Smith expects better racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend
By SceneDaily Staff
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images for NASCAR
Track officials say the crowd for this year's Sprint All-Star Race was the largest ever for the event.
CONCORD, N.C. - Bruton Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports Inc., admits that the competition in last weekend's Sprint All-Star Race wasn't ideal.
In that event, drivers often took the lead on a pit stop – or when another driver encountered problems - and then pulled away when they were at the front of the field. That's how much of the racing at 1.5-mile tracks such as Lowe's Motor Speedway, which Smith's company owns and which hosted the all-star race, has gone this season.
While Smith was pleased to host what he says was the largest crowd ever for a NASCAR all-star race, he admitted to being troubled with the type of racing being seen with NASCAR's new Sprint Cup car. The model, formerly known as the car of tomorrow, debuted on the intermediate tracks this season. Four of Smith's SMI tracks have already hosted their debuts with the car this season – and all those events raised concerns about the type of races fans watched.
Smith said that NASCAR needs to go back and look at the car.
"I think if they had enough testing and NASCAR would relax … and let them find out what's wrong with the car, I think we would be way, way down the road," said Smith, as he discussed races at his tracks (Atlanta, Texas, Las Vegas and the all-star event).
He went on to compare it to when Coca-Cola switched to an all-new formula and then, amid buyer outcry, reverted to the original formula. He says he relayed that comparison to NASCAR officials and that he "was hoping somebody would pay attention to that, but maybe they didn't."
When he looks at the car, he sees changes that he thought could have been made with the former model.
"I talk to drivers and they'll tell me - I don't know whether they'll tell you guys or not - but they don't like the car," Smith said Tuesday during a ceremony in which Speedway Boulevard in Concord, N.C., the Lowe's track's hometown, was renamed Bruton Smith Boulevard. "You hear safe, safe, safe. Well yeah, it's safe, but there's nothing about this car that you couldn't have done in the other car. You could [have] moved the seat over, you could have rearranged the transmission. There's a lot of things you could have done and have been safe and in a drivable machine."
Smith said that he thinks the racing will get better, particularly in this weekend's Coca-Cola 600 since teams had a chance to test there.
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As for the all-star race, Smith has a solution to the problems it saw as well.
"We've got to maybe revamp that a bit for next year," he said of the race that switched to four 25-lap segments this season, none that involved an inversion of cars at the front. "I think that last event has to be inverted to get some excitement. In that event, if you're not wrecking, you're not racing."
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