Final briefs filed in Kentucky-NASCAR appeal

NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. as well as Kentucky Speedway have filed their final briefs in the track’s appeal in its antitrust lawsuit in U.S. Appeals Court in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The filings reiterated several of the arguments that both sides have made since the suit began in 2005.

Kentucky Speedway’s founders allege that NASCAR, a sanctioning body owned by the France family, and ISC, a publicly traded track-operating company whose majority of voting stock is owned by the France family, illegally conspire to keep non-ISC tracks from obtaining Cup races.

Kentucky Speedway’s founders reiterate their argument that because Jim France (brother of the late Bill France Jr.) and Lesa France Kennedy (Jim’s niece and sister to NASCAR CEO Brian France) are the two co-owners of NASCAR, that they can make decisions favorable to ISC. They allege that other tracks were pressured by the France family not to sell their tracks to the owners of Kentucky Speedway.

NASCAR and ISC deny those claims. NASCAR, as a private company, argues it has the right to choose where it sanctions Sprint Cup races and that NASCAR and ISC, because they are owned by the same people, cannot violate antitrust laws.

Speedway Motorsports Inc., which bought the Kentucky track in December, is also considered a co-conspirator in the suit. SMI Chairman Bruton Smith has said he wants to move a Cup race from one of his other tracks to the 1.5-mile Kentucky oval, but NASCAR has said it will not consider a realignment request until the case has come to a conclusion. SceneDaily.com