Bruton Smith Sayz: 'No Dragstrip For Me?'

WELCOME TO CONCORD : HOME OF THE LARGEST LANDFILL IN THE USA

boy that will sure bring in the business

i'm done

 

Enoch Staley

Enoch Staley, founder and longtime operator of the track died, and soon after his son sold the track to Bruton & Bahre.

A foundation? Does that make people good? I can name you numerous organizations and individuals that had foundations, but that means nothing. I know it does great things for sick and needy children and that's great. Don't you worry, it does as much or more for SMI as it does for the children.

 

The concord mills area would still thrive without that cocksmoker, Bruton. It does just fine the other 50 weeks out of the year and would continue to grow without the speedway.

There is already a 2nd convention center coming and it was coming with or without LMS.

 

They have the Berkley Pit in Butte, MT, it's a giant pool of acid that fills by over 1 million gallons a day and runs off into the local drinking water. The first discovery off life in an acidic environment happened there. Land fills and strip mines are great tourist attractions.

 

Lowes Motor Speedway to Stay Open

Surprise, surprise . . . . . .

==========

Speedway to stay in Concord

Track owner, officials reach deal, which includes about $80 million in incentives
JEFFERSON GEORGE AND SHARIF DURHAMS
[email protected]

Bruton SmithConcord Mayor Scott Padgett's phone rang just before 6 p.m. Wednesday.

On the other end of the line: Lowe's Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith.

"We have an agreement," Smith said.

With that, the speedway will stay in Concord, where Smith's company will receive about $80 million in incentives in return for spending at least $100 million on renovations and upgrades.

Smith's decision to stay in Concord caps a seven-week saga involving one of Cabarrus County's biggest taxpayers, its biggest tourist draw and a signature sports venue in the Charlotte region.

Still undisclosed, however, are exactly which incentives Smith will receive, and what he'll spend on track improvements.

Smith declined to give details in a brief interview Wednesday night but said there were many reasons he is staying in Concord. A big one, he said, was the number of appeals by residents, merchants and others -- "many thousands" of people -- to not close the speedway after 47 years in Cabarrus County.

"It's just been amazing," Smith said. "That kind of thing makes you feel a strong obligation."

Since early October, the speedway's future has been in jeopardy after Smith threatened to close it and build another track elsewhere in the Charlotte region.

The billionaire's threat was in response to an Oct. 1 vote by the Concord City Council blocking construction of a drag strip on speedway property. City leaders wanted more data on how noise would affect nearby residents, but Smith instead began considering other locations for the speedway.

As Smith said he was being courted by other communities offering land and tax breaks, Concord leaders began to backtrack. They reversed their drag strip vote and made appeals to keep the track open, including asking the state to name a road after Smith.

City, county and state officials also began working with Smith on incentives for him to renovate and upgrade the speedway. After several days of negotiations, Smith met again with local officials Wednesday, speedway spokesman Scott Cooper said, then told track employees late in the day of "an agreement in principle" to stay in Concord.

"It answers the big question," Cooper said. "We'll get into the meat and potatoes here Monday afternoon."

Smith had set a Thanksgiving deadline to decide on whether to move the speedway and to consider incentives, including:

• Extending the George Liles Parkway to U.S. 29, improving access from Interstate 85.

• Widening U.S. 29 to six lanes north of the speedway.

• Providing structures to decrease noise from the drag strip.

• Giving Smith property- and sales-tax rebates based on the amount of investment on the drag strip and speedway improvements.

The incentives, outlined in an e-mail County Manager John Day sent to commissioners this month, were estimated to cost $70 million to $80 million.

Bob Carruth, chairman of the Cabarrus board of commissioners, said the total package was about $80 million with about $60 million split between Concord and Cabarrus County and $20 million from the state.

Padgett said he expected the planned improvements at the speedway to be between $100 million and $200 million.

"The cost estimates are all just very preliminary," he said. "Now they know which direction to go, so they're going to be moving ahead.

"The magnitude of things they're planning to do," he added, "is just overwhelming."

David Morrow, co-chairman of the Riverwalk Neighborhood Association, which adjoins the drag-strip site, said he's pleased Smith has decided to stay in the area. Keeping the speedway will be good for homeowners.

Morrow said he didn't oppose the drag strip, and believes Smith plans to address neighbors' concerns about noise.

"If the city wouldn't have done what they did, they wouldn't have had to give up nearly what they gave up (for him to stay)," Morrow said. "I think they had to do something to appease him."

Local officials cheered Smith's decision. They praised the collaboration among local and state leaders to preserve the track, which opened in 1960 as the Charlotte Motor Speedway, as a Cabarrus County institution.

"Our elected officials went into extra innings to keep this asset in Concord and North Carolina," said John Cox, head of the Cabarrus County Economic Development Corp.

Padgett said he was excited to see Smith continue working to maintain the speedway as the most innovative NASCAR speedway in the country.

"We have been the center of motorsports for a long time, but this is going to take us into another realm," Padgett said. "This is going to be beyond anything that we've known."

The new drag strip

Construction of a new drag strip, which spurred negotiations about the future of Lowe's Motor Speedway, likely will be the first order of business.In late August, Smith first confirmed his interest in building a venue to host a National Hot Rod Association race, the major leagues of drag racing.

Shortly thereafter, the NHRA announced its 2008 PowerAde Series national event schedule with a to-be-announced inaugural event Sept. 11-14. That race would be held here, provided the $60 million drag strip can be completed in time.

Drag racing has always been a part of the motorsports industry in North Carolina. Though there is not a major drag strip in the immediate Charlotte area, that form of racing has become a bigger portion of the motorsports industry clustered in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Iredell counties. KB Racing and Cagnazzi Racing, the top two NHRA pro stock teams, are based in Mooresville.

What's next

Bruton Smith and public officials are to hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Monday at the speedway to reveal more details of their deal.

 

Agreed. 'Breaking Away' changed everything.

 

Better check & see WHO OWNS the land that Concord Mills sits on.

 

Why? What does that have to do with what he said?

 

What does that matter?