Telephone and computer lines weren’t all hooked up, and there were signs to be hung and countless other chores. But the new Kansas Travel Information Center at the Kansas Speedway is open for business.

After this coming weekend’s Winston Cup Protection One 400 race at the speedway, the old travel center a few miles east on Interstate 70 will be closed and converted for use by the Kansas Highway Patrol and Department of Transportation.

“There’s no comparison” between the two facilities, said Jim Thixton, who worked at the old center for nearly seven years and made the transition to the new center. “This is ultramodern and beautiful.”

International Speedway Corp., which owns the Kansas City, Kan., motor sports track, built the 5,000-square-foot structure and leases half of it to the state for $1 a year.

The speedway operates its NASCAR gift shop in the other half of the building, selling speedway and racing memorabilia in addition to a variety of Kansas-made products.

Under terms of the state’s 15-year lease, 10 percent of gift shop sales will go to the state.

A small corner of the gift shop offers a handful of Kansas products. Byron Darlington, travel center coordinator, said more items would be added later.

For now, however, Kansas purists might be disappointed in the inventory: Sunflower Seed Cookies were made by a Parkville, Mo., company; the Kansas refrigerator magnets were made in Oregon.

A collection of ladies’ soap and other toiletries was produced in Tonganoxie, however, said gift shop clerk Veronica Manzano, of Kansas City, Kan.

She said she was looking forward to learning more about her state’s attractions.

“When I think about vacations, I don’t think about Kansas,” she said.

Manzano is not alone. The state typically ranks low on lists of popular tourism destinations. But the speedway has given Kansas national visibility, and state tourism officials report the number of calls seeking information about state attractions balloon in the weeks leading up to a race day.

The speedway will operate the travel center as a state contractor. Two employees from the old center, Thixton and Darlington, will stay on as speedway employees.

The current center in Kansas City, Kan., near 75th Street and I-70, attracts about 75,000 visitors a year.

Darlington said he hopes the new facility will draw twice that number.

State Tourism Director Jeff Mercer agrees.

“We’re right in the middle of a big traffic zone,” he said.

Nestled at the 110th Street exit on I-70 and within sight of Interstate 435, the center will draw motorists from both highways and speedway visitors headed to the gift shop or main ticket windows next door.