Executives from NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation say a Nextel Cup-quality racetrack needs to be built in metro Denver.
Drivers, however, don’t seem to care where they race.
Denver is one of three expansion markets ISC is looking at, along with New York and Washington state.
Kevin Harvick, after winning Saturday’s Busch race at Kansas Speedway, said he hadn’t heard of ISC’s pursuit to build in Denver, and had no strong feelings about the series potentially coming to a Rocky Mountain venue.
“It’s important to have places to race, so if that’s what they want to do, that’s fine. I go where they tell me to race,” he said.
Harvick, who grew up in California, does have a preference on the size of any new track. He said it should be a stadium-style facility with an oval of less than 1 mile.
“I think a Richmond-style track would be the optimum size for drivers, for fans and the type of racing you’d want to see,” he said, referring to .75-mile, 136,000-seat Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. “To me, if I had a choice, I’d like to see them build a three-quarter-mile track.”
Kyle Busch, who professes to be NASCAR’s biggest Broncos fan, said he’d prefer to see ISC re-open Pikes Peak International Raceway – the 1-mile oval in Fountain that ISC bought and closed about a year ago.
“There was a lot of good racing there,” Busch said of Pikes Peak, where many of NASCAR’s best drivers cut their teeth in the Busch Series. “I don’t think it’s needed (in Colorado). You’ve already got one there.”
Car owner Ray Evernham, who fields the Dodge cars driven by Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs, said Denver sounds good, but not if ISC tracks also are built in Staten Island, N.Y., and Tacoma, Wash.
“Our partners look at Denver as a big market, and it’s great that we’re growing across America in parts that we haven’t been,” Evernham said. “With that said, I hope we don’t add races without taking some away. We’re doing 38 weekends right now, and that’s really tough on people who have to get the equipment from race to race.
“But don’t get me wrong. We should have been in Denver a while ago. Denver would be great.”
ISC’s East Coast and Northeast projects have been bogged down in politics, and neither is close to breaking ground.
ISC’s Front Range bid appears to focus on land near Denver International Airport. The public-owned company has had several meetings with Commerce City representatives, but said its focus is on the two other projects.
Penske on PPIR
Former ISC board member Roger Penske called the closing of PPIR a shame, but remains a proponent of a metro-Denver facility.
“There are lots of race fans in Colorado and it was unfortunate that the Pikes Peak location was where it was,” said Penske, who owns the Nextel Cup cars driven by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch. “It was a great track but it just never drew. It was like having a store on the wrong corner.”
Penske preceded ISC in trying to build a track near Denver. In the late 1990s, Penske Motorsports Inc. failed to get an Adams County deal off the ground before that company merged with ISC.
“It would have been a terrific deal,” Penske said of the Adams County site. “It was too bad. We would have built a track similar to California (Speedway).”
Busch on Broncos
Kyle Busch, from Las Vegas, was a sideline guest at a Broncos game last year after the Nextel Cup season ended. He said he likes everything about the football team except the starting quarterback.
“If I had to pick one player, I’m a huge Rod Smith fan, but definitely not a (Jake) Plummer fan,” Busch said. “I wish they’d put Jay Cutler in.”
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
