Judge: Speedway lawsuit against NASCAR will stay in Kentucky
MURRAY EVANS
Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A federal judge has ruled that Kentucky
Speedway's $400 million antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR will be
heard in Kentucky and not moved to a Florida court.U.S. District
Judge William Bertelsman, in a decision issued Wednesday, denied
NASCAR's motion to move the lawsuit to a federal court in the state
in which NASCAR's headquarters are located.

NASCAR contended that 11 contracts that the speedway signed
between October 1999 and July 2005, for the running of Busch and
Craftsman Truck series races, contained a clause that specified that
any lawsuit regarding the speedway's NASCAR-sanctioned races
would be brought in Florida.

Bertelsman sided with Kentucky Speedway, which had maintained
the suit belonged in a Kentucky court because of the potential
economic impact and prestige of having a Nextel Cup race at the
track. "The court concludes that the great public interest in having
this dispute decided locally tips the balance in favor of retaining
the case here," he said in his order.

Kentucky Speedway filed the suit July 13 against NASCAR and
International Speedway Corp., which are both controlled by the
France family, alleging the companies have violated federal
antitrust laws by illegally restricting the awarding of Nextel Cup
races. The lawsuit seeks to force NASCAR to award the track a
Nextel Cup race.

The speedway, which opened in 2000 and is located in Sparta in
Gallatin County, currently has NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck
series races on its schedule. It's one of several tracks that have
unsuccessfully sought a race in the elite Cup series.
The suit also alleges antitrust violations relating to various
restraints of trade involving the Busch and Craftsman Truck series
races.

NASCAR sanctions and oversees its racing series, while ISC owns
or controls 12 of the 22 tracks at which the Cup cars currently
race. NASCAR did not include a date at Kentucky Speedway on its
2006 Nextel Cup schedule.

Bertelsman set a Jan. 12 hearing to hear arguments regarding
motions by NASCAR and ISC to dismiss the lawsuit. In an earlier
filing, NASCAR referred to the suit as "a study in contradictions
and irony" and compared the speedway's complaint to a horse
racing track trying to bid to host one of the three legs of that
sport's Triple Crown.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/sports/motorsports/13431110.htm

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Yeah ! There may be hope for a KY Cup race yet !

RoeKing

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 11:47:08 -0500, Alan Jones <alan (AT) alanjones (DOT) us>
wrote: