SPARTA, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Speedway’s long wait for a NASCAR Sprint Cup date is over.
Stock car’s top series will visit the 1.5-mile oval for a 400-mile race on July 9, 2011. The track will receive one of the Cup race dates normally reserved for Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The announcement ends a decade-long struggle for the track’s original owners to get a Cup race. They filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. in 2005, claiming the two groups had an unfair monopoly over the sport. The case ended earlier this year.
Speedway Motorsports Inc. owner Bruton Smith, who bought the track in 2008, called the move a great victory for NASCAR and Kentucky.
The Cup race will be coupled with the annual visit from the Nationwide Series, which had previously been run in June.
