Report: Bruton Smith buying New Hampshire
9 Comments Quote selected text Published November 1st, 2007 in NASCAR News
Sources with knowledge of the deal indicated last night that O. Bruton Smith, CEO and chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., had entered into an agreement to purchase New Hampshire International Speedway from Bob Bahre, the track’s 80-year-old chairman who is among a rare breed in NASCAR: the independent track owner/operator. A press conference is expected to be held tomorrow at Texas Motor Speedway, one of six SMI-owned racing venues that stage 10 Nextel Cup events.
With the acquisition of NHIS, that stands to grow to 12 Cup dates. Efforts to reach Bahre last night were unsuccessful. Reached last night, NHIS spokesman Fred Neergaard said, “There’s nothing new to report.” An SMI source, however, indicated Smith had reached an accord with Bahre, but was not clear as to the terms. SMI’s racing empire includes Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which host one Cup event, and Bristol Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., and Texas, which host two Cup dates.
Texas won its second Cup date as part of a lawsuit settlement stemming from a complaint brought by Francis Ferko, an SMI shareholder, against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. Smith acquired his first Texas date and Bahre his second NHIS date after they partnered in 1996 to purchase North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway and split its two Cup dates. NASCAR, though, must approve and sanction all dates and race locations before any changes are made to the schedule.
NASCAR, which has released its 2008 Sprint Cup schedule, has signed agreements with tracks for all 36 races next season. It had long been speculated that if NHIS were to be sold to Smith, it would take him no time to strip the track of its Cup dates. But, the SMI source suggested, that may not be the case. While NHIS could lose its July date to Las Vegas, SMI could salvage NHIS’s spot on the NASCAR schedule by swapping Chase dates with Texas, thus making it the start of the Chase.
A deal like this can not be good for racing as we know it now.
Smith will undoubtedly strip one of the dates to use on las Vegas, a real snooze track.
Smith might as well buy NASCAR then he could play monopoly with all the tracks.
Bruton Smith is a cancer on the sport of NASCAR.
Please don’t pull another North Wilksboro here.
Also NHRA wants a National Event in the northeast region of the country and Epping, NH is under contract with IHRA.
Hmmmmmmmm… I think Bruton’s cooking something up here. I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts a drag strip in the property of NHIS.
Talk about snoozer’s, New Hampshire is nothing but that! It has no banking and it’s follow the leader. I personally would look forward to it being either given one date or none at all! Hey maybe they can give one of the dates back to Rockingham and save Nascar from all it’s problems as of late!
That’s what makes the track different from the others.. Pulling out both tracks would just lose NASCAR some ratings because there is alot of NASCAR fans in New England.
They’ll lose 1 race for sure no doubt he’s a jerk.
So you enjoy watching follow the leader for 4 hours? I don’t. Nascar was doing fine before there was a New England track or many New England fans. They already reported the rating stunk last time they were there and the attendance was low. Why not go else where if you all don’t appreciate it.
Most of the tracks this yea had a rating tumble from last year. It is like that at the one and 1/2 mile tracks as well.. whoever has the fastest car on the track will have a good lead and the race would be boring then. Following the leader.. souds like Daytona and Talladega.