Kentucky Speedway

About Kentucky Speedway

Kentucky Speedway is a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) motor speedway located in north-central Kentucky, near the community of Sparta, Kentucky; approximately halfway between Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, and is additionally 70 miles (113 km) from another fairly sizable market, Lexington, Kentucky. The track was designed to host a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race and has hosted NASCAR Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series races, as well as IRL IndyCar Series and IndyPro Series races. However, NASCAR officials have refused any discussion of a Sprint Cup Series race being moved there.

The track has become one of the top tracks for testing Sprint Cup cars, because of NASCAR's testing restrictions implemented in 2005. As a result of the new testing restrictions, teams may only test at NASCAR-authorized testing sessions at seven specific tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit. As Kentucky is not a Sprint Cup venue, private testing of such cars is permitted with no restrictions, and spectators are allowed to view testing sessions from outside of turn three.

There has also been talk that Kentucky Speedway owners might purchase Pocono Raceway and move one of its Sprint Cup Series races to Kentucky. However, the Mattioli family, which owns both Pocono Raceway and South Boston Speedway, and manages the Music City Motorplex, has so far shown no interest in selling that superspeedway.