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New Ideas: Smith has never been short in that area
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Published: October 26, 2008
HAMPTON, Ga. - Bruton Smith is deeply involved in Wall Street, automobile dealerships and NASCAR racing with its sluggish TV ratings and less-than-sellout crowds, and as the economy creaks and groans along, he seems strangely untroubled by it all.
But then Smith, one of the Forbes 400 and a NASCAR kingpin for years, has always exuded confidence, no matter the situation or provocation. He also has shown an uncanny knack for pulling off big surprises, including:
□ Luxury condos at racestracks. Some said it would never work, but it turned out to be a knockout idea.
□ A spiffy new speedway in Dallas-Fort Worth. Texas Motor Speedway draws some of the biggest crowds in the world of racing. And why did Bill France Jr. put up such a fuss about giving Smith a second Cup race at Texas?
□ Buying tracks. He bought Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Infineon Raceway, formerly Sonoma, just as the France family thought it had them for its portfolio. Then there was Bristol, the deal of the century and a purchase that made Smith the proud owner of the toughest ticket in NASCAR.
Smith also bought Bob Bahre's Loudon track and Kentucky Speedway. For two men who seemed arch-enemies after their 50-50 buyout of North Wilkesboro Speedway, Smith getting Bahre's New Hampshire track last year was quite the surprise, despite the $360 million price tag. Kentucky was a bargain, but it came with unsettled political baggage -- owner Jerry Carroll's monopoly suit against NASCAR is one reason it still lacks a Sprint Cup date, but Smith is supremely confident that it will have one by 2010 -- there's speculation that the fall race at Lowe's Motor Speedway is in jeopardy of being moved.
□ Building the world's classiest drag strip -- zMax Dragway @ Concord. It's just across U.S. 29 from Smith Tower headquarters at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and it's Smith's latest expansion move into NHRA.
□ Talk of selling Lowe's Motor Speedway and building a new track south of Charlotte. If Cabarrus County officials hadn't shown a little love, Smith might have done that. He knows how to play poker.
□ Can't sell Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles? Let Smith try. He did, and now the traditional late October race in Atlanta will be history next year, and NASCAR teams instead will be in Southern California for a Chase race.
Atlanta's 500 will be on Labor Day Saturday night, under the lights. Will the swap sell? Oh, Smith is confident that his version of the "new" Southern 500 will play well.
Quick on his feet
As fast as Bruton Smith wheels and deals, you'd hardly guess he has been doing this for ages or that he's 80 -- he looks at least 20 years younger. He keeps the Frances on their toes, and every time he shows up to meet the press -- as he did on a lazy Friday afternoon while rain poured down -- there is always the implication that he's just dying to have you ask the right question.
So what is the right question this weekend?
"Labor Day has always been a great weekend for stock-car racing," Smith said. "When they built Darlington, that's the weekend they wanted. So I think it's going to be extremely great for us."
But it does take a "good" racing track out of the Chase and substitutes a track (Fontana) where the action is not all that thrilling.
"There are some changes that could be made in the Chase," Smith said. "But that's up to NASCAR. If they make the changes to make it better -- we always need to be thinking about the race fans, and if we make things better for them, we're all better off."
What kind of changes would Smith like to see?
"Well, I know you're thinking we should bring the Daytona 500 up to Kentucky Speedway, but I don't think we can get that done," he said. "So we'll have to work for something else.
"Oh, and stop messing with our All-Star event, by suggesting moving it to Texas. Let's try something else. But now I haven't said we're going to take a date from anywhere and move it to Kentucky. Yet."
So how about buying another track and moving that date to Kentucky?
"Now you're brilliant, I love that idea. That's an idea whose time has come," Smith says with another laugh. "Let's get Brian (France) over here and start talking….
"Absolutely we will have a Cup date at Kentucky in 2010. And where do you think that second Cup date at Kansas City is going to come from? Now if they just create that date, I know I'm going to have a second Cup date in Las Vegas."
So could Smith and the Frances get together, buy a track and each take a date, one for Kansas City, one for Las Vegas? "I think that's probably right…." Smith says, cryptically.
Free association
On a more serious note, the U.S. economy is black and blue.
"It's a terrible economy," Smith said, "and it's something that all of us are going to have to deal with and rock-and-roll with it. I remember when the Arabs turned the oil off; that was bad, bad, bad. It looked like the end of the world, but it wasn't.
"I think we're about at the bottom of the market. There are a lot of signs we are. I'm looking for the Fed to cut the prime rate Oct. 29 by another 50 basis points, and by next March certainly we'll be down to zero percent on the prime. That will cause business to do better … it will help us all get back in business."
And what about Smith's car businesses?
"Fortunately for me, I have very few domestics … and domestics are what's hurting," he said. "But General Motors and Ford both have products coming that will lead people to come back in and buy.
"No, no, we're not going to see any wind-powered cars … but the biggest breakthrough we'll see in this is when someone comes up with a much, much better battery. If we could come up with batteries three-times better than now, that would be a boom for the car business…."
That possible GM-Chrysler merger?
"I think that's going to happen," Smith said. "The implications are unknown. The survivor will be General Motors. There will always be a General Motors."
What about the price of gas, the price of oil?
"I've bought crude oil, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dabai, Venezuela…. But I don't want to talk about those oil wells I own, because they're in Russia. I don't think we should be too alarmed about OPEC cutting production."
NASCAR costs
In racing, Smith says, it's up to NASCAR to cut the cost.
"It starts with NASCAR," he said. "I'm sure they're having meetings to cut expenses. We're having meetings all the time about that. Businesses are like that ‘whack-a-mole' game, you have to keep hammering away."
Smith says he's confident that NASCAR can work itself out of the current economic jam.
"Oh, sure. Racing is not a complicated business. I'm in a lot of complicated businesses, but racing isn't one of them," Smith said. "Racing is an easy business to run, compared to a lot of businesses. If we just take care of our fans, everything will be fine."
That means cheaper hotel rooms for race weekends. Ticket prices, all in all, aren't the fan-killer. It's hotel rates, with $89 a night rooms going at $200-plus on race weekends.
"So let's start whacking on the chambers of commerce," Smith said. "Let's look at Daytona -- make those people understand that we shouldn't have to buy hotels rooms for six or seven-day minimums."
But NASCAR, Smith said, should also relax a bit and let teams just work.
"The money some of these guys are spending on racing is so much it's pathetic. We could have taken that old car we were racing and just made it safer. We didn't need to do what's been done (and force a radical car on teams).
"We've all got to look at cutting expenses. This is stock-car racing, not Formula One. You're seeing a team now looking to run on a $12 million sponsorship … and not so long ago that would have been unheard of."
Drama lacking
What about the other side of the equation, raising more revenue, finding more TV viewers, generating more interest?
Jimmie Johnson running away at Martinsville isn't a headline grabber, and Johnson might be too nice of a guy. This Chase isn't like Cale Yarborough vs. Darrell Waltrip vs. Bobby Allison. Johnson is going for his third straight title, which hasn't been done in 30 years, and TV ratings don't reflect any drama.
"Now Jimmie is my neighbor, and he's a super guy … but if he'd get out of a racecar and run over and hit somebody in the mouth, that would greatly contribute to what we're doing," Smith said. "The drama surrounding him would increase tremendously. But that's not Jimmie's style.
"Still, you've got to have drama. I've been telling NASCAR for a long time that 2009 would be a tough year, a tough year, and I don't think they listened. But I think you'll see NASCAR doing some things to change direction….
"So many people want to come into this sport (as sponsors) that we will not be losing teams. They'll just have to run teams on smaller budgets.
"Look, we've got over 300 million people in this country … and we're only looking for a small percentage of them. Give them what they want -- a better hot dog, better parking -- and we'll be fine."
That's the word from NASCAR's Warren Buffet. Maybe it's time for a movie about this guy.
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.
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