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Traffic clouds Ky. Speedway Sprint Cup race

Some estimates said I-71 snarl stretched 20 miles with furious fans.

Kyle Busch races through the fourth turn during the inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., Saturday, July 9, 2011.

Garry Jones/FRE Kyle Busch races through the fourth turn during the inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., Saturday, July 9, 2011.

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By Greg Billing, Staff Writer Updated 2:18 AM Sunday, July 10, 2011

SPARTA, Ky. — About 3½ hours before Kentucky Speedway hosted its inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup race, track owner Bruton Smith arrived in the infield donning a black cap that proclaimed SECURITY in bright yellow letters.

Perhaps it was to keep the sun off his head. Or maybe to keep the heat off it.

Smith, with traffic snarled outside the speedway and backed up on all access roads for — according to some reports — nearly 20 miles, joked he wore the security cap to sneak into the speedway.

There wasn’t much that could overshadow one of the largest sporting events in the commonwealth’s history, especially after a 12-year wait, but the traffic threatened to cloud its success.

It even claimed Sprint Cup driver Denny Hamlin for a while. He posted on Twitter: “Good news bad news/ bad news is I’m prolly not gonna make the drivers meeting in 3 hrs because I’m in this traffic with everyone else ... Good news, I’m starting in the back anyway.”

Hamlin made it in time for the Quaker State 400, scheduled to start at 7:49 p.m.

Others, though, weren’t as fortunate.

And those who did make it in to watch the Sprint Cup race still had that long drive home, this time as everyone left at once.

Smith blamed the traffic woes on the lack of additional lanes on Interstate 71 on Friday and again during an at-track appearance on WLW-AM (700) on Saturday.

“That is the worst interstate highway I have ever seen in my life. Don’t you think it’s a disgrace?” Smith said, adding he’ll do his best to convince the state’s lawmakers to expand I-71.

“We’d like to have six lanes, but we’ll take 5½. We’ll compromise. But that is really a disgrace to the great state of Kentucky to have such a lousy piece of interstate.”

If anyone can get it done, Smith can. After purchasing Kentucky Speedway in 2008, the on-again, off-again member of Forbes’ billionaire list spent more than $100 million upgrading Kentucky Speedway. There was little, though, he could do about I-71.

“It’s going to be a problem. We expect everybody to be home by Tuesday,” Smith deadpanned. “This Interstate 71, you don’t want to ever be on it. That is the worst stretch of interstate in the country. ... We’re working on getting something done about Interstate 71.”

It’ll come too late for many fans Saturday. The only traffic moving fast around the speedway were Twitter and Facebook feeds. Some said they gave up and turned around or went back to their hotel rooms even after nine hours on the road.

Other reports said fans were still sitting outside the track at 8:30 p.m., nearly 40 minutes after the race started.

Construction was halted during Kentucky’s race weekend and Kentucky State Police warned travelers to plan ahead and to even stay off I-71 if possible.

“We’ve had an overwhelming response to our inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Quaker State 400,” Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger said in a statement. “We know we had challenges related to traffic. We’re already planning improvements and looking forward to a much better situation for next year’s event.”

Simendinger said previously the track worked for more than six months to come up with its traffic plan.

“I hope race fans are as forgiving as they are because we’re doing our best,” Smith said. “At least I told the truth.”

On Saturday, the truth hurt.

Quaker State 400

Busch whacked: The Busch brothers — Kyle and Kurt — led 166 laps in the 267-lap race, including a race-high 125 by winner Kyle. Kyle drag raced Jimmie Johnson down the backstretch off a restart and put him and David Reutimann in his rearview mirror for the inaugural win.

Avoiding traffic: With at least 30 laps to go, traffic started pouring out of Kentucky Speedway likely from those hoping to avoid the 20-mile traffic jams that plagued entry to the track.

Historic lap: Kurt Busch took the honor of leading the first lap, passing brother and pole-sitter Kyle entering Turn 4.

Cashing in: The inaugural winner of Saturday’s race earned a minimum of $146,175, the largest payout at Kentucky Speedway in a NASCAR-sanctioned event. The total purse of $4,925,697 set the Kentucky track record.

— Greg Billing, staff writer

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