NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Kansas Speedway Confirms Second Date
Kansas Speedway will host NASCAR Sprint Cup races on June 5 and Oct. 9 next year...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted August 10, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Kansas Speedway has moved qualifying from Friday to Saturday for the first of its two Sprint Cup Series race weekends in 2011. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kansas Speedway confirmed Tuesday that a new NASCAR Sprint Cup race will be added to its schedule for 2011.

The second race has been scheduled June 5. The speedway’s “original” date will be Oct. 9. Although lights are being installed at the track, both of the 2011 dates will be day races.

The Oct. 9 race will be the fourth in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“We believe the region is more than capable of successfully hosting two events,” said Lesa France Kennedy, International Speedway Corp. chairwoman. “The second Cup date at Kansas Speedway also will be great for the sport. The Kansas City region is an important one for the NASCAR race teams and our partners.”

The new Kansas date comes at the expense of Auto Club Speedway in California, another ISC track which confirmed Tuesday that it will host only one race next season. Auto Club has had attendance problems since it went from one race to two in 2004.

A Hollywood Casino is under construction outside the second turn of the Kansas speedway and is scheduled to open early in 2012. The awarding of a second Sprint Cup date was considered a part of the package that brought the casino to the speedway property.

Kansas has hosted one Sprint Cup race since the 2001 season.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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