January 21, 2009
By Larry Van Zandt
Headline Sparta, Kentucky:
News so interesting, I fell asleep immediately.
News of how much Kentucky Speedway was sold for, when purchased by O. Dear God Smith/SMI, was just revealed this past week….and I’ve lost exactly 0.00000000000000076 hours of sleep over this transactional tidbit.
I think the bigger news here is that some people, including certain hopeful track developers, don’t quite understand that NASCAR is a monopoly. NASCAR is family-owned, and family-bungled, which means, that no matter how many times we scream at this entity for making stupid decisions, nothing is going to change until we simply stop watching the races….and even then I’m not so sure. You cannot sue someone to make them run a race at your track. KYS may be a nice facility…but there’s a dozen or so other tracks just like it…and at this point….nobody cares.
This also goes for the former owners of KYS…or whatever it’s called. To be honest, I’m seriously questioning whether or not this track should have been built to begin with, at least in its current configuration. I’m thinking a Bristol variant should have been built here, that way the track could support itself with smaller venues in case the whole ‘NASCAR’ thing didn’t work out (and then add seating if necessary), but the sad truth is that someone in the development group that built KYS went with the wrong horse, and built another track that nobody likes, for a entity that isn’t making sound long-term business decisions right now.
The fact of the matter is that these people should have never built a track of this size unless NASCAR begged them for it, and did so in writing. If I am missing something, I apologize now, but I don’t recall seeing anything where NASCAR was sending rumpled, pre-teen love notes to the owners of Kentucky Speedway, with crudely-drawn stick figures holding hands, and the notes asking “Would you go with me?”
In retrospect, I begin to wonder if too many new tracks were built for this particular racing series, with NASCAR trying to be everything to everybody….everywhere. And in NASCAR’s zest to try to eclipse the National Football League in being the most popular sport in the United States (which I can no longer stand to watch), I am now convinced that this tent got way too big for the support poles underneath it, in addition to thinking that Kentucky is simply the first to go….even before it’s been used as a NASCAR Sprint Cup race venue. KYS will never see a NASCAR race….but given the current car, and the tedious racing that has been a result, I’m thinking that ol’ Jerry should be thankful that NASCAR took their ball and went home, because even if KYS got a race date, it would only delay the inevitable….when Space Aliens invade Kentucky.
NASCAR Jokes:
Did you hear about the NASCAR official that’s been trying to read a book titled ‘How to conquer Insomnia’?
He can never stay awake long enough to finish it.
Did you hear about the NASCAR official who just got served with divorce papers?
He spends several hours a night, tossing and turning, fluffing up his pillow while half asleep….and she left after he fluffed up her head for the fifth time this week.
See you next week….
If at first you don’t succeed, call it the ‘Car of Tomorrow’.
You can contact Larry Van Zandt at Insider Racing News.
You Can Read Other Articles By Larry Van Zandt
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
