Report: NASCAR considers track on Staten Island

NEW YORK (AP) -- International Speedway Corporation is thinking about building a speedway in a city better known for traffic jams and taxicabs than for motorsports.

Racing promoters have held preliminary discussions with economic officials in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration about constructing a NASCAR track on Staten Island, The New York Times reported Friday.

NASCAR has looked at various locations in the region since plans to build a speedway at the Meadowlands in New Jersey foundered, said David Talley, a spokesman for the International Speedway Corporation, which owns 13 tracks nationwide.

"Staten Island is one we're looking at," Talley told the Times. "We're looking at a couple of sites in New Jersey as well. We are nowhere close to breaking ground and building a facility."

The proposed track would be constructed at a 440-acre vacant industrial site on Staten Island's waterfront, a few miles east of the New Jersey Turnpike, the Times said.