Despite lawsuit, Kentucky still hopes to land Cup race

The expansion plans are at the ready, filed away in some desk drawer waiting for the day Kentucky Speedway finally lands the NASCAR Nextel Cup race its owners have been chasing for nearly a decade. The optimist in Speedway general manager Mark Cassis believes one day the plans to add 35,000 seats to the grandstand and 50 more luxury suites will be unveiled.

And listening to him talk about the overwhelming response to the NASCAR Busch Series event at the track – more than 70,000 packed the grandstand for Saturday’s Meijer 300 – it’s hard not to share his enthusiasm or notice the gleam in his eye when he talks about seeing Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and company roar to the start-finish line.

“We’re going to get there," Cassis said. “We need to get there." Yet seven years after the track opened, the dream of having auto racing’s premier circuit visit the 1.5-mile oval in northern Kentucky once a year remains just that.

Despite the success of the Busch event and an almost uniformly positive response to the track’s quality from drivers and fans, the Speedway continues to “play AAA baseball in a major league park" as Cassis put it. More at Thatsracin.com