Written by:
SceneDaily.com
SceneDaily.com
11/18/2007
Covington, Ky.
%s
U.S. District Court Judge William O. Bertelsman says it will be at least January before he decides whether to approve or deny a request by NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. arguing that Kentucky Speedway does not have enough evidence for its antitrust lawsuit against them to go to trial March 4, 2008, as scheduled.
Bertelsman heard arguments in the case Nov. 19 in U.S. District Court in Covington, Ky.
Kentucky Speedway claims that NASCAR and ISC illegally conspire to keep non-ISC tracks from getting Nextel Cup races. NASCAR is a privately owned sanctioning body owned by the France family, while ISC is a publicly traded track operator whose majority of voting stock is owned by the France family.
ISC and NASCAR deny the claims and had David Boies, who represented the U.S. government in its case against Microsoft and who also defended Al Gore in his 2000 presidential vote challenge, arguing their case while NASCAR executives Brian France, Jim France, Lesa France Kennedy and Mike Helton sat in attendance.
Boies noted that Kentucky Speedway has had NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck races and does not compete as a sanctioning body against NASCAR. He said that not having one brand of NASCAR racing does not prove harm through antitrust law.
"From 2000-2007, this place has had the benefit of NASCAR racing – it simply has not had the benefit of Nextel Cup racing," Boies said. "NASCAR wouldn't have been supporting them by giving them NASCAR races if they were trying to run them out of business."
Read more...
NOTE: Get the WHY on The SPEED Report, Sundays at 7pm ET
