FORT WORTH, Texas - Texas Motor Speedway will have its long-awaited second Nextel Cup race in 2005.
The Fort Worth racetrack will be granted two races per season as part of a settlement of Texan Francis Ferko's lawsuit against NASCAR, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Ferko, of Plano, Texas, filed the suit in February 2002 on behalf of shareholders of Speedway Motorsports, the company that built and operates Texas Motor Speedway.
An announcement could be made next month, though the Star-Telegram reported the settlement probably won't be declared final until the summer. NASCAR usually unveils its schedule in August or September.
TMS president Eddie Gossage declined to comment. Calls to NASCAR and its attorney, Alan B. Vickery, weren't returned. Ferko attorney Samuel A. Cherry said last month that settlement negotiations were under way.
The second date, which probably will be in early November during the 10-race "Chase for the Championship," is the key piece of an agreement that keeps the Cup schedule at 36 races and involves four other facilities: Phoenix International Raceway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and North Carolina Speedway.
Darlington, owned by lawsuit co-defendant International Speedway Corp., loses one of its two dates and will hold its race the day before Mother's Day, traditionally an open weekend for the Cup Series.
North Carolina, an ISC track that was pared to one race this season, will lose its remaining February date.
Phoenix, another ISC track, will also have two Cup dates - in February (North Carolina's race) and November (Darlington's second date). Phoenix and TMS will be two of 14 facilities with two races in 2005.
Atlanta, a sister track of TMS in Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports empire, will keep its two dates, but the spring race will be pushed later into March in an attempt to ease weather concerns.
NASCAR and ISC are owned by the France family of Daytona Beach, and are accused by Ferko of violating federal antitrust laws. Ferko also claims that NASCAR breached "express" and "implied" contracts with the "promise" of a second date for TMS.
"We've heard our name mentioned in relation with a second Nextel Cup race for almost two years now, yet we have not heard anything official from anyone," Phoenix raceway president Bryan Sperber said in Wednesday's editions of the Star-Telegram. "If it did happen, we would be ecstatic and would certainly do our best to represent NASCAR as best we could."
