Ollen Bruton Smith (born March 2, 1927) is the promoter and owner/CEO of track owners NASCAR Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Inaugurated as NASCAR Hall of Fame January 23, 2016. He was ranked # 207 on the Forbes 400 list with an estimated $ 1.5 billion in 2005, and fell to # 278 (estimated at about $ 1.4 billion) in 2006. He divorced with four children. He was inducted at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2012, Smith was classified by CNN Money as the oldest CEO of the Fortune 500.
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Smith was born in Oakboro, North Carolina and witnessed his first race as an eight year old boy. He bought his first racing car at 17. He began promoting an 18-year-old car show in Midland, North Carolina. He claims that he defeated NASCAR legends Buck Baker and Joe Weatherly. He stopped the race because his mother wanted him to stop.
Maps Bruton Smith
Business Engagement
NSCRA
In 1949, Smith took over the National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA), one of several nascent car-stock sanctions bodies and a recently-established NASCAR direct competitor, and announced that the series, which approved the race across Tennessee , Georgia, and North Carolina, will establish a division of "Strictly Stock" that year; some believe this led Bill France, Sr., the founder of NASCAR, to speed up his plans for Strictly Stock's own division, which would later become the Winston Cup Series and now known as the NASCAR Cup Series Energy Monster; it also touched the rivalry between Smith and the French family. France and Smith discussed combating their sanctions in 1950, and came to a tentative agreement on this issue, but Smith was recruited into the US Army to fight in the Korean War in January 1951, into paratroopers; two years later, when Smith returned to civilian life, he found that mismanagement in his absence had caused the NSCRA to disband.
Speedway Motorsports
Smith built Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1959 for $ 1.5 million, with the financing of his wealthy brother-in-law. Racer Curtis Turner helped promote the song. Smith went bust two years later. The pass was handed over by Judge JB Craven to local furniture store owner Richard Howard, who manages the line and manages to get out of debt (mortgage burned for public in 1967) while Smith moved to Illinois, eventually buying other shares. on track to regain control in the early 1970s.
He then founded Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI), which has eight NASCAR tracks that host twelve NASCAR Sprint Cup events. Speedway Motorsports has the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Bristol Motor Speedway, the Sonoma Raceway, the Kentucky Speedway, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and the Texas Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race is also held annually at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He rocked the world of motorsports in 1995 when he took a public company and traded it on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). SMI is the first motorcycle company to trade on the NYSE.
Smith announced that he would return the NASCAR Labor Day weekend race from Auto Club Speedway in California (where he has run since 2004) to the southern end of 2009. His line in Atlanta hosted a summer weekend weekend getaway from 2009 until his last trip on 31 August 2014. Beginning in 2015 races back to his long-time Labor Day home in Darlington, SC, a path not owned by Smith's Speedway Motorsports, Inc. SMI's Atlanta Motor Speedway will host the only 2015 race on 1 March.
The controversy of Charlotte Motor Speedway
The 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 highway in the city of Concord, North Carolina oppose this move, stating that it will cause excessive traffic and noise. The city of Concord then changed the zoning around the track, which essentially prevented it from being able to build a tug lane. On October 2, 2007, Smith demanded that Speedway and the surrounding land be not recorded from the city of Concord or he would close the freeway, take hundreds of millions of dollars from Concord and the business around it, and move it to a different place. a plot of land within the metropolitan area of ​​Charlotte, North Carolina. He said that he would be able to complete such a project with $ 350 million and 11 months.
On November 26, 2007, Smith announced his intention to defend the Charlotte Motor Speedway at its current location in Concord. The decision is a real response to the incentive package offered by cities, districts and countries, worth about $ 80 million. As part of the incentive, Speedway Boulevard was renamed Bruton Smith Boulevard, and will be re-aligned or widened. The package includes three other major road projects near the highway. Funding sources for projects are under discussion, but may include increased sales taxes for local residents.
Smith founded Sonic Automotive, a group of 100 car dealers across the United States.
Philanthropy
Smith supports matters relating to children with his charity, Speedway Children's Charities. Also, he pledged $ 50 million for the Lynx Rapid Transit Services rail line that will connect Charlotte Motor Speedway to Uptown Charlotte, while also passing near the original Charlotte Speedway (the first NASCAR racecourse). LYNX line is part of Charlotte's successful bid to secure the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Eventually, the city of Charlotte decided to end the line at UNC Charlotte, a few miles off the highway.
Awards
- Smith was inducted at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007.
- He was inducted in the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame in 2006.
- He was inducted by the National Motorsports Press Association to Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame in 2006.
- Smith was inducted into NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2016.
References
- Quote
- References
External links
- Official website of Speedway Motorsports
- Company Profile Speedway Motorsports at Yahoo
- Children's Speedway Charity
- May 30, 2006 interview at NASCAR.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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