Busch Getting Special Paint Scheme

March 6,2003

The Sharpie pen company yesterday announced that Roush Racing's No. 97 Ford, which is driven by Kurt Busch in the Winston Cup Series, will feature a Sharpie Metallic Silver marker paint scheme in the March 23 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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NASCAR rival fighting for bigger piece of the pie
NDN Staff Report,March 6,2003

The two aren't friends, although enemies might be too strong a word.

One thing is clear: The two most powerful men in stock car racing certainly can't get along.

"Adversarial," Smith says slowly and carefully when asked what kind of relationship he has with France.

"It's a sad state of affairs because I am the No. 1 customer of NASCAR and I've done an awful lot to build this sport. I deserve better."

The 75-year-old Smith then shrugs his shoulders, as if that's all there is to it and he's resigned to the fact that his relationship with France — and thus NASCAR — has deteriorated into a clash of egos communicating solely through shots made through the media.

Smith spokesman says he's still a billionaire Bruton Smith is a billionaire after all. Last week, Forbes magazine released its annual list of the world's billionaires. Smith, a previous member, was missing from the group. But one of his spokesmen said Wednesday that Smith's personal net worth still puts him into the billionaire category. "No representative from Forbes has ever contacted Mr. Smith regarding his assets," said Jerry Gappens, a spokesman for Speedway Motorsports. "What they are not taking into account is his private holdings." Last year, Smith's public holdings were worth $1.0 billion according to the Forbes list. Because Smith dropped off, the magazine did not publish the value of his public holdings this year. Smith is CEO of two locally based companies: Sonic Automotive Inc., a chain of car dealerships with $7.07 billion in revenues last year, and Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns six race tracks including Lowe's Motor Speedway and had revenues last year of $376 million. Last year, he was one of five Carolinas billionaires to make the Forbes list; last week, the number dropped to four: North Carolinians C.D. Spangler, James Goodnight and John Sall, and South Carolinian Roger Milliken. Smith's private wealth includes the private holding company Sonic Financial, which has investments including real estate, an insurance company and aviation assets, Gappens said. Forbes calculated its list using only publicly traded holdings. Through Gappens, Smith declined to give the value of the private holding company. "I can confirm ... Mr. Smith's net worth passes through the billionaire threshold," Gappens said. Membership in the Forbes club fell by 21 this year to 476, the third year of declines since the economy weakened and stock markets started falling.

"Bruton, when he opens his mouth, sometimes sounds constipated," the 69-year-old France joked at Daytona last month, his last public comments about his longtime nemesis.

France, through NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter, declined to comment for this article, citing his desire to focus on competition issues.

But there's a nasty little battle going on between the two, and a final resolution might only come in a courtroom.

In one corner is Smith, the flamboyant chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc.

One of eight children who grew up on a farm in Stanley County, North Carolina, Smith promoted his first race when he was 18. Now working out of his office at Town and Country Ford in Charlotte, Smith has 192 car dealerships across the country and six NASCAR-sanctioned race tracks.

Just as he wants more car dealerships, he wants more NASCAR races.

He particularly wants them in Texas and Las Vegas, but his main fight right now is for a second date in Texas.

In the other corner is France, the semi-conservative son of NASCAR's founder. France is largely considered to be the man who made NASCAR the multibillion-dollar giant it is now, building a pack of cars making left turns on pavement into the fastest growing sport in America.

They have clashing styles and perhaps professional jealousies. But France has the power, and Smith wants some of it.

"There is always a battle at the top of most major factions," said Humpy Wheeler, president of SMI. "This one is probably a case of some philosophical differences in their approach to how they do things."

For years, Smith and the France family were able to operate together. It's not clear where things turned sour, but Smith hints it may have come in a 1995 conversation with France.

"We were talking all the time then, and one day he said to me, `Help me build NASCAR,' " Smith said. "Well, I thought I'd been doing that."

While that may have been the start, Wheeler thinks the deterioration of the relationship really started when Smith realized NASCAR was never going to give him a race in Texas.

"This thing didn't really start getting bad until Bruton figured he was not going to get a date for Texas," Wheeler said. "The stonewalling of that, or their refusal to do it, was maybe the final straw for him."

Smith claims he invested millions of dollars to build the sparkling race track based on France's promise he would get a race. France says he never gave Smith his word.

So Texas has just one race a year — which Smith got by buying a share of North Wilkesboro Speedway and moving one of its races to Texas — even though it probably deserves two.

"I've got a big, fat beautiful speedway in Texas that sells out, that sponsors come to, that drivers are in awe of," Smith said. "I've got more toilets in that track then some tracks have seats. It's a beautiful facility that should have two races a year."

An SMI shareholder agrees and is suing NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., another France-family business that owns the bulk of the tracks on the circuit, seeking another date.

Walkway collapse victim: Accident turned my life upside-down A Virginia man who claims he was shattered physically by a pedestrian walkway collapse at Lowe's Motor Speedway had a long history of back problems before he was caught in the walkway disaster, according to a lawyer. Marty Taylor underwent cross-examination Tuesday in the $27 million lawsuit he and his wife Cindy have filed against the track, the company that built the bridge and the maker of a grout blamed for corroding steel cables inside the span. Jim Williams, a lawyer for Spartanburg, S.C.-based construction company Tindall Corp., asked Taylor about a series of auto accidents and worker's compensation claims, including a February 1993 worker's compensation hearing in Georgia in which Taylor was declared disabled because of back problems. Williams noted that Taylor was photographed parasailing in the Bahamas later that year, at a time when he was receiving disability payments and not working. "But you were able to parasail?" Williams asked. "Looks that way," Taylor said. In his questioning, Williams also noted that Taylor filled prescriptions for the painkiller Vicodin - prescribed for his back pain - continuously between 1991 and 1999. Earlier, under questioning by his lawyer, Taylor told jurors the accident and his injuries have left him feeling inadequate. "I can't do what I feel I need to be doing to take care of my family," Taylor testified. "Paying the bills, and like that." Taylor, 47, of Nelson County, Va., said he tried to return to work last year as a respiratory therapist for a home health care provider. But he said he fell in December and nearly reinjured one of two ankles that were badly damaged in the walkway disaster. Taylor said he has trouble standing for any length of time and has little range of motion in his feet, leaving him unable to walk without assistance on uneven surfaces like grass and gravel. The bridge over U.S. 29 in Concord collapsed as fans left the track after The Winston, a NASCAR all-star race. No one died, but more than 100 people were injured.

France isn't budging on the issue. He'll give Texas another race — but only if Smith moves one of the dates he already has in Atlanta to do it.

It's part of NASCAR's plan to realign the schedule and move events into bigger markets.

And to pave the way, France is considering moving races from ISC-owned tracks in Rockingham and Darlington, South Carolina.

But Smith is adamant he won't move a date from Atlanta, which is the only one of his six tracks that struggles to sell tickets.

And he doesn't buy into the theory that France is considering moving ISC races to put the pressure on Smith to do the same.

"They are moving out of necessity!" he said. "They are under tremendous pressure to move those races because sponsors don't want to go to those places. Look at the markets they are in — there's no media, no hotel rooms. There's just no reason for this sport to still be going to the those places.

"You have to go where the people are. Everybody wants to come to Las Vegas. Nobody wants to go to Rockingham."

He's right: The race at Rockingham two weeks ago drew about 40,000 people — leaving 20,000 empty seats. In Las Vegas last week, there might have been 40,000 in the seats, waiting out the rain, just to watch Friday qualifying.

And maybe that's the rub — perhaps France is tired of Smith one-upping NASCAR with gorgeous new facilities that have no trouble selling out.

"I don't think this is a feud," Smith said. "It's just NASCAR controls the sport and chooses a lot of times to exercise that control in a way that adversely affects speedways. Particularly mine."

Better Racing Expected At Texas

March 6,2003

Texas Motor Speedway says five drivers who tested there Tuesday expect slightly slower race speeds and increased competition this year because the asphalt has lost some of its grip. "We are about a half-second slower than last year," Johnny Benson said after testing two of MBV Motorsports' Pontiacs and lapping at 186 mph, well under Bill Elliott's track record of 194.224 mph set last year. Four others tested Busch Series cars, including Scott Wimmer, Kerry Earnhardt, David Reutimann and Joe Nemechek, who helped set up Reutimann's car. "I would say the track may be three-quarters of a second slower," said Nemechek. "It has lost some of its grip from last season."

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