NASCAR racing has been absent from Kentucky Speedway for more than five years.
Once a host of the top three NASCAR series, Kentucky Speedway now sits as a multi-purpose facility.
What started in 1997 as a vision to bring top-tier racing in America to Northern Kentucky now sits just off I-71 having not hosted live racing in front of fans for more than five years. Kentucky Speedway, founded by Jerry Carroll and now owned by Speedway Motorsports, is part of a cohort of race tracks around the United States that still exist, but haven’t hosted race weekends in years.
There are plenty of reasons Kentucky Speedway is effectively closed − the COVID-19 pandemic impact on live, in-person sports, NASCAR scheduling and Speedway Motorsports’ allotment of race weekends on the NASCAR schedule being chief among them.
Speedway Motorsports owns Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Dover Motor Speedway, Echopark Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, North Wilksboro Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.
The NASCAR Cup Series features races at 24 different tracks and Speedway Motorsports owns 10 of those tracks. The race weekend in Sparta, Kentucky, that used to feature the top three NASCAR Series − Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series – has moved to Echopark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), which Speedway Motorsports invested significantly in amenities around the track.
Will NASCAR return to Kentucky Speedway?
When the 2026 NASCAR schedule was released on Aug. 20, 2025, Kentucky Speedway was not listed as a host for any of the top-three national series. Nor was it on the schedule for any other national racing series.
The Courier-Journal examined the current state of Kentucky Speedway and its impact on the community, but there seems to be no clear future plans for the track in the immediate future.
In a statement sent to The Courier Journal via email, Scott Cooper, the senior vice president of communications for Speedway Motorsports said,