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Kentucky apology too little, too late

Commentary: Kentucky Speedway traffic jam was no fun

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By Jenna Fryer, Associated Press 10:52 PM Monday, July 11, 2011

Sometimes saying sorry is all it takes to make people feel a little better.

That might have been the case with Kentucky Speedway, if the apology had been immediate and sincere.

But to the thousands of fans who spent hours snarled in traffic, congestion so bad that many never made it to their seats for Saturday night’s inaugural Sprint Cup race, the two words they long for — “We’re sorry” — would probably fall on deaf ears.

Track general manager Mark Simendinger probably thought he had the apology covered in a Sunday night statement, his second since the massive traffic jam spoiled what was supposed to be a spectacular debut for Kentucky Speedway.

It wasn’t, though, and frustrated fans took to social media to blast the track and parent company Speedway Motorsports Inc. for ducking the two words everyone wanted to hear.

“When I realized they hadn’t said it, I wondered, ‘Why haven’t they apologized?’ ” fan Jen Morrison said Monday. “I bet a lot of people are wondering that. It seems like such a simple thing to say, and it could really go a long way. But they didn’t say it, probably because they don’t want to say it’s their fault.”

By Monday afternoon, the track had indeed quietly apologized by updating Simendinger’s statement on its website. The word “regrets” had been replaced by “apologizes.”

Finally, an official apology came along with a ticket exchange offer good for any SMI track this season, and the race at Kentucky next year.

Morrison, who has attended  races at Bristol, Indianapolis and Talladega, is no stranger to bad race traffic. But she said she wouldn’t be going back to Kentucky, regardless of what the track does to potentially make it right.

The olive branch from SMI came Monday from president and CEO Marcus Smith, who said fans with unused tickets can exchange them.

“The traffic was anticipated. We knew it was going to be bad and we have been saying for a couple of years that we need more roads. And we did make plans, the plans just clearly didn’t work,” Smith said.

There were other issues that needed to be acknowledged. Fans who did make it inside the gates complained about concession stands running out of food and water, and others said there were long lines for the bathrooms, which some deemed dirty and short on toilet paper.

Smith said the traffic issue created a “domino effect” and many track workers assigned to areas such as concessions were stuck in the congestion.

Still, there’s no denying that traffic was always going to be a problem. A July 1 press release from The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet touted the traffic patterns set for Saturday night even noted near the bottom “Kentucky Speedway is able to accommodate approximately 33,000 vehicles in its 10 parking lots.”

Track owner Bruton Smith’s addition of 40,000 seats had made it a 107,000-seat speedway, and all the seats sold a week before the race.

Clearly there was going to be a shortage, and everyone seemed to know it ahead of time. Even Smith, who spent millions on improving infrastructure since buying the speedway in 2008, acknowledged it Friday when he joked track officials “expect to have everyone home by Tuesday.”

His crack drew a laugh, but it’s not funny now for race fans who were inconvenienced by the traffic woes or never even made it into the track.

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