Louisville and Cincinnati are about a two-hour drive from Indianapolis, which has a Winston Cup race. Excluding Mother's Day and Easter weekends, when no races are scheduled, only three weekends between Feb. 13 and Nov. 19 don't have races on the 2000 schedule. And two of those presumably will fall to Kansas City and Chicago next year. They want the chance to earn the money. Helton, however, said it's not only a matter of adding dates.
Growth encouraging Despite the apparent odds, though, there is hope.
The key to it is, you've got to build,'' said Mark Cassis, the general manager of Kentucky Speedway. Cassis predicted that Kentucky's racing fans may be the swing vote. The Kentucky Speedway has sold more than 45,000 tickets for its truck event, the Kroger 225 on Saturday. It could be the highest-attended truck race ever. Even Gossage, he of the quarter-million race attendance, was impressed.