NASCAR's track of future rising above rural Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Humpy Wheeler, that showman and preeminent visionary who has a side job as president of Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte, N.C., earlier this week dispatched a release to the media detailing his thoughts on what a NASCAR facility might look like 25 years from now. It's a grandiose picture, one where fans are transported via moving sidewalks and gain entry by a voice-activated ticketing system, cars compete on a synthetic, all-weather racing surface, and wireless, airborne television cameras beam it all home.

But there's no need to dust off such a crystal ball. With all apologies to Wheeler, the mastermind behind innovations such as extravagant pre-race shows and night superspeedway racing, the track of the future isn't a fantasy. It's real. And it's right here.

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In Kansas.

All is takes is one trip to Kansas Speedway to realize why this green, yellow and lavender edifice has become a darling of International Speedway Corp. and was a dark-horse finalist to land the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Because of their sheer size, race tracks aren't able to follow the trend set by stick-and-ball teams, which are moving their stadiums downtown from city outskirts in an effort to foster economic growth. So at Kansas Speedway, they've done the next best thing -- they've built a downtown in the city outskirts, and in the process rejuvenated an area that had been beset by poverty and flight.

Visually, the place is startling. Because of land costs, many NASCAR tracks are located seemingly in the middle of nowhere -- alongside cotton fields, deep in pine forests, or near old industrial areas. It seems that way in Kansas as well, when you leave the sprawl of metro Kansas City, Mo., behind, cross the same Missouri River that Lewis and Clark paddled, and enter those amber waving farmlands the state is known for. And then, at the junction of Interstates 435 and 70, everything changes. Between the 750,000 square feet of retail space, the hundreds of mall-quality stores and restaurants, the movie theatre and the minor-league baseball stadium, the 1.5-mile race track almost gets lost.

The retail area around Kansas Speedway is the state's top tourist destination, a place that draws 10 million visitors annually, a complex that helped Kansas improve from almost last in the nation in tourism to 36th. Those numbers will surely increase when the massive Schlitterbahn water park and resort opens in 2009. Then there's the cherry on top of the sundae, a $600 million hotel and casino overlooking the speedway's second turn, a project still awaiting approval from local and state governments.

Eight years ago, when the $240 million speedway was under construction, none of this was here. It's been a dramatic transformation, and it serves as a model for communities in other states where race tracks are being proposed. In places like Seattle and Denver, markets that ISC has targeted, there's staunch opposition to a NASCAR presence. That might change if they ever saw Kansas Speedway, an economic engine that hums long after the Cup cars have been packed up and hauled away.

"To see it grow the way it has with all these businesses and restaurants and hotels, it's fantastic," said Jeff Gordon, who won the first two Kansas races. (Continued)