North Carolina Speedway will lose...

[Elwood]

Thursday, May 13, 2004

 

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. --

 

North Carolina Speedway will lose its only remaining race and Darlington Raceway will have just one as part of a realignment plan for 2005, a NASCAR source told The Associated Press on Thursday.

 

 

 

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway would each get an additional race.

 

An announcement by NASCAR chairman Brian France was scheduled for Friday at Richmond International Raceway, the source said.

 

NASCAR officials declined to discuss specifics of France's announcement, saying only that the series has decided not to return to the track in Rockingham, N.C.

 

The changes mean North Carolina Speedway will have lost both of its Nextel Cup weekends in the span of a year. The struggling track's other date was given to California Speedway at the start of this season.

 

Darlington, the original NASCAR superspeedway in South Carolina and host of the prestigious Southern 500, would be left with only one race for the first time since it began staging two in 1960. The remaining Darlington event will be run on Mother's Day weekend in a departure from NASCAR tradition. The series has always been idle on Easter Sunday and Mother's Day.

 

Under the realigned schedule, Texas will gain a race in November -- during the 10-race dash for the championship. Phoenix would add a race in the spring, the source said.

 

Rockingham, a NASCAR track since 1965, and Darlington, in the series since 1950, routinely fail to sell out their races.

 

It is not immediately clear how the changes affect a 2-year-old lawsuit filed by a Texas Motor Speedway shareholder who sued NASCAR over its refusal to award a second event to the track in Forth Worth, Texas.

 

Francis Ferko, a shareholder in Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns and operates Texas and five other tracks, filed suit after SMI's board of directors refused to sue NASCAR. The suit claims NASCAR breached "implied'' and "express'' contracts by not awarding a second Cup race to Texas.

 

SMI chairman Bruton Smith and Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage have contended since the $250 million track opened in 1997 that they have not been given a second date by NASCAR as promised.

 

NASCAR has maintained it never promised Texas another race.

[General Lee 01]

 

[TROYROBO]

just goes to show you how NASCAR has been steadily getting away from its roots- -i believe that they are loosing more fans- -its not the same as it used to be only a few years ago---too d**n commercialized now

[antig24]

[tmf6902]

I used to watch every sunday, now I glance at it, now an again, and I watch good races..bristol, martinsville, daytona...those, I dunno, it's just lost some of it's charm....to me anyway