Getting Waltrips to Their Old Kentucky Home

For what it's worth... Bruton's latest missive on Kentucky Speedway traffic mess:

Kentucky Speedway: Steps in works to prevent traffic jams
By Jim Utter - jutter@charlotteobserver.com
Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011


Kentucky Speedway unveiled plans Tuesday in an attempt to avoid a repeat of what happened last month for its first Sprint Cup Series race.

The speedway's inaugural Sprint Cup race July9 was a logistical nightmare that backed up roads for hours and prevented thousands of fans from even entering the track.

Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns Kentucky Speedway, recently acquired a 143-acre parcel of land, which will expand parking areas by 35percent.

In addition, a company with experience managing parking for NASCAR tracks such as Daytona (Fla.) and Pocono (Pa.), will begin working with Kentucky in October. The speedway also will retain a traffic engineering company that will employ sophisticated modeling techniques to create the best possible traffic management plan.

SMI will invest an estimated $7.5million in its service and parking improvements. The company has begun engineering the newly acquired land.

"We didn't do things as well as we had hoped on race day," speedway general manager Mark Simendinger said. "Now you can see the commitment that we have to make sure that this never happens again."

The state of Kentucky also will assist with an estimated $3.6million in road improvements aimed at aiding traffic flow.

The improvements will include a pedestrian tunnel beneath - and the widening of - the state highway adjacent to the speedway and the widening a southbound ramp shoulder off nearby Interstate 71.

In a statement, NASCAR President Mike Helton said he was pleased with the plans.

"We believe improvements like these are necessary in order to ensure that our fans have the opportunity for an enjoyable race experience. We appreciate these efforts and will continue to monitor the progress that is being made," he said.

Last month during a news conference at New Hampshire, Helton said NASCAR "will not rest" until it was certain the situation would not occur again.



Read more: http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/08/30/72806/ky-to-spend-36m-on-roads-near.html#ixzz1Wcmk97Jl

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Got stopped by one of SC's finest once in the 80s just over the NC/SC line on my way to Darlington on I-95. That little pipsqueak in his Gomer Pyler hat stood about shoulder height to me. About like dressing Cale in trooper garb. I was doing press release ghost writing for Oldsmobile at the time and driving a new Olds owned car, with special dealer tags and all the ownership papers and registration under the license plate, as is standard with those vehicles and the troopers are supposed to know that. That little shrimp couldn't understand that to save himself. We about had a go-round. I've had great relationships with NC, and Virginia troopers and especially the Alabama troopers stationed at Talladega. Not sure whether the SC shrimp trooper qualified for a best dressed award, but he certainly was in the running for a stupidity award. There's always got to be one, I know. There used to be a really nice SC trooper who drove Spartanburg's Joe Littlejohn all over, even out of state. He was a really good guy.

You can see where Cale would hit me if I stood up straight. I assumed SC had no height requirements for Troopers, or it had been waived to accomodate racial parity.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Dave, did you by chance know someone named Paul Michael Morgan (from Michigan) who was doing some PR work for Oldsmobile and Harry Gant? Just curious.

Pete, I didn't know the gentleman you name. I was living in Charlotte working as a ghost writer and at track repfor the late Dave Jarrard, head of Olds SVO during 1988. In fact, Lake Speed won the race I was on the way to in an Olds, his only win. Harry didn't start in the Olds until the next year, 1989when Richard & Leo jackson took over the former Hal Needham Skoal Chevy deal. I did, however, work with Richard, Leo and Harry in 1989 representing their associate sponsor Detroit Gasket.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Who thinks anyone may go back after the first debacle? Promises were made for that race too and look what happened. I wish them well, but this boy ain't never heading to Kentucky.

Dave, love your story. Seems I've encountered that trooper once myself.

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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.

I went this year because (1) it was the first one and (2) it was free. Maybe I should have switched the order. While we didn't have near the struggles with parking/traffic as others did, I'm not that inclined to return. This despite the fact the track may well be the closest to my house now. But I'd prefer to drive that extra 30 to 60 minutes to the east or south to hit Bristol or Talladega.


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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.