Ferko lawsuit

The Ferko lawsuit is a common nickname for an American lawsuit that was challenged between plaintiff Francis Ferko, a shareholder of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.'s Texas Motor Speedway, and defendants NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation (ISC). Ferko contended that the defendants violated antitrust laws that prevented Texas Motor Speedway from obtaining two NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races per racing season, as many other tracks had.

In 2004, the plaintiff won the case, and NASCAR was to give the speedway a second race as it requested. With approval from the judge, NASCAR was forced to surrender the Grand Slam Or|date=November 2007, and the prestigious Southern 500 at Darlington RacewayOr|Basically a date switch|date=November 2007, which had been moved to November to be part of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, to give Texas that second date. In a related move, the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham was surrendered to SMI. Since the move, Rockingham has been used for only non-competition uses; such as for movie settings about the sport, or for testing. As a result of a 2006 NASCAR testing rule change, testing at the track is more commonplace.

In 2005, Kentucky Speedway filed a similar suit against NASCAR and ISC, also requesting a NEXTEL Cup race at the venue. As of September 2007, the lawsuit has not yet been decided.

References

*cite web |url=http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13059399.htm |title=Fan wishes he hadn't filed suit |work=Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram |accessdate=2006-12-28 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20060708031401/http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/13059399.htm |archivedate=2006-07-08 |last=Wilson |first=Jeff