Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Sorry Bubba- No Kentucky stop for '04 Nextel Cup

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 11:28:16 -0400

No Kentucky stop for '04 Nextel Cup All-Star race to stay at Lowe's under 2004
NASCAR schedule

From AP and C-J Dispatches
NASCAR released its 36-race Nextel Cup schedule yesterday, and Kentucky Speedway
once again was left hoping for a future date on stock car racing's premier
circuit.

The Nextel Cup schedule &mdash; the future name for the Winston Cup circuit
&mdash; had a few changes, but no new tracks were added for the coming year.
"I'm disappointed,'' said Mark Cassis, general manager of Kentucky Speedway. "I
think we're closer than we ever have been. We'll be even more diligent now in our
pursuit for a 2005 Nextel Cup date. It's going to come our way.... We're so close,
and I get a little disappointed, but we are not going to fold up and go away.''

NASCAR had toyed with the idea of moving its annual All-Star race, and with Nextel
replacing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. as sponsor of the series, it had a prime
opportunity to do so.

But the Nextel All-Star Challenge will be run May22 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in
Concord, N.C., making the 18th straight year the event will be held at the track.
RJR has sponsored the The Winston since its inception in 1985. The all-star event
has been held at Lowe's every year but one, when it moved to Atlanta Motor
Speedway in 1986.
As planned, the traditional Labor Day weekend event that had been held at
Darlington, S.C., for 54 straight races was moved to California Speedway as the
suburban Los Angeles track expanded to two dates in 2004.

California Speedway will run its spring event on May2. Its second race will be
Sept.5, under the lights.

The Southern 500 at Darlington will now be run Nov.14 and be the penultimate race
in the Nextel Cup Series.

The switch was all part of NASCAR's "Realignment 2004 and Beyond" plan, designed
to move races out of the crowded Southeastern market and into large cities.
As a result, North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham lost its second race date
&mdash; it was given to California &mdash; and will hold its only event on Feb.22.

There are no new venues on the 2004 schedule, and no event moved from Sunday
afternoon to Saturday night, which had also been a possibility.

The only other change involved the order of the spring races at Talladega, Ala.,
and Martinsville, Va.

The races will flip-flop, with Martinsville on April18 and Talladega on April25.
The schedule will begins with the Budweiser Shootout kicking off Speedweeks at
Daytona, Fla., on Feb.7. The season-opening Daytona 500 will be run on Feb.15, and
the season-ending race will be Nov.21 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The series will
visit 23 tracks in 19 states.
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjsports/news2003/09/10/spt-6-auto0910-3786.html

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