NASCAR in New York City?!! Doesn't sound all that likely, but they have been looking at Staten Island...

My first reaction was one of incredulity...I mean, at the idea of NASCAR coming to New York City.

My second and third reactions were also of incredulity, but then I thought: why don't we check this out?

Never mind that one of the most famous NASCAR drivers, Jeff Gordon, recently put his NY place on sale  ( for $30 million -- it was featured on one real estate site) and says he is always amazed the NO ONE recognizes him in the City.. ( he bought his place in 2007 for his own reasons and made a "dream palace" out of it, according to the real estate site I read).

Also, while he likes New York, his heart really lies elsewhere, such as his mansion down South.

Well, NASCAR may come somewhere closer to NYC than it is now ( after all, they have rodeos in New Jersey)..and then I found this article from a Staten Island paper:

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NASCAR track site on Staten Island has potential suitor

By Stephanie Slepian/Staten Island Advance
on February 11, 2013 at 9:00 AM, updated February 11, 2013 at 10:08 AM

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  The site of the planned NASCAR track in Bloomfield may have a buyer. Advance File Photo  

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - International Speedway Corp. is in "exclusive negotiations" with a potential buyer for the property where it hoped to build an 80,000-seat NASCAR track, according to its most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Those documents don't name a buyer or a commitment of sale.

But a report in the Daytona Beach News-Journal -- ISC is headquarted in the Florida city -- said the interested party is looking to turn the site into a deep water port logistics operation.

"We're cautiously optimistic," Dan Houser, ISC's senior vice president and chief financial officer, told the Beach News-Journal.

Despite the information already publicly available, ISC spokesman Charles N. Talbert declined comment when contacted by the Advance.

"I appreciate your interest in our property," Talbert wrote in an e-mail. "At this time, we do not have anything to add to the disclosure that is included in our public filings."

The company's fourth-quarter earnings report also mentions a desire to sell the 676-acre parcel, which is located next to the Goethals Bridge in Bloomfield.

An overhaul of ISC's flagship Daytona International Speedway hinges, in part, on the preferable "sale of the Company's Staten Island property," the report reads.

This marks the third time ISC has attempted to unload the former oil tank farm it purchased for $100 million in 2004 in what would have been its entrance into the New York City market.

ISC pulled up stakes in 2006 in the face of mounting opposition, much of it centered on concerns about how the borough's already clogged roadways and bridges would handle an influx of cars headed to NASCAR races.

Its partner, Related Companies, also dropped plans to build a high-end retail center on an adjacent 236-acre parcel.

A deal to sell the site to warehouse developer Prologis for $100 million fell through in 2008. Two years later, ISC terminated an agreement with KB Marine Holdings after the Texas-based firm failed three times to complete an $88 million transaction.

Even though ISC and Staten Island did not part on the best of terms, the company made a $5,000 donation in November to a hurricane relief fund created by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
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