SPARTA, KY (FOX19) -
Following a traffic nightmare at the inaugural Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway last year, officials are now turning to social media to hopefully make the process easier for this year's race.
Kentucky State Police, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and Kentucky Speedway will implement a media mix consisting of local outlets, roadside message boards, Facebook and Twitter to provide consistent traffic and parking updates to race fans traveling to this year's events.
Hundreds of thousands of fans are expected to head to the 107,000-capacity facility for its June 28-30 NASCAR tripleheader race weekend which features the June 30 Sprint Cup Series "Quaker State 400," June 29 Nationwide Series "Feed The Children 300" and June 28 Camping World Truck Series "UNOH 225."
Fans can follow @kystatepolice and @KySpeedway on Twitter and join the "Kentucky State Police" and "Kentucky Speedway"Facebook communities. Fans within five to seven miles of the track can tune to 1620 AM along with local outlets.
Updates will include information regarding general traffic flow and any detours created in the event of accidents. Traffic plans will be made available to media in advance of the race weekend to ensure fans have adequate time to plan their visits.
The State of Kentucky, Kentucky Speedway and Speedway Motorsports, Inc., have completed infrastructure improvement projects that widened the Interstate 71 exit ramp to Kentucky Highway 35 to three lanes, expanded Ky. Hwy. 35 to seven lanes, yielded parking for an estimated 20,000 additional cars and constructed a pedestrian tunnel which connects 170 acres of new parking to the original speedway property.
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