Days (of Thunder) Gone By
Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, KY as seen in July 2023.
I went through a NASCAR phase as a kid. Absolutely loved Jeff Gordon and hated Dale (Jarrett and Earnhardt). It was a great time to be a fan of the 24 car, its “wonder boy” driver, and his “Rainbow Warriors” pit crew. Between the ‘95 and ‘01 seasons, they won four championships.
Do you know why Jeff Gordon used number 24?
According to one of the posters I had in my room growing up: because he was “2 fast 4 you.”
Despite my devotion, however, I never saw the man race. Both his career, and my fandom, had faded by the time he was running at the track closest to me: Kentucky Speedway. That place had been big news when it was announced. It’s construction having occurred during a high-water mark for NASCAR’s mainstream popularity. But now, in the same amount of years as Jeff Gordon’s car number, the massive race track in the small city of Sparta has come and gone.
A faded and peeling Kentucky Speedway sign as seen in July 2023.
It’s difficult to—pardon the pun—drive home just how popular NASCAR was in its not-really-that-long-ago heyday. From the mid-to-late 1990s and into the early 2010’s, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was the undeniable king of motorsports when it came to American audiences. Nearly every weekend, one could find races from all three of the organization’s top tours on television. “Triple headers” at tracks were common with the trucks racing on Fridays, the second-level stock cars on Saturdays, and the top tier stock cars closing things out on Sundays. The typical tracks of the era were usually some variation of an oval shape. Aside from a few special events on road courses, NASCAR sanctioned races generally featured hundreds of laps run around speedways with left-handed turns. The competing “Indy car” leagues were also fond of the ovals—and although they weren’t getting anywhere near the same attendance or television numbers—they were holding their own. Along with the “minor league” Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and several other smaller scale racing organizations, the point is this: racing was popular, seemingly growing in that popularity, and tracks had plenty of different events to book.
Paramount Picture’s 1990 film, Days of Thunder, starred Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall. A summer blockbuster, it was an early example of NASCAR crossing over into mainstream culture. The movie even inspired theme park rides, including one that was located at Paramount’s Kings Island in the Cincinnati metro area, a market that would also be served by Kentucky Speedway.
NASCAR had evolved from its humble, outlaw roots in the American South into a respected, major sports entertainment organization beloved throughout the entire nation. This was perhaps best illustrated with the opening of Chicagoland Speedway in 2001. A track built within one of the nation’s largest media markets in an area that had previously been untapped by the major racing players and one that sat well north of NASCAR’s traditional audience strongholds. Over in Kentucky, investors had seen a similar opportunity to get in on the action of racing’s rising tide.
Jerry Carroll’s first business venture with racing didn’t involve cars, but rather, horses. In 1986, the real estate investor led a group in purchasing and renovating what’s now known as Turfway Park: a horse racing track in the Cincinnati suburbs of Northern Kentucky. Carroll became intrigued with motorsports shortly after witnessing a race in Texas. Sensing the potential of auto racing’s growing reputation, he set out to build a speedway of his own.
To fund the venture, he brought in partners like Richard Farmer, the founder and then-CEO of the Cintas corporation, as well as, Outback Steakhouse executive John Lindahl. A strategic location was secured with the purchase of farmland in Gallatin County, Kentucky. Once completed, the speedway would be within easy driving distance of three large population centers—around 45 minutes across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati and about an hour from the cities of Louisville and Lexington. From the start, Carroll made it known that securing a top-tier NASCAR Cup Series race was his ultimate goal and to accomplish this, he had an established name in his corner.
Darrell Waltrip was born in Owensboro, KY. Before he’d go on to become a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and racing legend, he got his start at the (similarly named, but different than our subject here) Kentucky Motor Speedway in nearby Whitesville. By the time Carroll was pushing to build a large-scale, modern racetrack in the Bluegrass State, Waltrip was nearing retirement and preparing for a career in the broadcast booth with a well established reputation as an ambassador for NASCAR. He became a vocal supporter of Carroll’s project and was even hired on as a consultant to help design the track.
The Darrell Waltrip statue on the grounds of Kentucky Speedway as seen in July 2023.
In July of 1998, Carroll and his partners broke ground on Kentucky Speedway. Planned to initially seat around 66,000 spectators with room to grow, the project was billed as “the largest excavation project in Kentucky history.” Waltrip attended the groundbreaking ceremony and spoke highly of Carroll’s ultimate goal to lure a prized Cup Series race:
“I’m going to grab [then-CEO of NASCAR] old Billy France [Jr.] by the ear and tell him we need to be racing here. I’ve been around. He listens to me. I want to come home to a [sponsor] Cup race here.”
- Darrell Waltrip as quoted in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, KY on July 19, 1998.
From the start, things looked promising. In addition to Waltrip, Kentucky Speedway planners had also retained Bill Moss, the man who’d designed Alabama’s famed Talladega Superspeedway. Unlike the monstrous Talladega, however (which still stands as NASCAR’s longest and largest oval track at 2.7 miles), Kentucky would span just 1.5 miles. The conservative length and generic “tri-oval” shape made it a safe bet for luring the top racing leagues of the time. A setup that mirrored successful, recent contemporaries in places like Texas, Las Vegas, and Chicago.
As construction progressed, Carroll and his team began to secure events—first by scheduling an ARCA race which was quickly followed by a commitment from IndyCar (then known as the Indy Racing League). NASCAR would also throw its hat in the ring… err… oval… by booking a date for its Craftsman Truck Series, an occurrence that would also serve as the facility’s inaugural race.
• • •
If one knows where to look, there’s a place online where you can watch random races from the 1990s and early aughts. Thanks to some kind stranger, one of those random races is the 2000 Kroger 225. As the ESPN broadcast begins, the camera pans over packed grandstands before zooming in on a fan holding a sign up for the tv cameras to plainly see: “They built it… WE CAME.”
Screenshot from ESPN’s broadcast of Kentucky Speedway’s inaugural race on June 17, 2000.
“And they certainly have,” commentator Marty Reid goes on to narrate over the scene.
As the camera continues to focus on the crowd, Reid notes that despite traffic snarls and a rain delay, the fans have still shown up in force on opening night. And for a truck race at that. Generally considered a third-tier development league of NASCAR, the trucks aren’t particularly well known for their ability to draw an audience. This night in Kentucky, however, over 60,000 fans have packed in to watch them run under the lights.
Reid’s commentary partner (and 1973 NASCAR Cup Series Champion), Benny Parsons, chimes in to relay what he’s heard from drivers in the last few days about the upcoming race: “this is going to be something special.”
After about twenty more minutes of pre-race coverage, including several interviews with drivers who praise the new facility, Reid gives one more acknowledgement of the fan’s enthusiasm and competition is underway.
The crowd roars as the pack of trucks accelerate before them on the front straightaway beneath the green flag. 2 hours, 17 minutes, and 13 seconds later—most of those trucks have completed all 150 laps (nearly a third of them under caution flags) having averaged around 98 m.p.h. and peaking at about 166 m.p.h. on the back stretch.
The big story of the night ends up not being the victory of Greg Biffle—who won with a commanding 2.182 second lead—but rather, the debut of the track and the strength of the crowd. After performing some donuts and kicking up tons of white smoke for the cheering fans, Biffle climbs out of his truck as the first driver to celebrate in Kentucky Speedway’s victory lane.
Greg Biffle and Kentucky Speedway’s mascot celebrate following the 2000 Kroger 225. Screenshot from ESPN’s broadcast
Following a few comments to the camera—and an awkward pat on the back from the speedway’s horse/human mascot—Biffle wanders off to celebrate. A future star of the NASCAR Cup series, this isn’t the last time he’ll race at Kentucky, but it is the only time he’ll win.
Later, ESPN will catch up with the second place finisher, Jack Sprague. Although “frustrated” with his performance, the racing veteran takes the time to bluntly praise the new speedway:
“…you people have a great racetrack, so be proud of it. There's a lot of dumps out there, and you're not in one of them.”
- Driver Jack Sprague to ESPN following the conclusion of the 2000 Kroger 225.
• • •
The first race I attended at Kentucky was an ARCA one the next summer when my dad and I made the hour drive from our suburban Cincinnati home. While I didn’t know many (or probably any) of the driver’s names—the series having then existed independent of and well below NASCAR’s Cup Series—I do remember that I had an absolute blast. And how loud it was. Just so unbelievably deafening in a way I could’ve never anticipated from having watched on television. Every time a pack of cars roared by, you could feel it in your chest as your seat vibrated and the ground shook—an incredible thing to experience. It was nearly impossible for us to speak with one another or listen in to the driver’s squawking with their crew chiefs over the radio scanner we’d brought along.
Tickets from The Kentucky 150—an ARCA race held in the speedway’s second year, and, the first race I ever saw in person at the track.
Thinking back on that day and rewatching that inaugural truck race 24 years later: it’s easy to recall the excitement I had as a kid. The news and success of Kentucky Speedway seemed so promising, something akin to the idea of your city vying for a new major league sports franchise. If I could go back in time and tell my younger self that in fact, yes, the Cup Series would come—eleven-year-old me would’ve totally believed that. But the notion that NASCAR would quickly abandon the track after such a commitment—that would’ve sounded utterly implausible.
• • •
After several successful events, the motorsports world had taken notice of Kentucky. NASCAR even decided to go one step further. Before the checkered flag had been waved on the first season, they announced that their second-tier Xfinity (then sponsored by Busch Beer) stock car series would be joining the trucks for year two.
Kentucky Speedway magnet and my ticket stub from the 2003 running of The Meijer 300.
In the ensuing years, Kentucky Speedway became a regular fixture on the ARCA, IndyCar, Truck, and Xfinity schedules with drivers and fans from every league singing the speedway’s praises. The Xfinity races were a particularly impressive highlight, consistently featuring sell-out crowds who’d descend on the facility to show their support not just for racing, but to make a case for Jerry Carroll’s goal of luring the “big league” Cup Series.
The enthusiasm apparently wasn’t mutual, however. And why would it be? Kentucky Speedway was drawing crowds, and money, to NASCAR’s lower divisions in ways that other tracks could only dream of. Meanwhile, the (then R.J. Reynolds Tobacco sponsored) Winston Cup Series was continuing to print money hand over fist with established tracks, dates, and traditions elsewhere. To be frank: Kentucky Speedway desired the Cup Series more than the Cup Series desired Kentucky Speedway.
• • •
In the history of American professional sports, anti-trust lawsuits were once almost as common as endorsement deals. The entrenched hierarchies of baseball, football, and hockey had all welcomed mergers and expansion over the decades in order to fend off such legal maneuvering. These changes weren’t necessarily welcomed by wealthy executives, but they beat the alternative of potentially losing their pseudo-protected monopolies in court. As NASCAR’s popularity kept growing in the early 2000’s, and the organization’s grip on the American racing industry tightened, those who felt they were being kept on the outside began to grow disgruntled. Jerry Carroll was one of them.
He had every reason to be frustrated. The man had seemingly done everything right. He’d not only gotten the track built, but also proved he could fill the stands that surrounded it. Just why didn’t the local racing fans of the region deserve to the see the top stars come to town? And at the same time: why didn’t he and his partners deserve to make large amounts of money off that? It all came to a head in 2005 when, while in pursuit of this goal, Carroll filed an anti-trust lawsuit against NASCAR and the International Speedway Corporation.
ISC was a business that specialized in the management of race tracks. It also had deep ties to NASCAR with both organizations having been founded by Bill France Sr., a former race car driver and one-time campaign manager for overtly racist Alabama Governor/failed presidential candidate, George Wallace. After France Sr. passed away in 1992, his sons succeeded him as the heads of both NASCAR and ISC. When Kentucky Speedway launched its anti-trust lawsuit in 2005, 18 of the 36 Cup races that season were scheduled to take place at ISC-owned tracks. Another 10 were held at tracks owned by a different group with a close, but not incestuous NASCAR relationship: Speedway Motorsports, Incorporated. This left only 8 races in the schedule hosted by facilities which featured independent ownership in a fashion similar to Kentucky.
Carroll and his team were in a situation that appeared to paint them as a group of Davids taking on Goliath—a fight for the fans against the big guys. Things weren’t that altruistic, however. A review of court documents featured in a 2007 Cincinnati Enquirer exposé revealed: luring the Cup Series wasn’t just about bringing top tier racing to the cheering masses, but also, to make the speedway more valuable and turn a higher profit in a future, potential sale. From the exposé, which quoted court documents: “…if a track has a [sponsor] Cup event, it makes the track a completely different product to potential purchasers as well. … With a Cup race, the track becomes incredibly profitable. For this reason, Kentucky Speedway has tried since the inception of the racetrack to try to obtain a [sponsor] Cup race.”
That strategy had paid off for the similarly sized Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Opened in 1996, that facility had secured a Cup race for 1998 and then immediately found a buyer in Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Carroll and his investors, however, had come to the speedway building boom somewhat late. By Kentucky Speedway’s 2000 opening, the Cup Series was controlled by established power brokers who oversaw a jam-packed schedule that ran nearly every weekend between February and November.
The Enquirer exposé also alleged that ISC had once attempted to purchase Kentucky Speedway, but that Carroll and his team had rejected their “below-market value” offer (for their part, ISC officials denied ever having made an offer). The lawsuit was a gamble, but seemingly the best bet, and outside of the courtroom walls—things seemed fairly harmonious. Even as the legal proceedings wore on over the next few years, NASCAR continued to run both its Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series at the speedway each season.
In January 2008, however, Judge William Bertelsman ruled in favor or NASCAR and ISC by throwing out the lawsuit. As reported in The Cincinnati Enquirer, the U.S. District Court official stated:
“After careful consideration and a thorough review of the record, and granting [Kentucky] Speedway the benefit of the doubt on all reasonable inferences therefrom, the court concludes that [Kentucky] Speedway has failed to make out its case.”
- Judge William Bertelsman as quoted in The Cincinnati Enquirer on January 8, 2008.
Carroll and his team vowed to appeal, while NASCAR and ISC believed that the ruling firmly established their right to work as they pleased. From the same Cincinnati Enquirer reporting, NASCAR officials stated: “[the judgement] puts an end to any question about which locations and dates NASCAR can operate its races.”
Kentucky Speedway had been dealt a huge blow, but they weren’t down for the count (or out of the race?) just yet. In the months following the court’s ruling, the aforementioned Speedway Motorsports Incorporated began approaching Kentucky Speedway officials about selling. SMI’s relationship with NASCAR was close, but not always rosy. Boasting several tracks in his portfolio and controlling the second-most amount of races on the Cup Series schedule, SMI owner Bruton Smith had clashed with both NASCAR and ISC officials about race dates before. If the sale went through, Kentucky Speedway would be his—and SMI’s—ninth track. He would have some serious clout, and money, but ultimately NASCAR would have to approve any Cup race occurring there.
Kentucky Speedway as seen in July 2023. The two, multi-colored grandstands were additions constructed by SMI as it pursued bringing a NASCAR Cup Series race to the facility.
Photograph by Travis Estell
Smith’s purchase was finalized in May of 2008, bringing Kentucky Speedway under the SMI corporate umbrella alongside established tracks in places like Charlotte, Las Vegas, Bristol (Tennessee), and Atlanta. Jerry Carroll was kept on staff and right away, the new ownership set about getting the track a lucrative Cup Series race of its own. Darrell Waltrip spoke highly of this development, having been quoted as saying:
“I’m real proud that, that track has a future now. They know their direction.”
- Darrell Waltrip speaking to the press about Kentucky Speedway in May 2008.
Despite the positive developments, Smith’s major expansion plans in the works, and a working relationship with NASCAR, however—officials balked. Kentucky Speedway was kept off the Cup Series schedule in 2009 and again in 2010 with NASCAR officials refusing to sanction a race at the facility until the remaining appeals from the anti-trust lawsuit were dropped. To make a long, complicated judicial story short: all matters were eventually settled, allowing Smith and SMI to finally move closer to bringing a Cup Series race to Kentucky.
Kentucky Speedway as seen in July 2023.
Photograph by Travis Estell
After ten years, Kentucky Speedway was evolving. It would debut for the 2011 season with two, brand new 20,000-seat grandstands that increased its capacity to over 100,000 spectators. The facility’s branding had also been updated to be in line with its sister tracks. Along the track’s walls, the freshly painted and familiar SMI logo now sat alongside bold, sharp letter that proclaimed: “Kentucky Speedway.” The track was now firmly within in the SMI family and for the first time in its history, it appeared on the Cup Series schedule.
NASCAR hadn’t created a new race, though, Bruton Smith just simply moved one of the events he already controlled—transferring one of Atlanta’s two races up to Kentucky in order to create the Quaker State 400. A Saturday evening affair that would be the first new event added to the Cup Series schedule in a decade.
• • •
A recording of the race’s TNT broadcast kicks off with the music of AC/DC and a montage of recent NASCAR action. The feed then switches to an aerial video as the camera flies over a massive line of traffic gridlocked on the interstate.
The TNT cable network broadcast of Kentucky Speedway’s first Cup Series race in 2011 opened with aerial shots of interstate traffic.
After some banter, we’re introduced to the broadcast team. There’s still an hour to go before the race begins, but the stands behind the commentators look dramatically sparse.
Sparse crowds occupy the stands behind the TNT commentary crew with about an hour to go before the start of Kentucky’s first Cup Series event. The facility’s extraordinary traffic issues were a frequent topic during pre-race coverage.
Lindsay Czarniak, Larry McReynolds, and Kyle Petty are focused on the upcoming event with McReynolds discussing what makes Kentucky Speedway interesting:
“We go to eight, mile-and-a-half racetracks and there’s no question, this one has more character than any of them. It’s rough. It’s bumpy. All the way around the racetrack, you can’t get away from these bumps. But yet, the speeds are fast with the least amount of banking of any mile-and-a-half racetrack we go to. That’s what makes it such a challenge and gives it character.”
Czarniak then makes a crack to Petty about how he had barely arrived in time for the broadcast due to the traffic. Petty, however, pivots back to the track’s condition:
“Larry calls it character, I call it bumpy.”
It’s not clear whether Petty is aware of the track’s relatively young age, but he then goes on to refer to it as:
“…a rough old race racetrack.”
When the green flag drops and racing begins, the stands appear to have filled out fairly well. For the casual viewer at home: the traffic issues probably appear to have been resolved, even if those viewers had been following driver Denny Hamlin on Twitter throughout the day while he regularly posted about being stuck in gridlock, worried about making the race on time (he did and went on to finish 11th).
Kyle Busch uses his car to kick up smoke and entertain fans following his win at the 2011 Quaker State 400—the inaugural Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway.
In the end, Kyle Busch not only won the track’s inaugural Cup Series race, but he’d also led the most laps and held the pole. It was an historic victory for the 26-year old racing star, but as soon as the broadcast ended—the conversation switched almost exclusively to the automobile drama that had occurred outside of the racetrack.
• • •
“Traffic snarl has race fans fuming,”
…proclaimed the headline in The Courier-Journal of Louisville the next morning.
The recounting of fan grievances wasn’t just limited to the local markets, rather, the whole debacle played out in media across the country. Reports abounded of fans simply parking their cars in interstate medians so that they could just get out and walk to the track. Several spectators, who were still sitting in traffic when the race began, were reportedly instructed by police to “turn around” in an effort to make the eventual post-race mass exodus easier. Kentucky Speedway’s new owner, Bruton Smith, had even quipped to the press before the Saturday evening race that: “we expect everybody to be home by Tuesday.” Traffic problems had been anticipated, but the debacle was far worse than anyone could’ve imagined—giving the facility a black eye that would be remembered for years to come.
Amongst the fallout, SMI and the state of Kentucky quickly made plans to shore things up. By the next race in 2012, the track had purchased more land for parking and the state had invested “more than $11 Million” to upgrade local infrastructure. By most accounts, things really did improve and even more adjustments would continue to be made over the years as the speedway settled into its position on the Cup Series schedule.
• • •
The inaugural Quaker State 400 of 2011 had technically been a sellout (even if all the fans hadn’t made it to their seats). The event had been a long time coming, and had finally brought the Cup Series to a geographic region it hadn’t yet served, but NASCAR had already been suffering from a steady decline in interest. Most sources seem to agree that the organization started to see its television ratings falter in 2005. Things weren’t dire, but over the next several years: the organization’s general prominence and position in mainstream culture certainly started to slip. There’s been numerous think pieces written on this over the years, but the general consensus seems to land on a combination of popular drivers retiring, an aging fanbase, failure to attract younger viewers, and a bevy of confusing rule changes all lending to the greater perception problem. The Cup Series had also adopted a new vehicle model (dubbed “The Car of Tomorrow”) that proved to not only be unpopular with its most dedicated fans, but also caused chaos for driver performance. During the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s prominent Brickyard 400 race in 2008: spectators were treated to the cars mostly trudging along under caution flags (when it’s illegal for drivers to pass or change position) due to constant vehicle issues. When the slow, sordid affair was finally over: furious fans in attendance, and those somehow still managing to watch on television, had simply spent their day watching the top drivers of the era limp around in a boring parade of bad tires and pit stops.
Right or wrong (depending on what kind of fans you talk to or come across on the internet), NASCAR did continually try to make improvements to its overall product in an effort to combat the decline. The car situation eventually got sorted, new driver names rose to prominence, and the organization continually tweaked the scoring format in an effort to make races more meaningful and competitive. All these adjustments over a quick time, however, seemed to divide fans. Generally, it seemed as if the old guard bemoaned the idea of the various “playoff” formats, and even if younger fans were excited about those changes—casual viewers found the ever-changing rules confusing. All of this was playing out as the races themselves began to appear less frequently on widely available, over-the-air network television in favor of various cable networks. By the time Kentucky Speedway joined the Cup Series schedule, NASCAR was in the midst of near-constant upheaval and decreasing viewership—a situation that compounded the track’s other lingering issues.
While the traffic problems were resolved mostly within a year, there was still the subject that Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds had joked about during that inaugural broadcast: Kentucky Speedway’s surface was rough. Although the track had adequately served the lower circuits for a decade, it was beginning to show its age when the Cup Series arrived with a new generation of cars and faster speeds. As the Quaker State 400 continued to be run every summer, both drivers and fans often credited Kentucky as NASCAR’s roughest track. While this was occasionally used for marketing and promotional efforts, it wasn’t always seen as a positive attribute for the drivers who had to run over that surface for several hours. Major renovations between 2015 and 2016 brought repaving and a reconfiguration of banking in the turns, but despite the improvements for the drivers themselves—Cup Series racing at the track featured yet another problem: it was boring.
NASCAR Cup Series action at Kentucky Speedway as seen during a broadcast of the 2015 Quaker State 400.
Granted, “boring” is a subjective term, but generally speaking—the internet and the folks I spoke with for this story seem to share the same opinion of racing at Kentucky Speedway. The tri-oval shape and 1.5 mile length wasn’t unique in the schedule and with its Cup Series race being run in the middle of a long season, there never really seemed to be much at stake for the drivers in terms of points standings. Combined with the track’s conditions that still proved to be a challenge for drivers despite the renovations, Kentucky was often stereotyped with featuring “follow the leader racing” with few contested, exciting lead changes.
Sure, the speedway’s races featured their share of drama, crashes, and even a couple close finishes over the years, but the overall impression seemed to be that a dominant driver would typically get out front and rarely be challenged. This was a common phenomenon at NASCAR’s tri-oval tracks, but Kentucky with its lower banked turns and rough surface made competition even more difficult with the mantra seeming to be: better to finish in whatever position of a meaningless mid-season race than to wreck yourself attempting to win. Even the track’s inaugural Cup Series winner, Kyle Busch, would bluntly imply to journalist Jason Hoffman of The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2020 that the track was lackluster.
Those still tuning in to NASCAR television could also see that in-person interest was dropping as well. NASCAR eventually began keeping its attendance numbers confidential and prevented tracks from releasing their own estimates, but many journalists around the country were able to make their own educated guesses. Both The Courier-Journal out of Louisville and the Cincinnati Enquirer would note that there hadn’t been a sellout at Kentucky Speedway since the traffic-challenged first year in 2011. 2012 and 2013 saw issues with both rain and record heat, but after the 2014 race which ran in good conditions on its scheduled date—the paper’s estimated that only 60-80,000 of the speedway’s 107,000 seats had been filled. There’s no official statistics for the races that came after, but even just a casual viewing of the subsequent Cup Series events at Kentucky will show glaring patches of empty seats among the crowd. Kentucky Speedway wasn’t the only track facing attendance struggles, but it was one that also suffered from a negative reputation while trying to exist within a rapidly changing motorsports landscape.
NASCAR certainly wasn’t the only racing organization struggling for viewership, interest, and fan support, though. After reuniting as a singular entity in 2008, IndyCar had a renewed focus and was shaking things up to try and reach fresh audiences. To execute this strategy, the American open-wheel racing circuit would abandon Kentucky after their 2011 running. Both IndyCar and NASCAR were contending with the rise of a new competitor, however.
When it came to American audiences, European based Formula One had spent decades in relative obscurity. Multiple events were attempted with varying degrees of success over the decades, but nothing seemed to really stick until the Circuit of the Americas opened in Austin, Texas in 2012. Combined with the league’s other worldwide ambitions and use of both traditional, and digital, media to promote themselves—Formula One began to get a strong foothold in the States. Even in 2020, it was reporting ever-increasing tv viewership (despite the challenges of a season rattled by a global pandemic) and making plans for more events across the globe, especially in the US. As of this writing, Formula One now holds three American races which all feature their own Super Bowl-style cultural frenzy.
• • •
The effects of the COVID-19 outbreak took a toll on all facets of life and sporting events, and NASCAR was certainly no different, but it did manage to run most of its 72nd season. By the time July 2020 rolled around, NASCAR made its annual pilgrimage to Sparta, Kentucky. Although no fans were allowed in attendance due to pandemic-related restrictions, the race proved to be one of Kentucky’s most competitive. Pundits noted that the track’s repairs over the years were finally starting to pay off. Along with the surface now being seasoned and the driver’s being familiar with the track’s quirks, NASCAR’s newest “Gen-6” stock car had seemed to perform well at the track in the last few years. At the end of the Quaker State 400’s 2020 running, rookie Cole Custer made a risky outside pass right as the white flag dropped to signal the final lap. The pack of leading cars went to an (unheard of for Kentucky) four-wide spread in the first turn as Custer gambled and gunned it—shooting out front with everything he and his car had.
The pack at Kentucky Speedway goes to (an unheard of) four-wide formation during the last lap of the 2020 Quaker State 400.
“A rookie is gonna win Kentucky, can you believe it!” commentator Mike Joy proclaimed over the television broadcast in disbelief.
By the time Custer rounded the final turn and pushed into the front stretch, he was way ahead—speeding across the finish line without any challengers.
It seemed as if maybe Kentucky Speedway had finally found its identity within the NASCAR racing scene. Cole Custer, however, would seemingly end up as the final Cup Series driver to clutch a Kentucky checkered flag when just a few months later, NASCAR released its schedule for 2021. Absent was Kentucky, along with its contemporary: Chicagoland Speedway.
• • •
The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Jason Hoffman summed it up best:
“Kentucky Speedway, and race fans in the region, didn’t deserve a crappy finish like this.”
- Jason Hoffman in The Cincinnati Enquirer on October 1, 2020.
Yet, Hoffman’s reporting also spoke to the financial reality faced by the track’s owners. While the race had seemingly enjoyed strong corporate sponsorship from the likes of Quaker State, Walmart, and Toyota for ten years—Kentucky’s events were generally aired on cable as opposed to the readily available over-the-air networks, and in-person attendance had consistently been dropping both in the stands and at the campgrounds. For SMI, it was a business decision: shutter Kentucky Speedway and move its race weekend back to Atlanta.
• • •
Admittedly, I hadn’t thought about Kentucky Speedway in a long time. I’d heard the news about NASCAR leaving, but my childhood obsession was long behind me and I just assumed the track would keep on going in some form. Then, one day while heading South out of Cincinnati on a trip, I passed the track’s sign on the interstate. A longtime landmark, it was now void of any branding—simply a shell.
The former Kentucky Speedway sign as seen from Interstate 71 in July 2023. As of June 2024, it’s still in a similar state.
I pulled off the highway to have a look and couldn’t believe that the speedway, despite appearing even more impressive than I remembered, was just simply sitting there in an idle state.
That was the impetus which set this story in motion. After getting some insight from a close friend and avid racing fan—we set out with a few others to photograph the facility as it appeared in July 2023, three years removed from its final race. What follows are the photographs from that day:
Kentucky Speedway signs.
July 2023.
Kentucky Speedway’s original grandstand is seen at left.
July 2023.
The speedway’s original grandstand looms above faded billboards.
July 2023.
One of the grandstands added by SMI.
July 2023.
Another shot of an SMI grandstand.
July 2023.
One of Kentucky Speedway’s parking lots. A Sunoco-sponsored fuel tank sits on the horizon.
July 2023.
Parking lot.
July 2023.
A Sunoco-sponsored fuel tank sits on a hill above the facility.
July 2023.
Signage along Kentucky Route 35.
July 2023.
The credential trailer.
July 2023.
Tunnel to one of the parking lots with faded Toyota advertising.
July 2023.
The speedway’s tunnel entrance which runs beneath the track
July 2023.
The Quaker State 400 is still a race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, but it is now run in Atlanta.
July 2023.
The speedway’s tunnel entrance beneath the track featuring the branding of Speedway Motorsports.
July 2023.
A message for fans near one of the speedway’s gates.
July 2023.
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Looking through the fence at the closed speedway.
July 2023.
Speedway Motorsports logo in front of the Kentucky Speedway visitor center along Kentucky Route 35.
July 2023.
Overview of the grandstands.
July 2023.
Looking through the fence towards turn 4.
July 2023.
Hay bales and grass line a parking area.
July 2023.
Overlooking the track from Kentucky Speedway Blvd.
July 2023.
Overlooking the track from Kentucky Speedway Blvd.
July 2023.
One of the speedway’s campgrounds as seen from the road.
July 2023.
Campground signage.
July 2023.
Speedway Motorsports logo on campground signage.
July 2023.
Another campground entrance.
July 2023.
The nearby BP gas station still features a checkered flag-inspired motif, but its racing themed gift shop (and patterned floor) are now simply a dining area.
June 2024.
Remains of the former “Racers Gentlemen’s Club” which once overlooked Kentucky Speedway from across the interstate.
July 2023.
Remains of the former “Racers Gentlemen’s Club” which once overlooked Kentucky Speedway from across the interstate.
July 2023.
Remains of the former “Racers Gentlemen’s Club” which once overlooked Kentucky Speedway from across the interstate.
July 2023.
The speedway’s grandstands as seen from a nearby hill.
July 2023.
• • •
It’s important to note that Kentucky Speedway isn’t abandoned, rather, inactive is the more accurate term. Along with NASCAR, ARCA (who was purchased by NASCAR in 2018) also withdrew from the facility. Combined with IndyCar’s departure nearly a decade earlier, the track was no longer on the schedule of any large scale series.
In 2021, the grounds became a staging area for Ford trucks awaiting parts during supply chain shortages and a music festival was held in 2022, but the only current motorsports action seems to be the recent addition of The Richard Petty Driving Experience. Found at numerous tracks around the country, the attraction allows fans to ride along or even drive a stock car around the track if they have the cash (it should be noted that this appears to be a different operation than the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience that was at the center of a 2015 attendee death and subsequent lawsuit).
• • •
For as long as I’ve known Matt Wilkes, he’s been a racing fan. The guy can tell you about almost any kind of autosport, but NASCAR was once his bread-and-butter (or “hush-pups-and-catfish” as he’d probably prefer me to say). We’d both grown up watching, but unlike me, he stuck with it. Over the years, Matt’s seen races across the country. He’s been to Taladega while visiting family in his home state of Alabama, once went round trip in a day from his Cincinnati home to Bristol, and he’d regularly catch the Brickyard 400 in nearby Indianapolis. Of course, he also visited Kentucky—making it a point to grab a seat at the inaugural 2011 Cup Series race. He’ll be the first to tell you, though, that his “home” track was far from his favorite. In fact, he didn’t even bother going to races there after awhile, despite still being an avid fan.
A few months following the trip down to photograph the speedway, Matt and I met up at a suburban Cincinnati sports bar for wings and to watch the final race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. There were a few acknowledgements of NASCAR on the bar’s walls—the kinds of knickknacks that would’ve been all over gas stations and similar watering holes when we were kids—but unlike in our youth: NASCAR was hardly on anyone’s mind. We managed to find the race playing on one screen behind the bar, without sound, and barely competing with the football, soccer, and cable news attracting the other patrons’ attention.
In the weeks leading up to our meetup, as I started researching this story, I’d begun watching NASCAR again (that is, when I could actually locate it on tv or streaming). I found myself getting excited and remembering the way I felt as a kid. There were even a few races where I threw my notebook to the side and paced in front of the television to watch as a contest came to a dramatic conclusion. By the time Matt and I found ourselves at the bar, though, it was almost as if we’d talked ourselves out of being excited. That last race of 2023 dragged on in the background as we caught up and got distracted by talking—a lot of that conversation centering on Matt attempting to explain two decades worth of rule changes to me. Despite that race promising not just a winner, but also featuring four drivers competing in a playoff championship, we just weren’t invested. We didn’t even stay to till the end, both of us needing to get on with our days and tired of craning our necks towards a small television.
In the parking lot before heading home, I attempted to find some over-the-air or digital radio version of the race, but it was to no avail. I didn’t even find out who won the race or championship until later that night when I happened to remember to look it up. Still, this whole Kentucky Speedway subject had me intrigued and I made a promise: come February of 2024, I’d tune in for the season kickoff Daytona 500 and make an effort to follow the series again.
As of this writing in June 2024, however, I’ve still yet to watch a race this season.
I’m not saying that my experience is indicative of every potential viewer out there, rather, just pointing out that NASCAR can be a difficult commitment for the general public. The organization is embracing digital media and getting content out there, but it’s still difficult to just tune in for a race. Consumers no longer want a package of sports networks and much like Major League Baseball, until NASCAR becomes easier to access—they’ll continue to struggle with reaching potential viewers. And even as NASCAR attempts to innovate, the costs of running the league are incredible. Tires, fuel, and parts cost money. Lots of money. Money that must be spent in an era of increasing environmental concern. No matter how you may feel about the topic of climate change, the economics don’t lie—it’s on the mind of consumers. In just over a decade, the NASCAR Cup Series went from being a mainstream cultural mainstay to the kind of subject that inspires even its own fans to ask whether or not it could once again “break the dam of legitimacy.” The challenges faced by the organization aren’t insurmountable, but they’re certainly tough challenges none-the-less.
My personal interest in this story wasn’t ever really about competitive racing, but rather, chasing a sense of nostalgia and “civic” pride. After all, Kentucky Speedway was the closest thing my hometown of Cincinnati had to a “major league” track and what made the whole thing compelling as a kid wasn’t just the race, but the idea of a big race coming here. And once it did, I never went. Something I’ll absolutely rectify If the Cup Series ever returns.
Such a thing seems unlikely at this moment, though. In an ongoing effort to reinvent itself, NASCAR has continued to embrace even more road courses while also promoting special events such as dirt track racing—an affair they run in both traditional venues like Bristol and eclectic venues such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. IndyCar, NASCAR’s contemporary domestic competitor, also seems to continually be moving away from smaller oval tracks—further casting doubt upon a Kentucky Speedway revival. There is a situation out of North Carolina to consider, however. Once abandoned and left for dead, the NASCAR Cup Series has returned to a revitalized and historic North Wilkesboro Speedway.
What, if anything, will ultimately become of Kentucky Speedway remains to be seen. The track is still under the ownership of Speedway Motorsports, but repeated e-mails and calls seeking a comment have gone unanswered (I was also unable to locate communications for Jerry Carroll and Darrell Waltrip—two folks whose thoughts I’d truly love to hear on the facility’s current situation). No matter what complications the track may have faced in its brief existence, there’s no doubt thousands of fans whose hearts have weighed heavy in the wake of NASCAR’s departure. So long as the speedway still stands, there’s still hope for racing’s return.
• • •
As I finally got ready to publish this story in early June 2024, I made one more trip down to the speedway. To an outsider, things seemed to still be in good condition with little changed from our visit in 2023. It would be overly-dramatic to label the place as a modern day equivalent to Rome’s famous ruin—but racing has, for now at least, has become part of the past in Sparta, KY. Even if the coliseum still stands.
What follows is a video from my visit to the area on June 13, 2024. An evening spent overlooking the speedway in the summer heat beneath the buzzing of power lines and the sounds of cicadas. The attached audio comes from the EPSN broadcast of Kentucky Speedway’s inaugural event: the Craftsman Truck Series’ 2000 running of the Kroger 225.
A race which occurred 24 years to the date of this article being published.
• • •
This article, completed on Father’s Day weekend 2024, is dedicated to my Dad—the man who first took me to a race at Kentucky Speedway in 2001 and has always supported my irreverent interests. Thanks, Dad! Love you. Also, I took that magnet in the above photograph off of your refrigerator in the garage. Let me know if you want it back.
There are several people to thank for their help on this story: Travis Estell, Phil Armstrong, Ben Holloway, Jason Hordowick, and Nick Madewell just to name a few.
I’d also especially like to thank Matt Wilkes. In addition to having always been a great friend, his assistance with this project was key. Matt, thank you for always being up for my adventures over the years. From the “ghost ship” to Kentucky Speedway and all the Waffle House stops between.
It’s my hope that the story doesn’t end here. If you’re reading this and have the resources to get in contact with Jerry Carroll, Darrell Waltrip, Speedway Motorsports, or any of the other figures in this story—I’d certainly love to hear their thoughts and speak with them. I can be reached, here.
With this story, I’ve done my best to link sources and be as accurate as possible. Still, the stories authored on this website are overwhelmingly a one-man passion project. If you have feedback, feel free to reach out, and if you’d like to support what I do—you can donate here.
• • •
Update | June 17, 2024:
Thanks to commenter Brian Waltz, we have this article from the Kentucky Lantern. It sheds a lot more light on the speedway’s current situation, as well as, its financial obligations to the local community.
Since 2007, the content of this website (and its former life as Queen City Discovery) has been a huge labor of love.
If you’ve enjoyed stories like The Ghost Ship, abandoned amusement parks, the Cincinnati Subway, Fading Ads, or others over the years—might you consider showing some support for future projects?
