Bruton Smith lobbies for NASCAR to move Sprint Cup season finale
HAMPTON, Ga. – Speedway Motorsports Chairman Bruton Smith resurrected his campaign to get Las Vegas Motor Speedway a second race - and he threw in a request for the season finale to go with it.
Smith said Friday that Las Vegas or Atlanta Motor Speedway should get the season finale during a wide-ranging talk with reporters.
Smith said AMS was successful when it had the finale and would be a much better location than Homestead-Miami Speedway, the site of the finale since 2002. The track has a long-term sponsorship deal with Ford to sponsor the season-ending races in all three national series.
He even said HMS operator International Speedway Corp. – a publicly traded company whose majority of voting stock is owned by the France family – could move it to one of its other tracks.
He claimed the crowd for the season finale was 50,000 (NASCAR estimated it at 80,000 last year – the same estimate as Atlanta last October – and ISC lists the Homestead-Miami capacity there at 63,000) and it would be better served at a track with a capacity of 175,000.
“They don’t have the seating, they don’t have this, they don’t have parking,” Smith said. “The event should be held somewhere else. … If NASCAR was in a position to do the right thing for the sport, and I would say that they’re not necessarily in that position – some of the things that they do is self-serving. Why would you have the last race of the year in some Godforsaken area that is north of Cuba?
“Why would you do that? I don’t understand that. Why don’t you pick a place that can accommodate the final race of the year with seats and parking and somewhere that appreciates it.”
He continued his rant against Homestead-Miami Speedway later in the interview session and made it a point to mention that the track was not in Miami.
“What’s down there?” he said. “There’s nothing down there. You’ve got an oversupply of alligators. … You have very few seats. Less parking. You don’t have an infield.”
NASCAR Vice President Jim Hunter issued a statement: "We think Homestead-Miami is an excellent venue for NASCAR's Ford Championship Weekend."
Hunter declined to comment further on the issues. NASCAR typically lets its members speak on the issues without reprimand and Smith is not expected to face any disciplinary action for his comments.
Of course, Smith wouldn’t mind the finale at one of his Speedway Motorsports Inc. tracks (Atlanta, Vegas, Texas, Bristol, Charlotte, Infineon, New Hampshire, Kentucky).
Smith was excited that Las Vegas filled its 131,000 grandstands last week.
“Las Vegas was fantastic,” Smith said. “Las Vegas did something for the sport that the sport needed: No. 1, a huge crowd on Saturday. We swipe the tickets as they come through, and we swiped over 80,000 on Saturday. All speedways can’t say that. All of mine can’t say that. On Sunday, we knocked it out of the park. It was a grand slam.
“Vegas is Vegas. Everybody that I know, they love to go to Vegas. You’re getting a lot. You go to the race but you get a lot of Vegas when you get there. And you don’t have to worry about hotel rooms.”
And since he was in a lobbying mood, Smith also once again suggested NASCAR put its postseason banquet in Las Vegas.
“I know NASCAR is working diligently, and I know you [in the media] are too, to move the awards banquet there this year,” Smith said.
As far as attendance for his next three events, he said he expects Bristol Motor Speedway to be sold out in two weeks and that Texas Motor Speedway’s event in three weeks could be a sellout.
Smith doesn’t anticipate this weekend’s race at Atlanta will be a sellout. He said the history of rain at the track has limited attendance.
Smith also touched on several other topics.
• On the recent economic news concerning General Motors:
“I’m concerned about all corporations that are having such a difficult time. It’s an abomination. It’s something that I wish was not happening. I’m hoping they don’t drop out of anything. This country owes tremendous indebtedness to General Motors. Washington should do whatever is necessary. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler really saved this country during World War II. We should not forget that. They are the ones that shut down all their car and truck [production] and they built for the Army, Navy and the Air Force.”
• On corporations hesitant in buying tickets:
“They’re afraid [President] Obama might shoot them or something.”
• On the 3:40 p.m. green flag of the eventual rain-shortened Daytona 500:
“They should never have started that race at 3:40. They should have started no later than 2. Had they done that, they would have run the race. That’s important. You have to think of the race fans and then think TV second.”
• On the quality of racing this year:
“These geniuses here in the garage have made this car better, but they are still maybe a year away from making it … I think the race fans were turned off by that car of tomorrow. We’ve got to do a lot of educating of fans to make them love that car. I would love to buy 100 of these old cars, cut their tops off, put a tunnel cover [on them] and maybe go racing as convertibles. That would be a great event.”
• On Auto Club Speedway in California, a track owned by ISC:
“Racing has never done [in] Southern California what all of us would like for it to do. So if you believe in history and want to study that and make plans for the future, that’s not the place for stock-car racing. We’d have to go out there and wave a magic wand and you don’t want to overuse your magic wand. … This girl [track President Gillian Zucker] out there, who I love a lot, is doing the best she can with what she’s got.”
Auto Club Speedway spokesman David Talley declined comment on Smith's remarks.
