Track News: Kentucky Speedway is there for IndyCar’s taking

NASCAR abandoned the Kentucky Speedway following the 2020 Quaker State 400. Set in a sparsely populated stretch along Interstate 71, between both Cincinnati and Louisville and not far from Indianapolis, the $178 million facility (white elephant) now serves mainly as a temporary home for the Ford Motor Company’s excess inventory.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Though rumors persist that stock car racing may eventually return to Kentucky Speedway, the state appears short on political will and financial muscle. Meanwhile, Speedway Motorsports and a Tennessee-based subsidiary have assigned higher priority for a NASCAR Cup race to other tracks.

And as NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell has pointed out, the big-league stock car circuit is essentially a zero-sum game. Each addition requires a subtraction.

“The annual assignment of specific racetracks is made on a highly competitive basis, and there is always competition among tracks in different states to obtain a second race (by removing a race from another facility),” O’Donnell has written.

“Further, there is competition when a track is currently without a NASCAR race and desires to obtain one, which, due to finite supply of dates, would necessarily have to be taken from another state. In addition to the criteria described above, NASCAR obviously looks more favorably on facilities that, in addition, have the support of their state or local communities.”

“Speedway Motorsports just up and pulled out of Kentucky and took the race back to Atlanta with no warning, no explanation,” Senate Republican Floor Leader DamonThayer said. “So I don’t know why the taxpayers should be on the hook for bringing the place back to life when the owners decided to kill it in the first place.”

What about IndyCar?

NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske says he would like to see modest growth in the series’ schedule and add more ovals to the calendar.

IndyCar did add the Milwaukee Mile to their 2024 schedule (2 races), and the Nashville Street race was moved to the dangerous 1.25-mile Nashville Speedway, but when they published their 2025 schedule on Thursday, there was no sign of another oval race being added.

But do IndyCar fans really like oval track racing?  It would seem not. Most fans we talked to say IndyCars are too fast and too small for oval tracks – they get dizzy watching the little cars go around and around and around in the hot sun.

Sampling of Failed IndyCar Oval Races

Atlanta
Charlotte
Chicagoland
Cicero, IL
Dover
Eurospeedway Germany
Fontana
Homestead
Kansas
Kentucky
Langhorne
Las Vegas
Michigan
Nazareth Speedway
New Hampshire
Ontario Motor Speedway
Phoenix
Pikes Peak International Raceway
Pocono
Richmond
Rockingham UK
Sanair
Texas Motor Speedway
Texas World Speedway
Trenton
Twin Ring Motegi
Walt Disney World Speedway