NASCAR merger could keep two annual races at Kansas Speedway

The merger between NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation announced this weekend could bode well for Kansas Speedway.

The new company, NASCAR, plans massive changes in the nation’s premier stock-car racing series in 2021, including the debut of a new Cup series race car, the Next Gen, and a shakeup in the schedules.

There’s a possibility that Kansas Speedway, which has hosted two Monster Energy Cup Series events since 2011, could lose a race after 2020, when sanctioning agreements with the tracks end. But Kansas Speedway is one of 12 former ISC tracks now owned by NASCAR. And ISC’s 50 percent ownership share of Hollywood Casino transferred to the new company.

“We’re excited about it,” Kansas Speedway president Pat Warren said of the $2 billion merger. “It’s a huge opportunity for our industry and having the leadership of the France family, who have played such a huge role in our sport since its founding. To bring the two entities together is only going to make things better.

“We’ve always had a good relationship with NASCAR, so I don’t know if it’s a significant thing just for Kansas.”

Jim France will serve as the chairman and chief executive officer of the new company, and Lesa France Kennedy will serve as executive vice chair. France Kennedy played a major role in the development of Kansas Speedway, which opened in 2001, and the addition of a second race weekend a year before the casino opened in 2012.

Cup drivers who compete at Kansas Speedway speak highly of the facility and its ability to host two races a year.

“I know there are some agreements with respect to the casino that have some ramifications on that,” said 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski, a two-time winner at the track. I know I do enjoy seeing the things here. I have seen this community transform.

“I was here the first year the track was built and you came down the freeway and there was a racetrack. The next year you came down the freeway and there was the Great Wolf Lodge. Every year there has been something else, the soccer stadium and the shopping mall. Kansas is the clearest track to indicate to a community of what NASCAR can do for them.

“I can’t think of a racetrack of recent memory that has transformed such a small area in such a quick time in such a large way. With that in mind, it certainly seems to lend itself to making this a valuable date to the sport.”

Clint Bowyer, who is from Emporia, watched the track rise from the ground while competing at nearby Lakeside Speedway.

“I am just proud of this racetrack,” Bowyer said. “I am proud to be from here and growing up watching this track. People can say all they want about our sport or where it is at … there but there is not one person in this town or this city who will not tell you about the massive impact that Kansas Speedway made in this area … all of it because of this race track and the investment that was put forth.

“A lot of change since 2001. It is all about putting the puzzle together, and this was the first piece that set it all off.”