Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) is a marketer and promoter of motorsports entertainment in the United States, and was the first motorsports company to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, owns six premier speedway facilities in locations across the country and has one of the largest total permanent seating capacities, which, as of December 2005, was approximately 775,000. Speedway also provides souvenir merchandising through SMI Properties; manufactures and distributes smaller-scale, modified racing cars through 600 Racing; and broadcasts syndicated racing programs through Performance Racing Network.
Last month, the company agreed to purchase Kentucky Speedway from Kentucky Speedway, LLC. The speedway is located in Sparta, Kentucky on approximately 820 acres. The track features a 1.5 mile tri-oval speedway, with chair-back grandstand seating for 66,089 spectators, 50 luxury suites with seats for approximately 2,000, 100 private RV spaces, 200 reserved camping spaces and 1,000 unreserved camping spaces.
Kentucky Speedway, which opened in 2000, hosts one NASCAR Nationwide Series event, one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event, one IndyCar Series event and other facing events each year. With this acquisition, the company will own race tracks in the West, Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and Southwest, including four of the nation’s top-10 designated areas. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2008.
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