Welcome to Sparta, Kentucky. Population: 230. For 362 days of the year, anyway.

Today through Saturday, the town about two hours south of Dayton accelerates from a stop just off Interstate 71 to Kentucky’s third largest city behind only Louisville and Lexington.

NASCAR’s long awaited road show — a three-race event highlighted by the Sprint Cup Series’ much-anticipated debut on Saturday — swells Sparta, the official site of the Kentucky Speedway, to more than 110,000 people.

The Camping World Truck Series kicked off the event Thursday night, the Nationwide Series takes to the 1.5-mile tri-oval tonight and the crown jewel Sprint Cup finally makes its Kentucky Speedway debut Saturday night.

“You can’t go to a manual somewhere, you can’t go to a class and figure out how to put on a party for 180,000 people,” Speedway Motorsports Inc. president Marcus Smith said. “When you put on an event this big it’s bigger than the Super Bowl.”

Talk to the drivers and they seem as excited as the fans about having a Sprint Cup race at Kentucky, a track that held its first race in 2000 but didn’t land its first Cup date until after SMI chairman and CEO Bruton Smith made Kentucky the eighth track in SMI’s family in 2008.

“The area — the desire and hunger for a race — it’s proof if an area wants a race bad enough and they make enough noise, they’re going to get it,” said five-time defending Cup champ Jimmie Johnson. “We’re going to be there and put on a heck of a show.”

Joey Logano earned his first Nationwide win in 2008 at Kentucky, becoming series’ youngest winner at 18 years and 21 days.

Logano, who won the last three Nationwide races at Kentucky and a Legends car race when he was 12, is undefeated at the track. He’d love a fourth Nationwide win tonight, but that Cup win Saturday is what every driver wants.

“It’s the first time. You want to be the guy to win the first race,” Logano said. “I think I have and advantage coming in just because I have laps around here and I know what the place is like. But at the same time it’s a lot different. You can’t compare a Cup car to a Nationwide car at all. A lot of the stuff is not going to transfer over.”

The economy has left open seats at other NASCAR tracks this season. Not so at Kentucky. All 107,000 grandstand seats have sold out. Standing-room only and infield tickets remain.

“The atmosphere is going to be awesome,” said two-time Cup champ and Eldora Speedway owner Tony Stewart. “Anytime you can go to a first event at a new venue, just the excitement and the atmosphere is unbelievable.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2400, ext. 6991, or gbilling@coxohio.com.