Michael Waltrip Invests In Columbus Racetrack, Says Hosting NASCAR Event Unlikely

NASCAR team Owner Michael Waltrip Tuesday announced that he and his team "will be investors in the Sports Pavilion & Automotive Research Complex, or SPARC, being developed” on the site of Cooper Stadium in Columbus, according to Steve Wartenberg of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. Waltrip said of discussions with Arshot Investment Corp. principal and SPARC developer Bill Schottenstein, “He had me from racetrack. Having my hands on designing and helping to build a racetrack is very exciting.” Waltrip and Schottenstein “both declined to say how much the team invested.” The SPARC complex “will include a half-mile racetrack with 8,500 seats, a 50,000-square-foot office building for the research center, 1,900 parking spaces, a hotel and meeting center, and four or five sites for restaurants or stores along Mound Street.” Waltrip said that it is “unlikely, but possible an actual NASCAR race could take place at SPARC,” adding that the “limited number of seats at SPARC would make it difficult” (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 12/5).