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Sprint Cup
CUP: Kentucky Speedway Promises Improvements
NASCAR Media Tour notebook…
Traffic problems put a damper on last July's first Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kentucky Speedway officials, who oversaw one of the worst traffic debacles in NASCAR history at the track’s inaugural Sprint Cup race last summer, Wednesday promised dramatic improvement for this year’s second race at the facility.
Officials said the track has purchased and-or improved 326 acres of parking at or near the track and that they will be able to park from 12,000 to 18,000 more cars at this year’s race.
Parking was a major problem at last year’s race. The difficulties led to thousands of fans being stranded on highways near the track. Many never made it to the facility for the race.
The chaos became so pronounced that Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports, and other high-level SMI officials ventured into the parking areas to try to assist in parking cars and moving traffic.
“We’re going to do it over, and we’re going to do it right this time,” said Smith.
“Whatever could go wrong probably went wrong as far as traffic was concerned. We’ve purchased more land. We’ve opened a lot more parking, so that will not be an excuse. We’re going to work hard to prove ourselves.”
The work also includes improved access from nearby Interstate 71, which had massive traffic jams in both directions near the track last summer.
The track’s NASCAR weekend is scheduled June 28-30. Officials said all improvements will be completed before the race.
Smith Now Part Of The Wild West – Regan Smith, the driver for the only Sprint Cup team based west of the Mississippi River, now shares an address with that team.
Smith has moved his permanent residence from North Carolina to the Denver area, having bought a house high in the mountains overlooking the city. He visited the area frequently during previous seasons with the team but decided he needed to be a full-time resident.
“I’m somebody who enjoys going to the shop, seeing what they’re doing, seeing the new parts they’re building, seeing what’s been put on the car that’s their ideas,” Smith said. “To do that I needed to be in Denver. I love it there. It’s the first time I’ve been away from Charlotte or Mooresville, and it’s certainly different.
“The first time Megan (his wife) called me and said, ‘There’s a bear on the back porch,’ was a little unique. We’ve seen bobcats and mountain lions and deer and elk, all kinds of stuff, since then.”
The Furniture Row team, owned by Denver businessman Barney Visser, gained some cachet last season by scoring its first Cup victory as Smith won the Southern 500 at Darlington.
The goal now, Smith said, is to strengthen consistency and build toward top-10 finishes on a regular basis.
“We’ve got to stop the inconsistency,” he said. “We’ll go from running right around 10th one week to around 30th the next. We’ve got to close those gaps up.
“I think the guy I look to and I wangt to model what we do this year after is [Kevin] Harvick. There were races last year where he was 15th, and all of a sudden at the end of the race he pops up sixth. We need to focus on doing that. That’s what it’s going to take for us to get to the next level.”
Kahne Weighing The Evidence – The Charlotte Motor Speedway Sprint Media Tour is one of the biggest events of the NASCAR preseason, and driver appearances at the tour’s various stops are essentially mandatory.
But driver Kasey Kahne, new to Hendrick Motorsports, missed the tour’s stop at that facility Wednesday afternoon. And he had a good reason.
Kahne was in his third day of jury duty.
Seems even famous race car drivers can’t avoid the long reach of the justice system.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Officials said the track has purchased and-or improved 326 acres of parking at or near the track and that they will be able to park from 12,000 to 18,000 more cars at this year’s race.
Parking was a major problem at last year’s race. The difficulties led to thousands of fans being stranded on highways near the track. Many never made it to the facility for the race.
The chaos became so pronounced that Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports, and other high-level SMI officials ventured into the parking areas to try to assist in parking cars and moving traffic.
“We’re going to do it over, and we’re going to do it right this time,” said Smith.
“Whatever could go wrong probably went wrong as far as traffic was concerned. We’ve purchased more land. We’ve opened a lot more parking, so that will not be an excuse. We’re going to work hard to prove ourselves.”
The work also includes improved access from nearby Interstate 71, which had massive traffic jams in both directions near the track last summer.
The track’s NASCAR weekend is scheduled June 28-30. Officials said all improvements will be completed before the race.
Smith Now Part Of The Wild West – Regan Smith, the driver for the only Sprint Cup team based west of the Mississippi River, now shares an address with that team.
Smith has moved his permanent residence from North Carolina to the Denver area, having bought a house high in the mountains overlooking the city. He visited the area frequently during previous seasons with the team but decided he needed to be a full-time resident.
“I’m somebody who enjoys going to the shop, seeing what they’re doing, seeing the new parts they’re building, seeing what’s been put on the car that’s their ideas,” Smith said. “To do that I needed to be in Denver. I love it there. It’s the first time I’ve been away from Charlotte or Mooresville, and it’s certainly different.
“The first time Megan (his wife) called me and said, ‘There’s a bear on the back porch,’ was a little unique. We’ve seen bobcats and mountain lions and deer and elk, all kinds of stuff, since then.”
The Furniture Row team, owned by Denver businessman Barney Visser, gained some cachet last season by scoring its first Cup victory as Smith won the Southern 500 at Darlington.
The goal now, Smith said, is to strengthen consistency and build toward top-10 finishes on a regular basis.
“We’ve got to stop the inconsistency,” he said. “We’ll go from running right around 10th one week to around 30th the next. We’ve got to close those gaps up.
“I think the guy I look to and I wangt to model what we do this year after is [Kevin] Harvick. There were races last year where he was 15th, and all of a sudden at the end of the race he pops up sixth. We need to focus on doing that. That’s what it’s going to take for us to get to the next level.”
Kahne Weighing The Evidence – The Charlotte Motor Speedway Sprint Media Tour is one of the biggest events of the NASCAR preseason, and driver appearances at the tour’s various stops are essentially mandatory.
But driver Kasey Kahne, new to Hendrick Motorsports, missed the tour’s stop at that facility Wednesday afternoon. And he had a good reason.
Kahne was in his third day of jury duty.
Seems even famous race car drivers can’t avoid the long reach of the justice system.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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