Speedway sues NASCAR

Kentucky Speedway hopes to force its way onto the coveted NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit through an anti-trust lawsuit filed in federal court in Covington Wednesday. The Sparta, Ky., race track has tried unsuccessfully to attract a Nextel Cup race since it opened in 2000, and attorney Stan Chesley said Wednesday that NASCAR owners have flatly refused to bring a Cup race to the track.

"They've literally said you're not going to get a race," Chesley said at a press conference Wednesday evening.

The Speedway, owned by a partnership led by Jerry Carroll, filed a lawsuit against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., both of Daytona Beach, Fla., that accuses the organizations of abusing their monopoly on premium stock car racing.

"The law of our land and the Congress that made that law make it crystal clear that you can have a monopoly but you cannot abuse that monopoly," Chesley said. "(NASCAR and International Speedway) have decided to genetically engineer who gets a Nextel Cup race," he said.

The lawsuit calls for NASCAR to award Kentucky Speedway a Nextel Cup race in 2006 and the right to compete for a Cup race annually beginning in 2007. It also calls for NASCAR to institute a competitive bidding process "to permit full and fair competition for the right to host a Nextel Cup Series race," according to the lawsuit. Kentucky Speedway has drawn all other levels of NASCAR races to the track, including the Meijer 300 Busch Series truck race and a steady stream of business from renting the track out for product testing, team testing and driving schools. More at Cincinnati Post