The speedway emerged from the oval track construction boom of the 1990s. In December 1996, the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) announced plans for a $100 million, 120,000-seat facility in the Midwest. ISC official John Story identified the Kansas City metropolitan area as a primary target. An initial bid from Gardner, Kansas, was abandoned after city officials visited the 1997 Daytona 500 and concluded the site was too close to existing residential development and would face traffic problems.
ISC narrowed its search to 16 sites, including plots in Platte County, Missouri, and Wyandotte County, Kansas. By July 1997, Kansas City was named ISC's top choice. After competitive lobbying from both Missouri and Kansas officials, Wyandotte County secured the project by mid-August 1997. The chosen site was near Interstate 70 and Interstate 435. The initial budget stood at nearly $200 million; by the time final negotiations were complete, costs had risen to over $252 million. Tax breaks for the project were signed by Kansas Governor Bill Graves after passing both chambers of the Kansas legislature.
The project encountered significant delays due to lawsuits filed by 146 displaced homeowners and property managers who contested the use of eminent domain and the adequacy of relocation packages. On July 10, 1998, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of ISC and Wyandotte County government, citing the Fifth Amendment. Further legal challenges were dismissed or settled by November 1998, and in January 1999, $95.6 million in revenue bonds were sold, formally resuming the project. The final budget reached $287 million by late 1999. Construction began in September 1999. The track started paving in September 2000, and its opening date was set for June 2, 2001. The first testing runs were made by ARCA driver Ryan Newman in April 2001. At the groundbreaking celebration in May 1999, drivers Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace, and Ken Schrader provided positive remarks.
The track uses a progressive banking system: 17 degrees at the bottom lane of the turns and 20 degrees at the top lane. The frontstretch carries 10 degrees of banking; the backstretch has 5 degrees. While the standard measurement is 1.500 mi, IndyCar used a length of 1.520 mi (2.446 km) for its events.
An infield road course connects to the main oval to form a "roval" configuration. Then-track president Grant Lynch noted plans for such a course during construction in 2000. The road course was built in 2012 as part of broader renovations, and measures 2.370 mi (3.814 km) with six turns in the infield section.
The track opened on June 2, 2001. ARCA driver Jason Jarrett won the first race. The inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Indy Racing League doubleheader followed the next month, with Ricky Hendrick and Eddie Cheever winning their respective races. In September 2001, Jeff Gordon won the first NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at the circuit. Track president Lynch subsequently stepped down, with vice president Jeff Boerger taking control. Seating was expanded to over 80,000 grandstand seats by November 2001, and further to 83,000 seats two years later; a planned 150,000-seat capacity was held back by economic uncertainty.
Starting in 2004, proposals by the Kickapoo tribe and the Sac and Fox Nation to build a state-regulated casino west of the track were put to the Kansas legislature and met heavy opposition. Over the following years, multiple competing proposals were submitted. In 2007, Kansas Speedway entered a joint bid with the Cordish Corporation for a $600 million hotel and casino development. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled state-owned casinos constitutional in June 2008, and Kansas Lottery approved five Wyandotte County proposals in May 2008. ISC president Lesa France Kennedy endorsed the track's bid in August 2008, offering a second NASCAR Cup Series race weekend as an incentive. In September 2008, Kansas Lottery approved the track and Cordish Corporation's plan for a $705 million casino branded under the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino name.
The Great Recession caused the Cordish Corporation to exit the partnership in December 2008. Penn Entertainment subsequently bought out Cordish, replacing the Hard Rock branding with a Hollywood theme. A revised $521 million proposal was cut further to $386 million and approved by Kansas Lottery on December 1, 2009. Final approval came in February 2010 from the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission. NASCAR officially confirmed the second race weekend at the track in August 2010. The Hollywood Casino broke ground on April 30, 2010, and opened to the public on February 3, 2012. The 268,000-square-foot complex is themed after the Hollywood district of Los Angeles and overlooks the track's second turn.
In July 2011, the track announced renovations including a full repaving, a reconfiguration of the oval that increased variable banking from 15 degrees to 20 degrees, and the addition of the infield road course. Night racing infrastructure was also added. Track vice president of marketing and sales Patrick Warren was promoted to run the track after Boerger moved to lead Kansas Entertainment and the casino.
At its opening, the track held approximately 75,000 spectators. Capacity peaked at 82,000 in the mid-2000s. According to ISC annual reports, capacity was subsequently reduced from 64,000 to 48,000 as of 2019.
The track hosts two annual NASCAR weekends: the AdventHealth 400 in the spring and the Hollywood Casino 400 in the fall. Support events include the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Kansas Lottery 300 and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Heart of America 200.
The Indy Racing League held annual races at the track from 2001 through 2010. IndyCar departed in 2011 due to scheduling conflicts with the new second NASCAR weekend. The infield road course hosted the Rolex Sports Car Series for Grand Prix events on August 17, 2013, and again in June 2014. Other activities at the venue include the Richard Petty Driving Experience and the American Royal World Series of BBQ, which moved to the track in 2016. In August 2011, the track hosted the Kanrocksas Music Festival, featuring Eminem, The Flaming Lips, Kid Cudi, and Primus, among others; a planned 2013 edition was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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