Kentucky greases Bruton’s pockets

Bruton Smith gets $30M from Kentucky

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has unveiled details of his economic incentives legislation, including potentially more than $30 million in incentives to Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports Inc. if he brings a NASCAR Sprint Cup race to Kentucky Speedway.

Smith has said he wants to move a Cup race to the track, and the governor apparently doesn’t want to take any chances of Smith’s desire waning while he waits for the realignment to come to fruition.

To receive the incentives, Smith must invest $30 million in expansion of the track and get a Cup date. He also must agree to a benchmark hiring target of 100 percent of contractors with facilities in Kentucky and at least 75 percent of the workers from Kentucky.

The proposed legislation will be part of a special session of the Kentucky legislature that begins next week.

SMI bought the 1.5-mile oval in Sparta for $78.3 million (including $63.3 million in debt) last January. Smith has said he wants to move a Cup date to the track, but NASCAR won’t allow him to realign one of his dates from another track until an antitrust lawsuit filed by the track’s former ownership group is resolved. It is unlikely a resolution will occur in time for the track to get on the 2010 schedule. SceneDaily.com