More than 100 friends, family members, business associates and employees of Speedway Motorsports Inc. have made the trek to Charlotte this week for Exec Chair BRUTON SMITH's NASCAR HOF induction, which has been pushed from Friday to Saturday due to a snowstorm. The 88-year-old Smith, whose company owns eight speedways plus numerous dragstrips and other business interests, is part of the five-member class that will now go in the HOF at 2:30pm ET Saturday during an NBCSN broadcast after the inclement weather conditions necessitated the switch. The induction of Smith, who battled non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in ‘15 but was declared cancer free in December, is a widely watched one because of his famous long-simmering rivalries with NASCAR founder BILL FRANCE SR. and son BILL FRANCE JR. in the mid to latter portion of the 20th century. However, things have cooled considerably in recent years under the tenure of current CEO BRIAN FRANCE, who pushed for Smith’s induction.
WELL-DESERVED HONOR: MARCUS SMITH, Bruton’s son who took over day-to-day control of SMI in '15, said of the induction, “With my dad, all of his friends and family -- we know that he doesn’t spend a lot of time on accolades, so it’s not natural for him to take a lot of time to celebrate a victory or an accomplishment. I think he tends to just try to accomplish a goal and if he accomplishes it, then he likes to move on to the next challenge, so this will be a neat time to just take a few minutes and reflect and celebrate. I think over the last few months all of us have being doing that a little bit more and we certainly appreciate his incredible accomplishments throughout his career.” Texas Motor Speedway President EDDIE GOSSAGE said, “Certainly the Frances all deserve to be in there obviously -- it goes without saying. And then you look at drivers; certainly, a litany of drivers deserve to be in there. Who else? Well some car owners; some major mechanics, crew chiefs, absolutely. But without racetracks, where would all this take place at? ... (Bruton) is two things: He's a race fan and a builder. He loves to build things; he’s never as happy as he is when he’s building something.”
