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CUP: Kentucky Speedway To Add Parking Area
Track buys acreage to expand parking after July 9 race problems…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted August 27, 2011   Bristol, TN
Traffic problems put a damper on last July's first Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Help is on the way at Kentucky Speedway.

Track officials are scheduled to reveal details of an additional parking area in a press conference Tuesday.

Kentucky hosted its first Sprint Cup race last month, and among the results was one of the worst traffic jams in NASCAR history. Thousands of fans – most already having purchased tickets – were stranded on highways approaching the track and didn’t make it into the facility for the Quaker State 400.

Track officials apologized and promised changes before NASCAR returns to the facility.

Details of the changes will be revealed Tuesday. One will involve new parking areas on a 219-acre piece of land recently purchased by the track for $1.5 million.

Track general manager Mark Simendinger, visiting Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday for the track’s Cup race, confirmed the land purchase.

“We spent time talking to individual landowners about solutions, and we settled on this piece of property,” he said. “It took us a while to go through all those gyrations. July 9th was the race. For us to find it, select it, get it under contract and close it in six weeks was pretty good.”

Simendinger said insufficient parking was the track’s biggest problem during the July 9 event.

“We had some challenges, but we just have to increase capacity, and that’s what we’re able to do with this acquisition,” he said. “We’ve been working on this thing like we said we would. That’s what I’ve been doing.

“Unfortunately, in life sometimes you learn the hard way on things. We certainly could see where we thought we needed help. We sat down as a team and talked about where we thought the best places were.”

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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