05:13 PM PST on Sunday, February 15, 2004

By ARTURO SANTIAGO / KING 5 News

KING Dennis O'Keefe believes the Seattle area could support a NASCAR track.

BOTHELL, Wash. - Sunday was the biggest day of the year for NASCAR fans.

"It's kind of like the Super Bowl for football ... Daytona is for my sport," said Dennis O'Keefe, a prime example of why the word "fan" is derived from the word "fanatic." The inside of his home is a NASCAR/Jeff Gordon shrine.

O'Keefe says the Northwest, Snohomish County to be specific, could really do well to have a racetrack hosting NASCAR events.

"Oh I think it'd be great. We have so many fans up here it's unreal … we just need a chance to do it, you know, I mean we could drag Oregon, Montana, Canada, I mean, boy, we could really pack it in," he said.

The Seattle Times reported Sunday that State Sen. Tim Sheldon, Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon, and possibly Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen, were in Daytona to watch NASCAR's most prestigious race.

Their main goal was to convince track developer International Speedway Corp., the company that built Daytona International Speedway, to build a $250 million track in Snohomish County.

The track would create about 2,200 jobs and generate nearly $90 million in revenue and about $58 million in state and local taxes.

Track development executives call the Pacific Northwest an under-served market as far as motor sports go.

Just about any NASCAR fan from the Northwest will tell you the same thing.

"The closest track is like California, it costs a lot of money to get the airfare the hotel, the tickets, the memorabilia, and all that stuff, I mean it'd be nice to have one up here," said O'Keefe.

There is a positive sign that a racetrack may be built in Washington state. According to the Seattle Times, track developer, International Speedway Corp., will take part in a state senate hearing to explain how a track would operate in Washington.