SMI's Smith Threatens To Shut Down LMS If Drag Strip Prohibited

Smith Threatening To Shut Down LMS Over Drag Strip Dispute With City

SMI Chair & CEO Bruton Smith said that he is “willing to spend" $350M to shut down Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS) and "build a new oval track and drag strip somewhere else" after the Concord (NC) City Council Monday voted against a $60M drag strip at LMS, according to Durhams & Poole of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Smith said, “I am deadly serious. … If I found the land today, I would have our engineers on the job within a few days." Smith, whose track is the fourth largest taxpayer in Cabarrus County, said that he wants to keep a NASCAR track in the Charlotte area and that he is "looking for land."  He added that he “could tear down [LMS] or use it as a test track.” Concord Mayor Scott Padgett said that the city “was one of the first to embrace the motorsports industry,” but the city “wants to protect the track’s neighbors.” Padgett: “They have legitimate concerns that need to be addressed.” Smith said, “I don’t know why the mayor of Concord dislikes racing the way it appears he does. … I am treated much better in California than I am here at my own back door or side door. There are 144 drag strips in the [U.S.] and I don’t know of any one of them that is having problems like this” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/3).