Wall Street's interest in publicly traded motorsports
companies was examined by Bill Koenig of the INDIANAPOLIS
STAR-NEWS. Koenig notes that the "big three" of publicly
traded motorsports companies are Speedway Motorsports Inc.,
Speedway Corp. and Penske Motorsports Inc. All three
companies enjoy "buy" or "strong buy" ratings from financial
analysts, "who see potential for growth," but the Bruton
Smith-owned Speedway Motorsports "generates the most
enthusiasm." J.C. Bradford analyst Breck Wheeler, on
Speedway: "They really have proven themselves to be more of
a growth company." Koenig added that Int'l Speedway garners
"positive attention because of its NASCAR ties." Penske
Motorsports, with fewer NASCAR events, is seen as "perhaps a
step behind the other two." Montgomery Securities analyst
Bo Cheadle said an IPO by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
would interest investors, but cautioned on the CART/IRL
split. Cheadle: "That rift would have to be put aside for
the company to go public" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR-NEWS, 3/22).
BIG MONEY: Montgomery Securities' statistics showed the
average Winston Cup race makes a profit of $8.1M, while
Winston Cup races at short tracks and smaller superspeedways
have a $2M net on average. The average CART Indy-car race
has a $3M profit and 50% profit margin (N.Y. TIMES, 3/23).
