Lawsuit heating up: The lawsuit that seeks a second Winston Cup race for Texas Motor Speedway moved a step closer to a possible court date Monday, when the legal team representing Francis Ferko filed a response to NASCAR’s motion to dismiss. Ferko is a shareholder in Speedway Motorsports Inc., the company that built and operates TMS. Ferko, a Plano resident, sued NASCAR on Feb. 13, accusing NASCAR of breaching express and implied contracts with SMI for a second Cup date at TMS. But NASCAR, in its April 10 filing, made four claims: that no agreement for a second date ever existed; that race sanctioning agreements with SMI make void any previous agreements and offer no guarantees for future dates; that SMI, through its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, admits that NASCAR awards races on a year-to-year basis; and that the four-year statute of limitations on Texas common-law claims has expired since the first TMS Cup race in 1997. Ferko’s response, filed in U.S. District Court, attacks those claims and counters NASCAR’s attempts to refute Ferko’s charge that the sanctioning body monopolizes stock-car racing.(more at Fort Worth Star Telegram)(6-11-2002)
