SMI Chair & CEO Bruton Smith on Friday “absorbed some of the blame” for the traffic problems surrounding the inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the track on July 9, but he “stopped well short of saying there was more the track could have done to avoid the problem,” according to Amanda Van Benschoten of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Smith “blamed everyone from the company running parking (‘they did a lousy job’), to I-71 (‘a lousy piece of interstate’), to the fans who were warned about the trouble ahead but still left late.” NASCAR President Mike Helton said that the traffic is "a 'very serious issue' that must be corrected, adding that NASCAR 'won’t rest' until it figures out what went wrong and how to correct it." Smith will meet with Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear this week “to identify the cause” of the “hours-long traffic gridlock.” Asked if he “threatened the governor with moving the race to another one of his tracks,” Smith joked, “Las Vegas, baby” (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 7/16). Smith added, “I will wait until after my wonderful meeting with the governor, and we will go from there” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/16). Smith said he was “sincerely sorry" some fans didn't make it to the race. But he added that they “wouldn't receive a cash refund for their unused tickets because ‘we don't want to (offer one).’" He also said Michigan Int’l Speedway President Roger Curtis was a "jackass" for making comments about Kentucky's traffic problems. Smith, referring to the pothole that delayed last year’s Daytona 500, said, "I don't know what I would have [done] if one of my people would have responded and bad-mouthed Daytona because they had a problem. That is not what we're about" (Norfolk VIRGINIAN-PILOT, 7/16).
SHOCK AND AWE: ESPN.com’s Terry Blount wrote Smith “shocked reporters, and almost everyone else listening, with his inappropriate, highly inaccurate and at times belligerent comments in trying to defend the traffic problems.” Smith “went way beyond his usual bombastic nature.” Blount: “He was disrespectful and offensive. It was a total meltdown.” Smith: "I said it would be the biggest event of the year and I think it was. We had a traffic problem; we didn't have a seat problem. Other than that, I think everything was fantastic" (ESPN.com, 7/15).
