NASCAR to buy CASCAR
The Toronto Sun has learned that a deal to sell CASCAR — Canada's top stock car racing series — to the France family business that is NASCAR will be made official at a news conference today in Toronto and that Canadian Tire has signed on as the title sponsor.
The deal, which has been two years in the making, will see NASCAR sanction a national stock car racing series in Canada on the foundation that has been laid by Tony Novotny and his wife, Linda, over the past 20 years.
"It's finally going to happen," Linda Novotny said yesterday. Toronto Sun
11/27/05 No big announcement tonight but NASCAR is getting closer to taking the checkered flag with its purchase of CASCAR. "I would like to be optimistic about that," CASCAR founder and president Tony Novotny said on the eve of the national Super Series and regional Sportsman Series awards banquet at the Hilton Hotel in London. The Free Press reported in early September, during the annual Labor Day weekend Super Series race at Delaware Speedway, that only the paperwork remained for CASCAR to be sold in its entirety to U.S.-based giant NASCAR. One source said yesterday there could be an official announcement in two weeks. "It's just guessing, like everyone else is, and that's including myself," said Novotny, who founded the Canadian Association for Stock Car Auto Racing in 1981. London Free Press
10/26/05 Canadian Jim Bray, years ago a NASCAR driver but currently fielding a car in CASCAR, is of the opinion NASCAR is in the process of acquiring that dominion-wide sanctioning body. He bases this view on seeing Richard Buck of NASCAR at all CASCAR races. Bray feels the purchase announcement will come at CASCAR’s season-ending banquet. NSSN
09/06/05 Only the paperwork remains for the Canadian CASCAR stock car racing circuit to be sold in its entirety to U.S.-based giant NASCAR. Negotiations have been ongoing for a year and a half and sources told The Free Press yesterday it's now in the hands of the lawyers. "It's not 'if,' it's 'when,' " one source said. Another said the takeover may lead to Canadians eventually driving in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, the top echelon in stock car racing. CASCAR was founded in 1981 and has maintained an office in Komoka. It's the largest stock car sanctioning body in the country. The national-touring Super Series began in 1988. NASCAR moved into Canada two years ago, establishing its Dodge Weekly Series at three tracks, including Delaware. Canadians have a huge interest in the Nextel Cup Series, and that could see a Busch or Craftsman Truck race in this country as early as next year. London Free Press
11/05/04 Dave Despain mentioned on Speed Channel's Wind Tunnel Thursday night that the announcement would be November 18th
11/02/04 Reports in Canada say that CASCAR is on the verge of announcing a major title sponsor for the series. Having been without one for several years, the cash infusion is much needed. With NASCAR rumored to be buying CASCAR, did the Canadian office of NASCAR based in Toronto help CASCAR land this sponsor?
10/30/04 This London Free Press CASCAR article says, CASCAR president Tony Novotny will have to delay an announcement that was scheduled for tonight that the national stock car racing body has entered into an agreement with NASCAR. "We've been trying really, really hard to pull something together and hopefully we'll have something in the next few weeks," Novotny said last night. "Everybody knows we've been talking to them, but they move really, really slow." It's been speculated for almost two years that NASCAR would be buying CASCAR, which Novotny established in 1981 and is headquartered in Komoka. CASCAR lost its flagship track, Delaware Speedway, this past season when it switched sanctioning to NASCAR and the Dodge Weekly Series. But Delaware retained its two CASCAR Super Series races. Novotny's announcement was to have come during CASCAR's annual awards dinner at the London Convention Centre tonight. Greg MacPherson, editor of Inside Track Motorsports News, said any announcement will be welcomed by the race teams and sponsors. "Continued uncertainty regarding a potential sale is the worst possible situation for everyone involved. The teams and sponsors deserve to have someone make a call one way or another. "It's a miracle CASCAR survived the turmoil of the last few seasons."……….CASCAR has also survived uncertainty surrounding the Molson Indys in Toronto and Vancouver. With Vancouver apparently being replaced by Edmonton for 2005 Champ Car Series, the Super Series may endure yet another schedule change.
07/11/04 This rumor is close to being upgraded to 'fact' as rumor this morning in Toronto is that the deal for NASCAR to acquire CASCAR was completed yesterday. Mark C.
07/10/04 NASCAR's Chief Operating Officer, George Pyne, and Technical Inspection and now safety honcho, Gary Nelson, were in Toronto this weekend surveying the action and adding fuel to the fire that NASCAR will buy CASCAR. NASCAR recently opened an office in Toronto. Mark C.
06/07/04 NASCAR has been in discussions to buy Canada's top stock-car racing series, CASCAR owner and founder Tony Novotny of London confirmed yesterday. "We have had discussions with NASCAR as recently as February of this year," Novotny said. "However, we don't have any kind of a deal on the table right now that says they are going to buy us at this point." Novotny said that the most recent talks have centered on whether NASCAR is able to make a deal that works for him and the 30 or so teams who regularly run the CASCAR Super Series, including the Toronto and Vancouver Molson Indys. This isn't the first time that NASCAR has focused it's attention on the Canadian market in general and CASCAR specifically. "We have had discussions with NASCAR as far back as five years ago," Novotny said. "I sat down with then NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr." A key impetus to getting NASCAR's attention has been the huge success the past two seasons of having Nextel Cup drivers race in the annual Canada Day Shootout at Cayuga. London Free Press
06/01/04 [Editor's Note: We expect NASCAR to eventually buy ASCAR in Europe as well as they look to expand internationally. Eventually you will see them hold Nextel Cup races at these venues.] Rumors are rampant that the CASCAR Super Series — Canada's top stock car racing sanctioning body — is in negotiations with NASCAR to sell its events, including races at the Champ Car Toronto and Vancouver Molson Indys. Reports of the sale were being spread this past weekend in Charlotte, N.C., home of NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600. If the sale were to be completed, it is expected that NASCAR would rename the series NASCAR North and lump it in with its two other regional racing series — Busch North and Grand National West. Toronto Sun