Around Iredell Sports

2007 Oct-18

Bruton Smith’s ideas worth listening to

By Mike Mulhern
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Raze venerable Lowe’s Motor Speedway?

Take down the banking, plow up the asphalt?

Ridiculous, you say?

Crazy?

Maybe. But then maybe not.

After the initial shock of Bruton Smith’s seemingly outlandish idea wears off, and he concedes some might question all this, there could be some very interesting issues at play here.

And certainly it’s good fodder for selling newspapers and getting TV ratings.

But Smith, as he sits at the desk of his flagship Ford dealership downtown, lays out a picture that actually makes some sense. Smith is the biggest shareholder in Speedway Motorsports, the company that owns the Concord track and tracks in San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, Bristol and Las Vegas.

“Did you see that huge basket of fruit they just delivered?” Smith says with a grin, pointing at a 60-pound gift basket wrapped in bows. “That just came from our friends in Cabarrus County. That’s a lot of fruit.”

Anyone who knows Smith knows he loves a good game, he loves a good challenge, he loves controversy and headlines, and he loves good competition.

And he’s got this town wrapped around his fingers right now, with his threats to shut down the Cabarrus Country track that has been doing NASCAR business since Smith opened it in 1960.
Well, perhaps it is time to build a NASCAR track to a new design around here somewhere, maybe a three-quarter-mile track, Richmond-size, but with high-banking like Bristol. Maybe the craze of 1-1/2-mile speedways has run its course.

Now that’s an idea worth chewing on.

Yes, such a new track might easily cost as much as $350 million.

But Smith says that over the past few days, as his men have run all the numbers for him, he’s been surprised to learn the true value of his current track, which he says may be worth “ten times more” than what it might appear.
Some of Smith’s closest associates, asking not to be named, add more angles to fill in the scene.

Now Smith may well do nothing with the track, which he himself first raised in 1960 as Charlotte Motor Speedway, back when U.S. 29, the highway right in front of the facility, ran through rural countryside on the other side of the Mecklenburg County line.

But when Smith gets an idea, he tends to run with it.

“I don’t think Bruton is 90 percent certain about moving that track,” one top associate said, referring to one of Smith’s headline-grabbing moves the past week. “And he might not do anything.

“But then I wouldn’t be surprised if he did move it. I don’t think Bruton is posturing on this. He might not do it ... but then again he just might.”

As Jeff Byrd points out: “Two things Bruton loves to do are buy and build.”

Byrd runs Bristol Motor Speedway for Smith.

Smith is a media darling, for his big talk and big moves.

Smith gets things done. And he likes to generate headlines in the process.

So this particular afternoon he is running through all the reasons he shouldn’t be considered mad for his latest ideas.

This story first came about a few weeks ago when local Cabarrus County politicians decided to rezone some of Smith’s race track land to prevent him from building a state-of-the-art drag strip for what would be a major NHRA race next spring. The NHRA, which long resisted playing in NASCAR markets, has discovered that there are financial synergies in moving into NASCAR turf.

Smith has spent nearly 50 years babysitting this track on the north side of Charlotte, around the corner from Harrisburg, and just down the road from Concord - which he persuaded several years ago to annex the track site. So he felt more than a bit miffed that his bid to expand was so abruptly vetoed.

So Smith, almost on the spur of the moment, announced he was willing to shut down the track, build a new speedway, and move all the action there.

For a few days, it appeared classic Smith, shooting from the hip and loving the headlines.

But something has taken root now, and Smith says he’s serious enough about this new project that he’s sent out engineers to survey potential sites.

“Bruton was getting bored with things, and when this cropped up, it got him going again, got him excited,” one close friend said.

Smith, over the past 10 years, has become famous for not only expanding his racing empire, with new speedways in places such as Dallas, but in major capital improvements projects at all his tracks. Las Vegas Motor Speedway was razed and rebuilt. His Sonoma track has been completely revamped. Bristol has become a creature unto itself.

And Lowe’s Motor Speedway may be a bit rundown, compared to other tracks, and it is now facing the need for $150 million in capital improvements. With that much money on the line, Smith might like some options to consider.

Smith insists he’s not bluffing. “Oh, no, no, no,” Smith said. “Everybody around me believes we are stone-in-motion to move the track. I’m 90 percent we will move.

“It would cost at least $350 million. But we could do it and make our stockholders money. I know we can make them money.”

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