New Kentucky Home? Jerry Carroll Eyes New Hampshire Track

Kentucky Speedway Owner Eyeing Possible Purchase Of New Hampshire Int'l Speedway

Kentucky Speedway co-Owner & Chair Jerry Carroll “wants to buy New Hampshire International Speedway and transfer one of the track’s two Nextel Cup races" to his track in Sparta, Kentucky, according to Ryan & Livingstone of USA TODAY. Carroll, along with a delegation from Kentucky Speedway that included Pro Basketball HOFer Oscar Robertson, attended yesterday’s Nextel Cup Sylvania 300 as a guest of NHIS Owner Bob Bahre. Carroll indicated that a purchase of NHIS “wouldn’t affect Kentucky Speedway’s antitrust suit” against NASCAR and ISC, which claims that ISC has an “illegal advantage in being awarded Cup races because the France family owns NASCAR and a controlling interest in ISC” (USA TODAY, 9/17). Bahre indicated one reason to sell the track is that his son, NHIS President Gary Bahre, “would not be interested in carrying on with the track after his passing.” Bahre: “Gary does not want it at all. I’m going to be 81 Feb. 19th … if I had died on Friday, he would’ve sold it before the race [yesterday]. So some day it’s going to have to be sold, but I love it myself, personally.” Attendance at yesterday’s race was announced at 101,000, marking the track’s 26th consecutive sellout. In Boston, Vega & Shinzawa note NHIS’ “strong attendance, coupled with its two pivotal dates on the NASCAR’s Nextel Cup schedule, has made it an attractive target of a number of suitors.”  Roush Fenway Racing has also been mentioned as a possible suitor of the facility (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/17).