NASCAR site search never idles

• Troutdale, Scappoose stay in running for 75,000-seat racetrack

By Jon Bell

The Portland Tribune, Jan 28, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Though an initial deal petered out last year, the recruiting effort to bring NASCAR to the Northwest is still humming right along.

In fact, officials from International Speedway Corp., the Florida-based company looking to build a 75,000-seat NASCAR facility in the region, scouted sites in the Seattle area this week and had plans to stop in Oregon in the next several days before heading back east.

“We’re still very interested in being in the Northwest,” said Grant Lynch, vice president of International Speedway. “There’s one big area of the country that doesn’t have a major racing facility. We have a big interest in figuring out if we can put one out here.”

Drew Mahalic, the Oregon Sports Authority’s chief executive officer, said he had spoken with International Speedway officials as recently as last week “to just kind of stay in touch É as we continue to point out potential sites where (a track) could work.”

International Speedway hopes to find a site, preferably between 700 and 900 acres, within 40 to 50 miles of a major Northwest metropolitan area, Grant said. The facility probably would be a seven-eighths-mile track with room for at least 75,000 spectators, at the start.

NASCAR officials have the confidence that wherever they go, the seats will be filled, Mahalic said. Portland International Raceway, for instance, attracts upward of 400,000 fans a year.

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