Kansas Speedway adding road course

Kansas Road Course and repaving

There are more changes in the works at Kansas Speedway.

Officials received the final layout from their design team this week for a proposed road course through the infield, and construction is scheduled to begin after the April race.

Track president Pat Warren also said Friday that he hopes one of the two Sprint Cup races at Kansas Speedway will be run at night in 2013. The track installed lights last year and drew about 25,000 fans last fall for an ARCA race run under the lights.

The infield road course will be built in conjunction with a reconfiguration and repaving of the original 1 1/2-mile tri-oval. The work will be finished before the October race weekend.

The track will host its first Grand-Am race on the road course next year.

With the addition of a road course, the Grand-Am circuit will swing through Wyandotte County as part of its 2013 season.

“We got the final layout from our design team and Grand-Am (on Thursday)," Warren said. “Construction itself won’t be done until the day after our April (NASCAR Sprint Cup) race, but it will be done in conjunction with the repave of the oval and reconfiguration of the oval. Both will finish up sometime in September."

The road course will start off the first turn and wend through an open space adjacent to the Nationwide driver/owner lot. It will then run the entire length of the backstretch, finishing with a hairpin turn that brings it back to its exit at turn two, according to Warren.

“We’ll be continuing to grow what we have out here," said Lesa France Kennedy, who indicated immediate plans call for breaking ground on a hotel near the casino within two years. “The addition of the Grand-Am race in 2013 will be really big. It will bring a diverse group to the area."