NASCAR: France says schedule facelift possible

NDIANAPOLIS — NASCAR appears ready to give its 2011 Sprint Cup schedule a facelift.

CEO
Brian France said before Sunday's race at Indianapolis that stock car's
top series is in the "final throes" of completing next year's Cup slate
and that it will have a considerably different look.

"There will
be some changes as they look now," France said. "That could not quite
materialize, but I sense it will and we'll have some pretty impactful
changes to the schedule that I think will be good for NASCAR fans."

“

It's no secret that Kentucky is talking about hosting a Sprint Cup event
and that's not that far away. It's fine to talk about Kentucky. It's a
worthy market to at least discuss.

”
— NASCAR CEO Brian France

International Speedway Corp. and
Speedway Motorsports Inc., the top two track operators in the series,
have both petitioned NASCAR to alter the 36-race Cup schedule to
accommodate date or track changes.

ISC is hoping Kansas will
receive a second Cup date, while SMI could juggle its lineup to bring a
second race to the popular Las Vegas venue and give its 1.5-mile track
in northern Kentucky the Cup race its former ownership group has long
coveted.

SMI president Bruton Smith wouldn't reveal specifics of
SMI's requested schedule changes, but said NASCAR should feel "morally
obligated" to bring a second Cup race to Las Vegas.  Read the rest==============>

Smith also
said he'd like to have a Cup race at "all" of SMI's NASCAR-sanctioned
tracks. The only one that lacks a Cup date right now is Kentucky, where
the former ownership group filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and
ISC five years ago after its request for a Cup race was consistently
denied.