Q+A: Bruton Smith

Thursday, March 22, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

Age: 80

Title: Chairman and chief executive of Speedway Motorsports Inc.

Tracks: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway (Sonoma, Calif.), Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway (Concord, N.C.) and Texas Motor Speedway

Motorsports empire: Speedway Motorsports also provides souvenir merchandising through SMI Properties; manufactures and distributes smaller-scale, modified racing cars through 600 Racing; and broadcasts syndicated racing programs through Performance Racing Network.

Other businesses: Smith also is chairman and CEO of Sonic Automotive Inc., which operates 171 automobile dealerships and 37 collision centers throughout the United States. His net worth is estimated at $1.6 billion by Forbes magazine.

Bruton Smith purchased Las Vegas Motor Speedway for $215 million in 1998 and has since spent $100 million more to bring the 1,600-acre facility up to his specifications.

In addition to completing the state-of-the-art drag strip, Smith, through his publicly owned company, Speedway Motorsports Inc., has invested millions of dollars at the 1.5-mile oval, which he calls "America's greatest speedway." The just-completed renovation of the track and fan-friendly "Neon Garage" infield facility is just the latest in what Smith said last year would be $300 million in improvements at the speedway.

Smith, 80, talked about a variety of subjects, including additional changes at the speedway, during the recently concluded NASCAR weekend.

Q: Are you pleased with how the Neon Garage turned out?

I'm real proud of it. It's so different and it brings our sport to another level and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Is Las Vegas Motor Speedway now the crown jewel of motor sports facilities?

I think Las Vegas deserves it. Las Vegas, you do everything here in a great, grandiose manner and I think whatever we do here, we have to follow suit. This speedway now is like no other speedway in the world, and I think Las Vegas deserves that. I'm glad to be a part of it and I'm glad I own this place.

Do you think Las Vegas now is in a position to land a second annual NASCAR Nextel Cup race?

We're working on that. I think if and when we bring the other event here, I think it would be at night - that would be my choice. (But) we're not talking about moving anything that Speedway Motorsports has (to Las Vegas).

Is landing a second Cup date easier said than done?

It's much easier said than done. These race dates today are very, very difficult and NASCAR, I do not believe, is going to expand the schedule - and I hope they don't and I'm not going to ask them to do it for me. I will have other ways where we'll try to bring another one here.

Have you scrubbed your plan to build condos outside the speedway?

Oh, no, no, no, no. If I ever scrub that, you'll know it, but no, absolutely not. We will fight to the very bitter end on that one because it's something we should do and I hope that the people over here we have our application in and I hope they approve our plan. And if they do, then we'll start building and hopefully within one year it will be completed.

You've almost completely rebuilt this speedway since you bought it. What is the next project?

Well, I think if you look out the window here (at the main grandstand), you might see something that a couple years from now you won't see again. We'll be doing a lot of other things here.

When you bought the speedway, did you foresee having to do all this construction or did it come at you a little at a time?

I thought from the get-go (it needed to be redone). You remember where the pit road used to be? I thought it was so ridiculous, I really did. I thought that was a bad, bad situation to have the pit road so far away from the fans. I knew that was one of the things I would want to do and the structures here on the infield, I never liked those because they were done hurriedly and very poorly done, so we took them all down and redid it and did what we've done now.

What's the latest with your effort to get the NASCAR awards banquet to moved to Las Vegas in 2008?

I think it's about 99 and 44/100 percent for bringing it to Vegas. Of course, NASCAR and Nextel, I guess, will make that decision, but I don't know any other place in the world it ought to be than right here. Number one, you have 145,000 hotel rooms here and they're great hotel rooms. You go to New York - which we've been going there for too long already - they don't appreciate us, they don't care if we do leave and I think we ought to leave on that note and come here where we're appreciated.

We have several places here where we can seat 16,000 people so you not only have the media and all the participants, but we could have everybody there, including race fans.

Are you still interested in buying the NHRA?

Absolutely. My desire is still on the table and we're ready when they are and we're waiting every day for the phone to ring and so I've spent a lot of time just sitting by the phone waiting for the phone to ring.