While I’m disappointed that we had to make today’s announcement based on the current financial markets, we remain committed to pursuing the casino management contract through the re-application process,” said Kansas Speedway President Jeff Boerger in a statement issued by the track. “In our re-submitted proposal, we will include the road course and potential second Sprint Cup date as part of our application which will cement Kansas Speedway’s position as the Midwest’s preeminent racing and entertainment destination.

“While we’ve delayed these projects for the time being, we remain steadfastly committed to pursuing both the road course and a potential second Sprint Cup date at Kansas Speedway if we’re awarded the management contract.”

The 1.5 million square-foot Hard Rock Hotel & Casino was to include a 300-room luxury hotel; a casino with 3,000 slot machines and 140 gaming tables; 275,000 square-feet of destination retail, dining and entertainment including a live-music venue; first-class resort amenities; and extensive meeting and convention facilities.

Kansas Speedway also had planned to build an infield road course, which would be used to host a variety of racing forms including the Grand Am and SCCA series, as well as car-club
member events and an annual RV rally for track sponsor Camping World.

There was no timetable given by the track for when the projects might resume.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to


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