LVMS not getting second Cup race

Speedway Motorsports Inc. has scheduled a news conference for next week to announce it is moving one of its Sprint Cup races next year.

But background music won't be "Viva Las Vegas." If any is played, it will be "My Old Kentucky Home."

The gain of a Cup race for Kentucky Speedway, about 35 miles south of Cincinnati, will cost Atlanta Motor Speedway one of its two annual Cup races.

SMI chairman Bruton Smith rarely shuns interviews, but he has been hard to corral the past two months since speculation about the 2011 Cup schedule heated up.

Smith's comments in a news release distributed Wednesday before a national teleconference with financial analysts sealed the Kentucky deal.

"We believe that premium market (around Kentucky Speedway) represents a tremendous long-term growth opportunity and will undoubtedly join SMI's successful history of investing in first-class facilities," Smith said.

Smith might play with the media, but, as head of a publicly held corporation, he won't mislead the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Details of the switch will be presented Tuesday at the Kentucky track in a news conference in which Smith and the Kentucky governor are expected to attend. Visitors to KentuckySpeedway.com on Thursday were greeted by the bold message "BIG NEWS COMING IN 5 DAYS!" Below it is a barely visible NASCAR Sprint Cup Series logo.

No major announcements are expected at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, though a news release this week from the track promoted that Ms. Bigfoot will join Monster Truck boyfriend Bigfoot at the track's "Back to School Bash" at the dragstrip Aug. 20 and 21. No news conference is planned for that event. Neither Smith nor Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons would attend anyway.

The Las Vegas track was on the cusp of landing a second annual Cup race.

The Sparta, Ky., facility seats 69,000, and SMI plans to add 50,000 seats and reconfigure the garage area to resemble the Neon Garage layout at LVMS.

While a second Las Vegas Cup race would have been a godsend for the Southern Nevada economy, we shouldn't be shocked that Smith will put a first Cup race in Kentucky before he sends another race to Las Vegas. Smith's $78 million purchase of Kentucky Speedway in December 2008 would be a boondoggle were it never to host America's premier racing series.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has lobbied Smith for a second date throughout the past decade. And Smith dearly wants it to happen. He was instrumental in Las Vegas landing the Sprint Cup Champion's Week festivities, which will be the first week of December this year.

LVCVA president Rossi Ralenkotter committed to spend several million dollars in the next four years to convince Smith to move a race here instead of giving one to Kentucky.

It didn't work this time, but Ralenkotter is leaving that offer on the table.

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Jeff Wolf's motor sports column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.