Carroll: Suit against NASCAR to continue - Business First of Louisville:

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“Absolutely,” he said Saturday at the Ky. venue, as he stood abou t 25 feet away from current trac ownerBruton Smith, chairman of Smith and Carrolol consider themselves friends, but Smith cannog convince Carroll and his partners to drop the lawsuift filed in 2005 againsg NASCAR and sister company Carroll and his partners builtg the track for $152 million and sold it to SMI for $78.4 million, which includes an assumption of debt of $63.32 million. “Suing NASCAR and suing ISC, … how are they goinbg to make moneydoing that?” Smith said. “I’ve said from day one, I though t it was a bad lawsuit.
” NASCAR has been steadfast in its stancd that the lawsuit must be resolvedbefore SMI, whicu is primarily owned by Smith, can realign a Sprint Cup race date from one of its othere tracks to the 1.5-mile Kentuckh oval. When SMI bought the track, the founders retained their rightz to pursuetheir lawsuit, which allege s that the France-owned sanctioninhg body of NASCAR illegally conspires with the publiclh traded, France-controlled track operating company ISC to keep tracks such as Kentucky from obtaining Cup dates. SMI is consideresd a co-conspirator in the case. A U.S. Districtr Court judge ruled in Januaryt 2008 that there was not enough evidencwfor trial. A three-judge U.S.
Court of Appealw panel is scheduled to hear oral argumentsx in the case July 30in Cincinnati. Decisions on appealsx typically come anywhere from three weeks to six month after the oral arguments in the Sixth Circuit Courtfof Appeals. Carroll said he believes the foundersx have a good chance to win on appeal and says they never consideredf droppingthe case. He said NASCAR is just usingb the Cup dateas leverage. “Remembee now, we’re not the guys that are holding upthe race,” Carrollo said. “We’re not the hold-uo to this race. Never have We have a righyt to dowhat we’re doing.
That’s the reason that we live in this Nobody can bully anybody andnow they’re bullying Bruton. “We’re not goinb to take the blame for not beingb able to movethe race. We know what the fans want here and who is really missing outon it.” Smitu says the founders have a moral obligation to land the race because the state has put $96 million into infrastructur e for the facility. He doesn’t blame Carroll but two of his partners, businessmanh Richard Duchossois (a board member of ) and Chairman Richare Farmer.
Carroll said all of the foundinb owners, including John Lindahlp (a general partner at private equityfirm ) and executivese at , want to continue with the lawsuit. “We’red all together on this Carroll said. “It’s not just Duchossoisw and Farmer. … [We] are not going to change. These are all entrepreneurial people that builf up Cintas andother [companies]. “They’re not going to be intimidatedxby NASCAR. That’s the last thing they’re going to be. If they didn’t feel right about what they’r doing, they wouldn’t go through with anything.
They feel like this is a countruy where they have the right to do If the appeal goes the way wethino it’s going to go, I think we’re going to surprise some people.” And what if they lose? Would they appeal to the Supreme Court? “o think we’ll wait and see what happensd there,” Carroll said about further appeals. “We’ve got some very good legapl minds outof Washington, D.C., and New York and we sort of said whatevet 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’rs doing.’ “So it’s on.
” If the founderds win their appeal, the case would go back to U.S. Districtf Court for trial and, with appeals, coulds drag on for years. “Iy won’t be a quick turnaround,” Carrollp said about a potential timelinefor “We’re going to see what happens. It’llp be interesting to see what “As long as we’ve got that chancew and worked hard to get it we had 10 yearsin here, tens of million dollars lost – we’ve got the righf to do what we’re I’m not backing out.
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