NASCAR Daily News Headlines * April 28, 2008

Kentucky Speedway Appeals Ruling

According to a redacted version of the appeal, in which some presumably sensitive information was taken out, Kentucky Speedway offers its arguments as to why a U.S. District Court judge should not have ruled in January in favor of NASCAR and ISC without allowing the case to go to trial. In his opinion, the judge rejected the validity of Kentucky Speedway’s expert economist’s testimony.

In its appeal, released Monday by the U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati, Kentucky Speedway says that NASCAR denied independent tracks Cup races until they agreed to sell to ISC at below market value. The track's appeal also says that NASCAR threatened to pull races from Las Vegas Motor Speedway because the owners refused to sell to ISC; the owners later sold to ISC-rival Speedway Motorsports.

“KYS, as a purchaser of sanctioning, cannot switch to hosting Bengals or Reds games, as suggested in the District Court’s casual analysis...,” Kentucky Speedway’s owners assert in their appeal. “By denying independent tracks such as KYS an opportunity to host a Cup race, it is impossible for a rival sanctioning organization to gain access to a competitive set of tracks in order to gain critical mass. If NASCAR can control access to tracks, NASCAR will continue to succeed in its efforts to insulate itself from competition.”

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston denies that NASCAR threatened to pull races from Las Vegas or other independent tracks. “It’s absurd,” Poston said. “It’s completely false.”

NASCAR, the sanctioning body that is privately owned by the France family, and ISC, the track operating company whose voting stock is controlled by the France family, have denied that they illegally work together to keep tracks from having Cup races. NASCAR has insisted that as a sanctioning body, it alone has the right to determine where it races. ISC has rights to 23 of the 39 Sprint Cup events....READ MORE...(scenedaily.com)

Overnight Ratings Up

ABC's broadcast of Saturday's Aaron's 312 Nationwide Series race earned a 2.3 overnight rating, the Daily said, up 9.5 percent from the 2.1 the race earned in 2007.(scenedaily.com)

ESPN Classic Featuring Two Classic NASCAR Races

TV Coverage Expands For Dale Earnhardt Day

The event, which celebrates the birthday of the seven-time NASCAR champion, also serves as a major benefit for the Dale Earnhardt Foundation, with a percentage of the event's merchandise sales being donated to the Foundation. ESPN?s Dr. Jerry Punch will be master of ceremonies for the event.

The Monday, May 5, edition of NASCAR Now also will expand to an hour and will include host Allen Bestwick leading a roundtable discussion with ESPN analysts and reporters of the weekend?s NASCAR action at Richmond International Raceway and other NASCAR news. The program airs at 5:30 p.m.

Half-hour episodes of NASCAR Now air Wednesday and Thursday of this week at 6 p.m., while the one-hour weekend edition airs Saturday at 10 a.m. with a preview of that night?s NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Richmond. NASCAR Now is hosted by Ryan Burr, Nicole Manske and Bestwick and originates from ESPN?s high definition studios in Bristol, Conn. Contributors include NASCAR Insiders Marty Smith and Angelique Chengelis, analysts Ray Evernham, Tim Brewer, Brad Daugherty, Boris Said and Tim Cowlishaw, ESPN.com reporters Terry Blount and David Newton and D.J. Copp, a member of Bobby Labonte?s NASCAR team.

NASCAR Now viewers also benefit from frequent contributions by the NASCAR on ESPN team including Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Dr. Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Mike Massaro and Shannon Spake.

Lepage Apologizes For Crash

“[On] Saturday afternoon every racer’s concern was realized, as I caused ‘the big one,’” Lepage said in a statement released by his team, Specialty Racing. “After reviewing the tapes of the accident I realize I need to apologize to NASCAR, the car owners, my fellow competitors and, most importantly, the fans.

“I made a huge driver error by blending onto the race track in the wrong area. This caused a multicar accident and changed the outcome of the race for many teams. I’m so thankful that no one was hurt considering the number of cars involved.”

Lepage said it was the “biggest mistake he’s ever made in over 25 years of racing.