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Bruton Smith

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Bruton Smith
Born
Ollen Bruton Smith

(1927-03-02) March 2, 1927 (age 97)
Oakboro, North Carolina, US
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Racing promoter, race track owner
Years active1949–present
OrganizationSpeedway Motorsports, Inc.
Parent(s)James Smith, Mollie Smith

Ollen Bruton Smith (born March 2, 1927) is a promoter and owner/CEO of NASCAR track owner Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Inducted into NASCAR Hall of Fame January 23, 2016.[2] He was ranked #207 on the Forbes 400 list with an estimated worth of $1.5 billion in 2005,[3] and fell to #278 (worth an estimated $1.4 billion) in 2006.[4] He is divorced with four children. He was inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2012, Smith was classified by CNN Money as the oldest CEO of the Fortune 500.[5]

Background

Smith was born in Oakboro, North Carolina[6] and watched his first race as an eight-year-old.[3][7] He bought his first race car at 17.[7][8] He began promoting stock car events as an 18-year-old at Midland, North Carolina.[7][8] He claims that he beat NASCAR legends Buck Baker and Joe Weatherly.[7][8] He quit racing because his mother wanted him to quit.[7][8]

Business Involvement

NSCRA

In 1949, Smith took over the National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA), one of several fledgling stock-car sanctioning bodies and a direct competitor to the recently founded NASCAR, and announced that the series, which sanctioned races across Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina, would establish a "Strictly Stock" division that year; some believe this caused Bill France, Sr., NASCAR's founder, to accelerate his plans for his own Strictly Stock division, which would later become Winston Cup Series and is now known as the NASCAR Cup Series; it also touched off a rivalry between Smith and the France family.[9]

In 1950, Smith took over a lease of Charlotte Speedway from Buck Baker, Roby Combs and Ike Kaiser to promote races there.[10] The same year, France and Smith discussed merging their sanctioning bodies, and came to a tentative agreement on the issue;[11] however, Smith was drafted into the United States Army to fight in the Korean War in January 1951, becoming a paratrooper.[6] When Smith returned to civilian life two years later, he found that mismanagement in his absence had caused NSCRA to dissolve.[6][11]

Speedway Motorsports

Smith built Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1959 for $1.5 million,[8] with financing from his wealthy brother-in-law.[7] Racer Curtis Turner helped with promoting the track.[7] Smith went bankrupt two years later.[3] The track was turned over by Judge J.B. Craven to local furniture store owner Richard Howard, who ran the track and worked it out of its debts (the mortgage was burned publicly in 1967) while Smith moved to Illinois, eventually buying out other shares of stock in the track to regain control in the early 1970s.[12]

He later founded Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI), which owns eight NASCAR tracks that host twelve NASCAR Sprint Cup events.[3] Speedway Motorsports owns Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway, Kentucky Speedway,[13] Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway,[14] and Texas Motor Speedway.[15] The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race is also held annually at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He shook up the motorsports world in 1995 when he took the company public and traded it at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).[15] SMI was the first motorsports company traded at the NYSE.[16]

Smith announced that he would return the Labor Day weekend NASCAR race from Auto Club Speedway in California (where it had been run since 2004) to the south beginning in 2009. His Atlanta track hosted the late summer holiday weekend event from 2009 until its final running on August 31, 2014. Beginning in 2015 the race returns to its longtime Labor Day home in Darlington, S.C., a track not owned by Smith's Speedway Motorsports, Inc. SMI's Atlanta Motor Speedway will host its only race of 2015 on March 1.[17]

Charlotte Motor Speedway controversy

Controversy broke out in September/October 2007 when Smith revealed plans to build a drag racing strip on land close to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Many residents living near the speedway in the city of Concord, North Carolina opposed this move, stating that it would cause excessive noise and traffic. The city of Concord then changed the zoning around the track, essentially preventing him from being able to build the drag strip. On October 2, 2007, Smith demanded that the Speedway and his surrounding land be unannexed from the city of Concord or he would shut down the speedway, taking hundreds of millions of dollars away from Concord and businesses surrounding it, and move it to a different plot of land within the metropolitan area of Charlotte, North Carolina. He said that he would be able to finish such a project with $350 million and 11 months.[18]

On November 26, 2007, Smith announced his intent to retain Charlotte Motor Speedway in its current location in Concord. His decision was an apparent response to an incentive package offered by the city, county, and state, worth approximately $80 million. As part of the incentives, Speedway Boulevard was renamed to Bruton Smith Boulevard, and will be re-aligned or widened. The package includes three other major road projects near the speedway. Sources of funding for the projects are still under discussion, but could include a sales tax increase for local residents.[19]

Smith founded Sonic Automotive, a group of 100 car dealerships across the United States.[8]

Philanthropy

Smith supports child-related causes with his charity Speedway Children's Charities.[3] Also, he pledged $50 million toward a Lynx Rapid Transit Services light rail line that would have connected Charlotte Motor Speedway to Uptown Charlotte, while also passing near the original Charlotte Speedway (the site of NASCAR's first race).[3] The LYNX line was part of Charlotte's successful bid to secure the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Ultimately, the city of Charlotte decided to end the line at UNC Charlotte, a few miles short of the speedway.[20]

Awards

References

Citations
  1. ^ https://www.forbes.com/profile/o-bruton-smith/
  2. ^ a b Spencer, Reid (January 23, 2016). "NASCAR Hall of Fame inducts Class of 2016". NASCAR Wire Service. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "#207 Ollen Bruton Smith". Forbes. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  4. ^ "#278 Ollen Bruton Smith". Forbes. September 21, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  5. ^ Our annual ranking of America's largest corporations, CNN Money, may 21 2012
  6. ^ a b c Zeller, Bob (July 2003). "Bruton and the Two Bills: A 50-Year Rivalry". Car & Driver. Retrieved 2012-04-26.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Bruton Smith on Racing's Past, Present & Future Archived 2008-02-06 at the Wayback Machine (interview with Bruton Smith); May 6, 2005; Retrieved October 5, 2007
  8. ^ a b c d e f Jeff Wolf (June 5, 2005). "Bruton Smith makes motorsports his playground". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  9. ^ Thompson 2006, pp. 282-283
  10. ^ Jones, Anne B.; White, Rex (2015-03-18). All Around the Track: Oral Histories of Drivers, Mechanics, Officials, Owners, Journalists and Others in Motorsports Past and Present. McFarland. p. 44. ISBN 9780786482436.
  11. ^ a b Thompson 2006, p. 335
  12. ^ See Benyo, Richard, SUPERSPEEDWAY: The Story Of NASCAR Grand National Racing, 1977
  13. ^ SMI Purchasing of Kentucky Speedway
  14. ^ Speedway Motorsports Purchases New Hampshire International Speedway
  15. ^ a b Jim Dunn (April 26, 2007). "Bruton Smith pioneered the art of race promotion". The Birmingham News. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  16. ^ a b "Bruton Smith". International Motorsports Hall of Fame. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-10. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  17. ^ "Darlington Raceway gets Labor Day back in 2015". FoxSports.com. Associated Press. August 26, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  18. ^ "Charlotte". October 2, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2007. [dead link]
  19. ^ The Charlotte Observer, 11/27/2007, page 1
  20. ^ Fryer, Jenna; Motor, AP (May 24, 2005). "Smith proposes monorail in N.C. Hall of Fame push". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  21. ^ "Bruton Smith worthy of Hall honors". Charlotte Observer. January 21, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-03. [dead link]
Bibliography
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