NASCAR Notebook: Smith says he's proceeding with Kentucky buy

By: JournalNow Staff | COMPILED BY MIKE MULHERN
Published: August 30, 2008

■ Bruton Smith, through his Speedway Motorsports arm, said he is going ahead with the purchase of Kentucky Speedway, as he first proposed back in May, despite noncomittal support from NASCAR executives and no promise of a Sprint Cup date.

Smith had three months to study the proposal and back out if he wished, and when NASCAR said no to his hope for a Cup tour date in 2009, the project looked iffy, particularly with that lawsuit still pending against NASCAR.

"The period expired Aug. 18, and the company has decided to move forward with the acquisition, subject to satisfaction of remaining closing conditions," Smith's SMI company said. "The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, most likely in December."

Smith said the Cincinnati-area track will give him a foothold in the midwest, which NASCAR appears to be emphasing, with the possibility of a second Cup date at Kansas Speedway and with the addition of Rusty Wallace's Iowa Speedway, near Des Moines, to the Nationwide tour.

First, though, Smith would have to resolve Jerry Carroll's suit against NASCAR.

The track, on 820 acres in rural Sparta, Ky., is a 11/2-mile track similar to many already in Smith's SMI portfolio. It seats 66,000.

■ Canadian Patrick Carpentier says "It's over," at the end of the year, after his one season with Dodge car owners Ray Evernham and George Gillett.

"They hired Reed Sorenson for next year, so it's over," Carpentier said. "They're working on a fourth team and looking for sponsorship, but you know how that goes."

So Carpentier said he's a free agent. "I'm talking with other teams to see what's out there," he said.

Carpentier is a former open-wheel star who has been trying to make not only a comeback but a switch to heavier NASCAR stockers this season, at 36. Carpentier hasn't shown all that much on the track. His best runs as teammate with Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler were a 14th at Daytona last month, an 18th at Indianpolis, and a 20th at Watkins Glen. He failed to qualify last weekend at Bristol.

The key to Carpentier's situation with Evernham and Gillett, however, may not be performance-based ... rather in the new sponsor the team is wooing, according to sources: the U.S. Army, which is apparently leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. at the end of the season. And the U.S. Army, naturally, would want an American driver rather than Canadian.

■ Ryan Newman said it does seem odd that Daytona International Speedway executives don't want the defending Daytona 500 winner in their season-opening Bud Shootout next spring.

When Daytona announced the new format for the Anheuser-Busch sponsored sprint, the focus clearly moved from drivers to Detroit car makers. For 30 years the Shootout has been for Cup tour pole winners, but next season this year's pole winners will have no say.

The new Shootout, at the moment, will feature 24 drivers -- from the top six GM teams, as based on this year's final owner standings, the top six Toyota teams, the top six Ford teams and the top six Dodge teams.

Since Newman and new teammate Tony Stewart will be leaving their teams at the end of this year and driving next year for a new team, they both will be ineligible for the Shootout.