A recent acquisition by Texas Motor Speedway’s parent company could have a major impact on future scheduling at the Ft. Worth racetrack.

Speedway Motorsports Inc. CEO Bruton Smith announced his company will purchase the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire for $340 million.

With the purchase comes control of the half-mile track’s two annual NASCAR Nextel Cup races, and that’s where Texas comes into play.

TMS president and general manager Eddie Gossage has repeatedly said ticket sales at the track for Sunday’s Dickies 500 are hurt because the weekend coincides with the opening of hunting season in Texas.

The New Hampshire track, which will be renamed New Hampshire Motor Speedway when the deal is complete at the beginning of 2008, currently has the first race of NASCAR’s Chase, stock car racing’s version of the playoffs.

Smith was mum about future plans for the track, but rearranging the schedule by swapping the Texas and New Hampshire dates, or giving New Hampshire’s second date to Smith’s track in Las Vegas and then switching the races would be the easiest way to give Texas a more favorable date and get a second date to the Las Vegas track, which is in a much larger market than Loudon.

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