Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Bruton Smith’s circus act

The P.T. Barnum of stock-car racing was at it again this week. Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. was up to his usual antics, speaking about his pet projects in his customary provocative and colorful language. He even threw in a dig at our new president and suggested that the final race of the season is held at a track (Homestead Fla.) that is unfit to hold the event because it’s geographically too close to Cuba.

Smith understands that by sprinkling his message with his politically incorrect comments, he works the media into a frenzy, which creates buzz and brings more attention to the message he wants to disseminate. But only the most overly sensitive, politically correct person would take his nonsense seriously enough to be offended. I often wonder what contributes more to global warming: the hot exhaust from Sprint Cup cars or the hot air coming from Bruton Smith’s mouth?

His style may not be commonplace among many corporate chiefs, but it has seemed to work for Smith.

Nevertheless, Smith did make one comment that I took seriously. He thinks there should be a Sprint Cup race at the Kentucky Speedway in 2010.

The founders of the Kentucky Speedway are currently pursuing an antitrust suit against NASCAR to force NASCAR’s hand on how it assigns locations for races. Bruton Smith bought the track last year and NASCAR says it won’t consider a date for Kentucky until the suit is resolved.

Lawsuit or not, I don’t think Kentucky should get a Sprint Cup race. Aren’t there enough races in the southeastern part of the United States? NASCAR’s goal has been to move the sport beyond the reputation it has had for being a regional sport and expose to people from others parts of the country what NASCAR racing has to offer.

Reader poll

Should the Kentucky Speedway get a Sprint Cup race?

View results

I know the purists who watch the sport don’t like NASCAR’s expansion plans and they can point to the empty seats at Auto Club Speedway as an example of why the westward movement hasn’t always worked.

Nevertheless, the sport does need to continue to move beyond its roots. Instead of taking a race from Atlanta or another Southern location and moving it to Kentucky, I would rather see a race moved to Las Vegas or to a new track in the Western part of the country. It would be great to see Sprint Cup racing in Denver, Salt Lake or Seattle before seeing a race assigned to a region that’s already heavily populated with NASCAR events.

And, frankly, the antitrust suit perplexes me. Why would anyone assume that if they build a track they are automatically entitled to a Sprint Cup date? If I built a showroom and service bays without having a franchise from General Motors to sell its vehicles, would I be justified in suing GM for not automatically providing me with cars to sell?

Last week’s Bloggity poll asked if the penalty for Jimmy Watts, the gasman who retrieved a runaway tire during the Atlanta race, was too harsh. 73 percent said yes, 25 percent said no and 1 percent said they didn’t know.

This week's StockcarToon

Purchase your copy of "Nuts for Racing"

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy