Kansas Speedway boss excited about track's future

Jeff Boerger has been presiding over Kansas Speedway since it was little more than a gleam in the eyes of International Speedway Corp.

With the next race in the 2009 Chase to the Sprint Cup to be held at the track that held its first race in 2001, Boerger talked about his hopes to build a casino overlooking the track, how his passion for hunting helped him land his job at ISC, and what kind of youth basketball coach he is.

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Q: Can you give us an update on the possible future construction of a casino at your speedway?

Boerger: It's an exciting time to be at Kansas Speedway, not only because of the race coming up but because we have a lot of exciting opportunities on the horizon -- especially working with our new casino partner in Penn National Gaming. They're the top industry leaders within the gaming field, and we're the top motorsports company in our field -- so it's a good match. We are proposing to the state of Kansas for Phase 1, roughly $400 million to build a casino that would overlook the race track in Turn 2.

That creates not only a lot of excitement for Kansas Speedway, but it's going to create a lot of revenue and economic impact and wealth for the state of Kansas and our region. The process that we're currently going through, the Kansas Lottery and Gaming Review Board will make their decision in December. But we like our chances. We've partnered with our competitor, so there is only one application left in this process. We're very bullish on not only gaming within our region but on working with our new partners to help make it happen.

Q: Assuming you get approval, when would you expect ground to be broken on the casino and when would you expect it to be completed?

Boerger: Again, we're not taking anything for granted. But if we are chosen, the construction period will start most likely in 2011; we'll be open most likely in 2012.

And then we're not only hoping to begin construction of the casino project, we're also going to petition NASCAR for a second Sprint Cup event along with building a road course that would have the capability of hosting a Grand Am event. So as we continue to move forward, there are a lot of developments that we're getting into that are very exciting. At the end of the day we believe it not only will drive revenue for our shareholders but it also will generate revenue for the state of Kansas and create jobs, tourism, and a lot of positive things for this area. (Continued)