Speedway Motorsports Inc. may not wind up buying Kentucky Speedway after all. SMI has until Aug. 18 to decide whether to complete the $78 million deal that includes the assumption of $63 million in debt. “I can’t answer definitively whether or not we would go forward with the transaction,” Bill Brooks, the company’s chief financial officer, said during a conference call with financial analysts Wednesday.

The track in Sparta, Ky., isn’t going to be on the 2009 Sprint Cup schedule. Marcus Smith, chief operating officer and president of SMI, said the the company would consider moving a Cup date from one of its current tracks to Kentucky if the deal does close. “It’s one of the potential options that we would have,” Smith said.

Charlotte Observer