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3/18/12, 11:20 AM   #1
Cowtown Speedway?
nowingsjeff
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I was looking at Cowtown Speedway on the Bing Maps site. I took notice there's two dirt tracks of similar size right next to each other. What's the deal with that?
 
3/18/12, 11:24 AM   #2
Re: Cowtown Speedway?
darnall
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A buddy of mine that went down there this weekend said it was really weird. He said that while Cowtown was running their midget show the track next door was running a stockcar/modified show, and the drag strip also located right there was active all night as well.

So 3 racetracks not only in the same town, but basically on adjoining property, all running at the same time. Talk about a tough job putting people in YOUR seats.
 
3/18/12, 12:28 PM   #3
Re: Cowtown Speedway?
Chubs Peterson
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Cowtown was running their midget show the track next door was running a stockcar/modified show, and the drag strip also located right there was active all night as well.


That is the worst example of cooperation that i have ever heard. And they will wonder why that dont have even one track in the future.
 
3/18/12, 4:02 PM   #4
Re: Cowtown Speedway?
Jonr
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Welcome to Kennedale, Texas, home of the racetracks. In fact, there is a traffic sign at the main intersection in town that simply says “Racetracks” with an arrow to the tracks.

The History
Cowtown Speedway has been in operations since the early 60's. I believe that the drag strip has been in existence for nearly as long. Both were able to co-exist with little issues. Kennedale Speedway Park has been in existence for close to 13 years. For most of their existence, the two tracks have gone heads up racing on Saturday nights. KSP has always been an IMCA track. This is always been its niche. Cowtown was always an Outlaw track with really fast cars. In the last few years, it has had a major changing in their classes.

Why was KSP built
The real reason that KSP was built may only be known to the person who built it. The generally accepted story is that it was never meant to be a race track, but rather a huge poker bluff. In the late 90's Cowtown was very prosperous. It enjoyed large car counts and large fans in the stands. However, the promoter who was leasing the track made some bad business decisions and had to declare bankruptcy in the middle of the season. This caused Cowtown to stop racing for the majority of the summer. During this time, one of the car owners approached the owner of Cowtown to buy the track. The owner did not want to sell the track. The track was built by her late husband and her, and she was very protective of the track. The car owner (who owned the land next door to the track) made several attempts to purchase the track, but was always told no. He then stated that he would build a track on his own property. He started moving dirt and laying out the track. He expected the owner of Cowtown to change her mind. She did not. He spent more money on his bluff. She did not change her mind. At some point, the car owner spent so much money on the track that he had no choice but to build it out.

The Early Years
The early years were very much about which side of the fence you were on. (Yes, the tracks share a common fence between them.) Cowtown was about the history and the super fast Outlaw classes. KSP was about being something new and the more affordable IMCA racing. There was bad blood between the two tracks and between the fans. As I mentioned earlier, the promoter at Cowtown declared bankruptcy. At the bankruptcy auction, the track equipment was auction off. The owner of Cowtown and the owner of KSP both showed up at the auction. The owner of KSP bought all of the large track equipment at the auction. On opening night at KSP, someone from Cowtown sent them a dozen black roses.

The Drivers
While it was bad for the promoters, having two tracks was generally good for the drivers. In the early years, KSP ran the IMCA classes and a couple legacy classes from Cowtown. There are stories about drivers in the legacy classes trying to run both tracks in one night. It was not unheard of for one car to drive down the street from one track to the other track. Instead of always fighting your way through a B-main, it was now easier for drivers to make the A-main every night. Also, with KSP being IMCA sanctioned, cars from other parts of the DFW metroplex would now pull to Kennedale. These cars would never race at Cowtown, but would race at KSP. The years after the split saw the classes at the two tracks grow further and further apart.

The UPs and Downs
The original person who built KSP eventually sold the track. Once again, it may never be known but to him, but the generally accepted story is that he lost a lot of money on the track. This is all based on how much he originally listed the track for and what he ultimately accepted for it. During this time was the back-taxes issue. By this time, the owner of KSP was leasing the track to another promoter. The track owner had not paid his taxes in quite a while. The local sheriffs came during the race night and took all of the money from the front/back gate. Luckily, the promoter had enough money saved away to pay the purse. The next owner only owned for a couple of seasons. His second year was marked by him only running the track for a couple of nights before telling everyone that they were not making any money and stopping the season. A couple of drivers got together and decided to lease the track from the track owner and raced for the next month. However, the new promoters and the owner could not come to agreements on a long term lease and the track sat dark for the rest of the year. The next year saw the track sold again to its current owners. The current owner brought back the promoter who had the most success, and KSP has been doing well since.

Cowtown also went through several ups and downs. In the early years, the family of the track owner tried to be the promoter. After a couple of years, they brought in someone else to promote the track. This promoter had a very successful run at the track, but he was very difficult to get along with. Eventually, he started to upset a lot of the drivers with the "take it or leave it" attitude that he had. He latter upset a lot of the fans when he started replacing the modifieds and sprint cars with multiple classes of mini-sprints. It became so bad that he stepped down last season and a new set of promoters took over Cowtown. For the first time ever, Cowtown gave up it's traditional Saturday nights and started running on Friday nights. Almost giving the victory to KSP. However, that was short lived. This year the track is back to it's traditional Saturday night date with more of the traditional "big" car classes.

Cooperation
In the early years, there was absolutely no cooperation between the two tracks. In fact, both tracks were in business to put each out of business. However, as the cast of characters changed, and it became evident that both tracks were going to exist, a level of cooperation emerged. At first it was the easy stuff. A driver banned at one track would also be banned at the other track. There were a couple of times when the water track at one track would break down that the promoter of the other track would lend his water truck to the other track. They decided not to step on each other's year end shows. All three tracks came together to fight a common problem of new subdivisions. All three tracks have to work on noise reductions and all three tracks have a curfew that they must meet. One of the tracks had a promoter/owner run for a city council seat, and all three tracks supported this candidate.

Natural Gas
In the late 2000's, new ways of mining for natural gas was discovered that meant that it was possible to get the gas out of the ground without the normal well heads and other infrastructure. All three tracks have large parcels of land that have large deposits of natural gas underneath them. This has ultimately helped stabilize the financials of the race tracks overall.

***I lived in the DFW area for 10 years, and raced at both tracks. I moved away four years ago, but still try to keep up with what is happening at both tracks. If anyone has any more details that I have left out, please help fill them in. This story has been told in numerous racing magazines.
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Last edited by Jonr; 3/18/12 at 4:11 PM.
 
3/18/12, 6:29 PM   #5
Re: Cowtown Speedway?
nowingsjeff
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That's one heck of a story. Crazy what peoples egos get them into.
 
3/18/12, 8:02 PM   #6
Who Knows the Cowtown/Kennendale Story??.....
AustinSprinter
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nowingsjeff View Post
That's one heck of a story. Crazy what peoples egos get them into.
'NWJ'....you thru out a good question!!...thinkin' you got one hellava complete story there as an answer!!........
__________
Brucer'
 
3/20/12, 8:49 PM   #7
Re: Who Knows the Cowtown/Kennendale Story??.....
Jonr
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Pulled this from Elbowsup.com. Elbowsup is DFW's version of IOW. Here is the link

http://www.elbowsup.com/viewtopic.ph...41823&start=20

Wanted to point out the following post on page 3



Re: $5,000 up for grabs at Cowtown's POWRi Midget Stampede!
by ajfullthrottle » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:07 am

this is jeff and i want to thank all the race teams not just the midgets,and most of all the fans for coming out and making this one hell of a show,also special thanks to richard snider and ksp for helping us out,


Jeff is the current promoter at Cowtown. He is the one that stared mid-year last year. Richard Snider is the long running promter at KSP. Looks like the cooperation between the tracks will continue with the new promoters. Also interesting that Jeff thanked Richard even as Richard was running heads up against his Saturday show. Only in Kennedale, Texas.
_________________________________________________
Last edited by Jonr; 3/20/12 at 8:50 PM.
 
3/20/12, 10:06 PM   #8
Texan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonr View Post
Pulled this from Elbowsup.com. Elbowsup is DFW's version of IOW. Here is the link

http://www.elbowsup.com/viewtopic.ph...41823&start=20

Wanted to point out the following post on page 3



Re: $5,000 up for grabs at Cowtown's POWRi Midget Stampede!
by ajfullthrottle » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:07 am

this is jeff and i want to thank all the race teams not just the midgets,and most of all the fans for coming out and making this one hell of a show,also special thanks to richard snider and ksp for helping us out,


Jeff is the current promoter at Cowtown. He is the one that stared mid-year last year. Richard Snider is the long running promter at KSP. Looks like the cooperation between the tracks will continue with the new promoters. Also interesting that Jeff thanked Richard even as Richard was running heads up against his Saturday show. Only in Kennedale, Texas.
What happened was they put too much water on the track Saturday night. It was actually perfect for hot laps when they dumped one more load and the track went to crap. They tried to roll it in and sheep foot it but it wouldn't get it there. Ksp had a tiller that finally was able to break it up and they could then work the moisture out of it. Richard was actually the one pulling it around all the while his own track was running their IMCA show. Great cooperation

The show wound up starting about and hour and a half late. In my opinion that was the only hiccup the whole weekend.

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