Kentucky Speedway joins pieces in Cup schedule

SPARTA, Ky. - What appears to be a significant shakeup in next season's NASCAR schedule took further shape Tuesday when Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith made official the news that Kentucky Speedway had landed a Sprint Cup race in July 2011.

While the announcement of a 400-mile race on July 9 (a Saturday night) wasn't a surprise, it attracted a throng of politicians, community leaders and fans to a news conference in a stuffy tent behind the grandstand of the 1.5-mile track.

But the news was another piece falling into place in the changed landscape of the 2011 schedule, which is expected to be announced officially next week:

The Kentucky race will replace the March race in Atlanta (another SMI track), which will continue to have a race on Labor Day weekend.

Kansas Speedway gained a race, at the expense of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., which now will have just one race.

Chicagoland Speedway will be the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, moving New Hampshire back a few weeks.

The changes are a result of lagging attendance at Atlanta and California. They also have come as a result of campaigning by SMI's Smith for more attractive dates for his tracks, often in competition with those run by International Speedway Corp., which is owned by NASCAR's France family.

So while ISC picked up a race at Kansas (Auto Club is also an ISC track), SMI got a race at Kentucky (losing one at sister track Atlanta).

It's not easy for NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations Steve O'Donnell, who handles the schedule.

"One big challenge we have is after those traditional dates - Daytona, Charlotte at Memorial Day, the Labor Day events and the start of the Chase - are taken in, it gets difficult to lock things in," said O'Donnell.

But O'Donnell said the scheduling job has been made easier by a new spirit of cooperation within NASCAR as a result of the sport's attempts to pull itself out of a slump in attendance and television ratings.

"Three or four years ago, it was more about the individual, how the track succeeds, how the team succeeds," O'Donnell said. "In the last 12 months, it's been more about how the whole sport can succeed, how we can work together."

Smith was in a conciliatory mood Tuesday, especially about losing the first race of the Chase to an ISC track. That gives the season's beginning (Daytona), end (Homestead, Fla.) and Chase start (Chicago) at ISC tracks.

"I don't think we lost anything" in the new schedule, he said. "It doesn't matter to me. I don't think we lost anything there. We ended up making a deal. We gave it to ISC and they ended up taking it to Joliet (Ill.)."

Smith was at his bulldog best at Tuesday's news conference. After saying he intends to put $90 million - $100 million into the 66,000-seat speedway located in a rural area between Louisville, Ky., and Cincinnati - including 50,000 more seats, more restrooms, 12 new elevators and an extra 200 acres on the property for camping - he lobbied Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear for an airport to be built nearby.