Nov 25, 2007

Stage Your Own NASCAR Race

By JR Nerad

Our Bill of Rights as Americans are contained in the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. They include a lot of good stuff like freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. The Bill of Rights, however, does not guarantee you or me the right to stage a NASCAR Sprint Cup race just because we want to. It's surprising, if not downright shocking, to think that some might feel the Bill of Rights or some other more esoteric portion of the Constitution might guarantee the right to NASCAR. But that is just what a federal suit now being litigated contends.

Kentucky Speedway, a Sparta, Ky., racing facility that includes a 1.5-mile tri-oval, has sued NASCAR because it contends that the fact the sanctioning body denied it a race in its elite Nextel Cup series constituted an illegal, anti-competitive conspiracy. To show their seriousness, Kentucky Speedway and its lawyers have sought more than $200 million in damages from NASCAR. That's a lot of coin, but the suit went farther still, seeking that International Speedway Corporation (ISC), which is controlled by the France family (that also controls NASCAR), divest itself of eight of the 12 racing facilities it owns and operates. The suit alleges that the NASCAR/ISC/France family combination is an "anticompetitive regime."

To which we have to say, "This just in?" NASCAR has been protecting its turf for decades and it could well be called an "uncompetitive regime," just like any family-owned organization might be skewered for nepotism when it promotes a member of the family to a CEO role. But while NASCAR might want to avoid competition, the key is it is not doing it in any illegal manner. From the proverbial get-go, the France family has run NASCAR and has granted races to tracks at their discretion. We have certainly been critical of NASCAR through the years, but sanctioning the tracks they want to sanction and not sanctioning the ones they don't want to sanction is completely within their rights.  In fact part of that protection comes from Article IV of the Constitution, the right against unreasonable search and seizure.

What is interesting is that U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman didn't throw the suit out on its ear. Instead, he has asked the two sides to continue mediation on the issue with the hope that they will come to an agreement. Our hope is the NASCAR doesn't bow to the threat of lawsuit and give the Kentucky track a Sprint Cup race. Our Founding Fathers didn't envision lawsuits as bargaining tools for business transactions, and we don't think the racing community or the country at large is well-served if that becomes the case today.

Want a NASCAR race to celebrate your kid's 10th birthday? Sue NASCAR.

It shouldn't work that way.

Driving Today Managing Editor Jack R. Nerad is also the co-host of "America on the Road," the most-listened to automotive show on commercial radio, and the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hybrid and Alternative Fuel Vehicles (Alpha Books).

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