Nationwide Series going to Road America: UPDATE: Despite the demise of the Milwaukee Mile, NASCAR still plans to come to Wisconsin in 2010. Elkhart Lake's Road America -- arguably the best road course in the country -- will host the Nationwide Series on June 19, the date that had been held for the Mile. That will make for a road-racing doubleheader weekend for NASCAR, with the Sprint Cup Series in Sonoma, Calif. Stock cars aren't entirely new to RA. Tim Flock won in NASCAR's premier division in its only appearance in 1956. Lower divisions have competed at the track, including the defunct NASCAR Midwest Series in 2001, a race won by current Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series driver Paul Menard.(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)(12-21-2009)
>UPDATE: NASCAR announced that it will continue its 17-year streak of racing on a national-series level in Wisconsin with the addition of the historic Road America course to its 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule. The Road America 200 at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn track located in Elkhart Lake, Wis., replaces the event previously scheduled at the Milwaukee Mile and will be run on Saturday, June 19.(NASCAR PR)(12-21-2009)

No NASCAR race at Milwaukee Mile in 2010: The Milwaukee Mile, the oldest continually operating motor speedway in the country, won't be hosting a national race in 2010. That was the word late Wednesday from Wisconsin State Fair Park officials, who said there would be no NASCAR or Indy Racing League racing next year at the famed Mile. "I'm sorry for this," was the message Susan Crane, chairwoman of the State Fair Park Board, said she wanted to tell race fans. "We tried to do everything we could to secure racing. But we're not giving up." The announcement is a blow to motorsports fans in the region and a blow to community pride. Both Crane and Craig Barkelar, the fair's interim executive director, said they hoped to bring national racing back to the Mile in 2011. Crane and Barkelar said that, after Wisconsin Motorsports, the race promoter that staged races last summer, went out of business, they tried to negotiate with four different promoters. State Fair officials said they hoped to generate some revenue next year with car clubs, driving schools and some tire and car testing. There is also the hope of staging some regional races next year. NASCAR had scheduled two races for next June: the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck series. NASCAR now is backing away, though the race body has not yet made that official.(in part from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also a story at BizTimes)(12-16-2009)