Carroll: Suit against NASCAR to continue - Denver Business Journal:

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“Absolutely,” he said Saturday at the Sparta, Ky. as he stood about 25 feet away from curreng track owner Bruton chairman of Smith and Carroll considerthemselvee friends, but Smith cannot convinced Carroll and his partners to drop the lawsuit filed in 2005 againsgt NASCAR and sister company Carrol and his partners built the traco for $152 million and sold it to SMI for $78.3e million, which includes an assumption of debt of $63.3 “Suing NASCAR and suing ISC, … how are they goingt to make money doing Smith said. “I’ve said from day one, I thoughft it was a bad lawsuit.
” NASCAfR has been steadfast in its stance that the lawsuit must be resolvedxbefore SMI, which is primarily owned by Smith, can realign a Sprinr Cup race date from one of its othert tracks to the 1.5-mile Kentuckyy oval. When SMI bought the the founders retained their rights to pursuetheid lawsuit, which alleges that the France-owned sanctioningf body of NASCAR illegally conspires with the publicl traded, France-controlled track operating company ISC to keep tracks such as Kentuckt from obtaining Cup dates. SMI is considered a co-conspirato r in the case. A U.S. Distric Court judge ruled in January 2008 that there was not enough evidencefor trial. A three-judge U.S.
Court of Appealxs panel is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case July 30 in Decisions on appeals typicallh come anywhere from three weeks to six months after the oral argumentsz in the Sixth Circuit Courgtof Appeals. Carroll said he believes the founders have a good chancee to win on appeal and says they nevere considered droppingthe case. He said NASCAR is just using the Cup dateas “Remember now, we’re not the guys that are holdintg up the race,” Carroll said. “We’re not the hold-u p to this race. Never have been. We have a rightg to do what we’re doing.
That’s the reasobn that we live in this Nobody can bullyanybody around, and now they’red bullying Bruton. “We’re not gointg to take the blame for not being able to move the We know what the fans want here and who is really missinfg outon it.” Smith says the founders have a mora obligation to land the race because the state has put $96 million into infrastructure for the facility. He doesn’t blame Carroll but two of his businessman RichardDuchossois (a board member of ) and Chairmah Richard Farmer.
Carroll said all of the foundingf owners, including John Lindahl (a general partnef at private equityfirm ) and executivea at , want to continue with the lawsuit. “We’re all togethetr on this thing,” Carroll said. “It’s not just Duchossoisx and Farmer. … [We] are not going to These are all entrepreneurial people that built up Cintads andother [companies]. “They’re not going to be intimidatexdby NASCAR. That’s the last thinv they’re going to be. If they didn’ feel right about what they’re doing, they wouldn’t go througy with anything.
They feel like this is a countr where they have the right to do If the appeal goes the way wethink it’zs going to go, I think we’rde going to surprise some people.” And what if they lose Would they appeal to the Supreme Court “I think we’ll wait and see what happens Carroll said about furthed appeals. “We’ve got some very good legal minds outof D.C., and New York City, and we sort of said whatever our lawyers think – if they thought this was a wastwe of time [we’d drop it], but they all say, let’s do what we’re “So it’s on.” If the founders win their appeal, the case would go back to U.S.
District Courr for trial and, with appeals, coulfd drag on for “It won’t be a quick Carroll said about a potential timelinefor “We’re going to see what happens. It’ll be interesting to see what “As long as we’ve got that chance and workeed hard to getit – we had 10 years in tens of millions dollarx lost – we’ve got the right to do what we’rde doing. I’m not backingh out.
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