SMI Plans to Announce Purchase of Kentucky Speedway
05-22-2008 12:24 am

Speedway Motorsports Inc. is expected to announce this afternoon that it has bought Kentucky Speedway, according to sources familiar with the situation.
 
Sources indicated that SMI will purchase the 1.5-mile oval in Sparta, Ky., that opened in 2000 and has been in the center of an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and SMI rival International Speedway Corp. since 2005.
 
SMI has a 3 p.m. news conference scheduled for today at Lowe's Motor Speedway, where the deal is expected to be announced.
 
The original ownership group of the speedway, led by businessman Jerry Carroll, could continue to have its antitrust lawsuit go through the U.S. Court of Appeals while SMI completes the purchase and begins operating the track. The appeals court is in the process of determining whether there should be a trial in the case after a U.S. District Court judge threw out the lawsuit, citing flaws in the theory presented by Kentucky Speedway's expert in the case. SMI, though, cannot be involved in the lawsuit as part of a settlement in a previous SMI shareholder antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and ISC.
 
Kentucky Speedway has played host to NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races since 2000 and NASCAR Nationwide Series races since 2001.