SPARTA, Ky. (AP) -- The entrepreneur who paved the way for Bruton Smith to deliver a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to Kentucky Speedway was conspicuously quiet during the formal announcement Tuesday.
Jerry Carroll didn't want to detract from the moment by reflecting on the past.
"That was my own choice," he said.
As the other dignitaries seated on stage with him took turns at the podium, Carroll's thoughts were elsewhere.
"To be very truthful with you," he said, "I was flashing back to when I stood on that corn patch and looked out over there and turned to Damon Thayer and said, 'You see that out there? That's going to be a speedway."'
It took selling the track to Speedway Motorsports Inc. at a loss to achieve the ultimate goal. But a Sprint Cup race would never have been possible without Carroll, because the idea of planting a major speedway in the fields of Gallatin County was his.
"Jerry was willing to put his reputation on the line and just work hard and just work through all the different hurdles," said Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger, a longtime business partner and friend of Carroll's. "Ninety-nine guys out of 100 would have quit, and he didn't.
"I think he deserves just a tremendous amount of credit and respect for what he did."
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'Discontent stems growth'
Sensing Kentucky's signature industry was headed for hard times, the Indiana-born real estate developer was looking to turn his attention to something more promising.
Carroll had purchased Latonia Race course in 1986, renamed it Turfway Park and spent millions turning the Florence track into a showcase for thoroughbred racing.
But by 1997, a few years after Carroll urged the state to allow new forms of gaming at Kentucky horse tracks, Turfway Park was taking a serious financial hit from riverboat casinos in southeast Indiana.
"Restlessness and discontent stems growth," he said. "I was restless. I was discontent with the horse business. We knew if something didn't happen with gaming in the horse business, which I was trying to do, that the horse business was going to go down.
"I thought I might as well sell the place. In the meantime, maybe we could salvage it. If we don't have gaming, what can we put at the track?"
Auto racing leapt to mind. Although he had no previous experience or interest in motorsports, Carroll knew NASCAR was expanding and the sport's popularity was soaring. One of his initial thoughts was to build a speedway on the Turfway Park land so cars could race when the horses were not.
Fact-finding trips to Texas Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway excited him more and the idea grew from there.
"If we had done gaming, I wouldn't have built the track," he admitted.
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The right location
Carroll, Simendinger and other members of the development team visited more than 40 sites before settling on the location off Interstate 71 near Sparta in Gallatin County.
Clarence Davis, the Judge-executive in Gallatin County at the time, had heard about Carroll's idea and invited him down to look at a possible site. Carroll found the acreage ideal and took out options on the land.
That led to a meeting with Gov. Paul Patton. Carroll pitched his speedway idea and talked up the potential benefits for the state.
"I bought it pretty quick," Patton said. "I could see it was in the right location. I know it's a major sport. It's a big-league sport and Kentucky needs big-league sports."
Patton pledged the state's support with road improvements and infrastructure. Carroll said the commitment came with the caveat that construction on the speedway start first.
In the years since, the state has spent more than $100 million improving Interstate 71 and roads leading to and from the speedway. Lawmakers also have approved sales tax credits for the speedway.
Carroll successfully attracted big-league investors to the speedway project.
Committing to the project were Richard Duchossois, founder and chairman of The Duchossois Group; John Lindahl, who owned State Industries Inc., the world's largest maker of water heaters; Bruce Lunsford, founder of Vencor Inc., a Louisville-based health-care company; and Chris Sullivan, founder of the Outback Steakhouse chain.
Richard Farmer, founder and chairman of Cintas Corp., bought out Lunsford's speedway interest in 1999. Cintas was the speedway's first corporate sponsor.
"I didn't have a turn-down," Carroll said. "I had one guy who will go unnamed that got mad at me because I didn't pitch him."
Each investor, himself included, put up $5 million to get the venture off the ground, Carroll said. By 1999, the total private investment in the track was $105 million.
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'It was going to work'
Carroll had the investors but still no land upon which to build the track. The options he took out were within days of running out when the families who owned and farmed the 1,000 acres in Gallatin County met with Carroll at Turfway Park. The meeting forced him to make a "gutsy" decision. He decided to buy the land.
"I just had it in my head it was going to work," Carroll said.
In January 1998, he publicly announced the plan to build Kentucky Speedway with the long-term goal of securing a Cup event.
To get a NASCAR-sanctioned truck race to the track, Carroll and his partners bought Louisville Motor Speedway for $5 million. The Louisville track had a Craftsman (now Camping World) Truck Series race.
"The reason I sold Louisville Speedway was the opportunity to bring a Cup race to Kentucky was something that we really wanted to see and just be part of," said Andy Vertrees, who was Louisville Motor Speedway's general manager and later became the director of operations at Kentucky Speedway.
A ceremonial groundbreaking of the Kentucky Speedway was held in July 1998 at Turfway Park.
Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip attended. A month later, the Owensboro native was hired by the track to join its development team as a paid consultant.
"We got Darrell Waltrip to come in to give us some credibility," Carroll said. "He helped work with us. He did a lot of things."
Waltrip was an insider and became instrumental in helping the track attract a Busch (now Nationwide) Series race, which is one step below the Sprint Cup Series.
"I've worked hard publicly and behind the scenes and with everybody in NASCAR, anybody that will listen about us getting a race here one day," Waltrip said.
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The only one
Carroll sold Turfway Park for $37 million in 1999, and the $152 million Kentucky Speedway opened the next year.
The inaugural schedule featured races for the Craftsman Truck Series and Indy Racing League. By 2001, Kentucky Speedway had gained its Nationwide Series race and was drawing capacity crowds.
But a Sprint Cup race never materialized.
Fed up, the owners filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. in July 2005. They retained the rights to the suit when they sold Kentucky Speedway to SMI in 2008 for $78.3 million. The case was defeated at every turn. When it ended in May, it opened the door for SMI to move a Sprint Cup race to Kentucky Speedway.
"Bruton was the only person in the world who could bring a race. The only one," Carroll said of the SMI chairman. "NASCAR wasn't going to bring a race to Kentucky. They can't. But Bruton can, and Bruton saw the opportunity in Kentucky."
Carroll has remained involved with Kentucky Speedway as a paid consultant. Now that the track is assured a Sprint Cup race in 2011, the 65-year-old has started searching for his next big project.
It will probably have some real estate angle to it, he said.
"I love the thrill of trying to make another deal," Carroll said.
"The big difference with me now is that now I've got more yesterdays than I have tomorrows. Time never mattered to me. Now time sort of matters. You start thinking about things and you say, 'Wait a minute. Do I have time to complete the deal?' Because this one took 11 years. But I'm ready."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
