Quicksilver Resources started drilling a natural gas well Tuesday in an unlikely place — the Texas Motor Speedway.
Under a 2008 agreement, the Fort Worth Sports Authority and the Texas Motor Speedway collaborated on the drilling.
They’ll share royalties from production on the property, with most of the money already allocated to improvements at the facility.
Quicksilver plans five wells at the current drill site on the edge of the racetrack’s huge parking lot, plus two additional drill sites on the west side.
It will also drill under the speedway from the east side of Interstate 35, something it did when it drilled at Alliance Airport, said Steve Lindsey, Quicksilver’s head of government and community affairs.
Drilling on the racetrack property will cease and the drilling rig relocated for race weekends starting in late October, the company said.
The Texas Motor Speedway is one of the tracks that hosts the popular NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race annually.
