Post by dalejrfan on Sept 14, 2005 12:15:46 GMT -5
LEXINGTON, Ky. - NASCAR wants a federal judge to dismiss a $400 million lawsuit filed by Kentucky Speedway, calling the action "a study in contradictions and irony."
The lawsuit seeks to force NASCAR to award the track a Nextel Cup race.
In a separate filing, another defendant, International Speedway Corp., asked U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman to dismiss the case, move it to a federal court in Florida and to schedule a hearing in which oral arguments can be presented.
The filings were made Monday in Covington.
Kentucky Speedway filed suit July 13 against NASCAR and ISC, both of which are controlled by the France family, alleging the companies have violated federal antitrust laws by illegally restricting the awarding of Nextel Cup races.
The speedway, located in Sparta in Gallatin County, currently has NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck series races on its schedule. It's one of several tracks that have unsuccessfully sought a race in the elite Cup series.
The suit also alleges antitrust violations relating to various restraints of trade involving the Busch and Craftsman Truck events.
NASCAR sanctions and oversees its racing series, while ISC owns or controls 12 of the 22 tracks on which the Cup cars currently race. NASCAR did not include a date at Kentucky Speedway on its recently released Cup schedule for 2006.
In their filings, NASCAR and ISC deny the antitrust allegations and use pointed language to criticize the speedway.
ISC's filing calls the speedway's allegations "thinly concealed expressions of bitterness against a more successful promoter." ISC contrasted its 52 years of experience in promoting races to that of the 5-year-old speedway, which ISC says "is led by a group with no experience" promoting top NASCAR races.
ISC also emphasized its claim that it is a separate company from NASCAR.
NASCAR said "that Kentucky Speedway's real complaint is that it has not been awarded a Nextel Cup race so as to participate further in the success of NASCAR." It compared the speedway's complaint to a horse racing track trying to bid to host one of the three legs of that sport's Triple Crown.
NASCAR contends that 11 contracts that the speedway signed between October 1999 and July 2005, for the running of Busch and Craftsman Truck races, contained a clause that specified that any lawsuit regarding the speedway's NASCAR-sanctioned races would be brought in Florida.
Stan Chesley of Cincinnati, Kentucky Speedway's lawyer, said Tuesday he was "dismayed" that NASCAR and ISC "believe that a federal district court in Kentucky would not be qualified to be fair and independent and render justice."
Chesley said that the contract clauses mentioned in the NASCAR filings don't apply in this case because it is an antitrust lawsuit.
NASCAR said the speedway did have a chance to reject the contracts offered by the sanctioning body because the speedway "obviously was not required to host" the Busch and Craftsman Truck series races. "And to the extent it had strong economic incentives to (host), its situation was one completely of its own making," according to the filing.
The lawsuit seeks to force NASCAR to award the track a Nextel Cup race.
In a separate filing, another defendant, International Speedway Corp., asked U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman to dismiss the case, move it to a federal court in Florida and to schedule a hearing in which oral arguments can be presented.
The filings were made Monday in Covington.
Kentucky Speedway filed suit July 13 against NASCAR and ISC, both of which are controlled by the France family, alleging the companies have violated federal antitrust laws by illegally restricting the awarding of Nextel Cup races.
The speedway, located in Sparta in Gallatin County, currently has NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck series races on its schedule. It's one of several tracks that have unsuccessfully sought a race in the elite Cup series.
The suit also alleges antitrust violations relating to various restraints of trade involving the Busch and Craftsman Truck events.
NASCAR sanctions and oversees its racing series, while ISC owns or controls 12 of the 22 tracks on which the Cup cars currently race. NASCAR did not include a date at Kentucky Speedway on its recently released Cup schedule for 2006.
In their filings, NASCAR and ISC deny the antitrust allegations and use pointed language to criticize the speedway.
ISC's filing calls the speedway's allegations "thinly concealed expressions of bitterness against a more successful promoter." ISC contrasted its 52 years of experience in promoting races to that of the 5-year-old speedway, which ISC says "is led by a group with no experience" promoting top NASCAR races.
ISC also emphasized its claim that it is a separate company from NASCAR.
NASCAR said "that Kentucky Speedway's real complaint is that it has not been awarded a Nextel Cup race so as to participate further in the success of NASCAR." It compared the speedway's complaint to a horse racing track trying to bid to host one of the three legs of that sport's Triple Crown.
NASCAR contends that 11 contracts that the speedway signed between October 1999 and July 2005, for the running of Busch and Craftsman Truck races, contained a clause that specified that any lawsuit regarding the speedway's NASCAR-sanctioned races would be brought in Florida.
Stan Chesley of Cincinnati, Kentucky Speedway's lawyer, said Tuesday he was "dismayed" that NASCAR and ISC "believe that a federal district court in Kentucky would not be qualified to be fair and independent and render justice."
Chesley said that the contract clauses mentioned in the NASCAR filings don't apply in this case because it is an antitrust lawsuit.
NASCAR said the speedway did have a chance to reject the contracts offered by the sanctioning body because the speedway "obviously was not required to host" the Busch and Craftsman Truck series races. "And to the extent it had strong economic incentives to (host), its situation was one completely of its own making," according to the filing.