SPARTA, KY:  Kentucky Speedway is a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) motor speedway located in north-central Kentucky, near the community of Sparta, Kentucky; approximately halfway between Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, and is additionally 70 miles (113 km) from another fairly sizable market, Lexington, Kentucky. The track was designed to host a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race and has hosted NASCAR Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series races, as well as IRL IndyCar Series and IndyPro Series races. However, NASCAR officials have refused any discussion of a Sprint Cup Series race being moved there.

Through the 2008 NASCAR season, the track had been one of the top tracks for testing Sprint Cup cars because of NASCAR's testing restrictions implemented in 2005. As a result of these testing restrictions, teams could only test at NASCAR-authorized testing sessions at seven specific tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit. As Kentucky is not a Sprint Cup venue, private testing of such cars was permitted with no restrictions, and spectators were allowed to view testing sessions from outside of turn three. However, NASCAR announced in November 2008 that testing would be banned for the 2009 season at tracks that host races in any of NASCAR's national series or regional touring circuits.