Smith, Ollen Bruton

(1927-)
Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

Overview

Known simply as Bruton within the world of motor sports, Ollen Bruton Smith was the first to take racing to the New York Stock Exchange when his company, Speedway Motorsports, went public in 1995. Speedway owns and operates six motorsport facilities—the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Sears Point Raceway, and Texas Motor Speedway. It also owns the Internet auction site SoldUSA.com. The company's Finish Line Events subsidiary provides food, beverages, and souvenir merchandising for the events. Its 600 Racing subsidiary makes and distributes 5/8–scale modified racing cars. Smith also owns the second–largest automotive group in the country, Sonic Automotive, with more than 170 car dealerships and 30 repair centers. Speedway Motorsports is the leading marketer and promoter of motorsports entertainment in the United States.

Personal Life

Ollen Bruton Smith is divorced and has four children. He is absolutely immersed in his businesses. "His hobby is business," said Eddie Gossage, head of the Texas Motor Speedway, in the Fort Worth Star–Telegram. "I've got to believe his IQ must be in the genius level, because he never forgets anything. He always does what he says he's going to do. If I need a phone number, I don't look it up, I ask him. He memorizes everything. He never has a schedule, but he can tell you where he has to be on the 13th of next month."

In 1984 Smith founded Speedway Children's Charities, a non–profit organization that has a chapter at each of the six Speedway racetracks. The organization has raised more than $5 million. Smith received the NASCAR Award of Excellence in 1997 for his efforts on behalf of Speedway Children's Charities.

Ollen Bruton Smith was born in 1927 in Oakboro, North Carolina. His poor childhood motivated him to become a financial success as an adult. "Growing up on a farm in the rural South during the Great Depression was extremely hard," he recalled in Sports Illustrated. "We had plenty of food, a great family, but no money." He continued, "In high school, I remember seeing this guy from a family that had a little money. Every day at school I'd see him with an Eskimo Pie. I loved em. Plenty of chocolate. Just delicious. You could get em for 10 cents. I couldn't afford one. Once in a while I could afford a Popsicle for a nickel. But I kept saying, 'Someday I'm gonna be able to buy an Eskimo Pie.'"

Upon graduation from high school, Smith worked at a hosiery mill in North Carolina. In the early 1950s he took a job as a car salesman while promoting dirt–track races at the Charlotte Fairgrounds on the side. There, he met the late Curtis Turner, a pioneer in the racing field. The two partnered on the construction of the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The track opened in June 1960 with a 600–mile race for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Although the speedway attracted large crowds for this and later events, Smith had trouble raising enough money to cover the costs of operating the track and the Charlotte Motor Speedway was put into court receivership that same year.

Smith distanced himself from the racing industry for more than ten years, turning instead to automobile sales. He saved enough money to purchase a car dealership in Rockford, Illinois, and went on to open other dealerships and business interests in Texas. In 1972, however, he observed the heavy promotion that tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds was investing in stock–car racing events, and predicted that the sport's popularity was on the rise. So he made a bid to acquire his former racing venture, the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Career Details

By 1975 Ollen Bruton Smith had acquired a majority stake in the Charlotte Motor Speedway by buying out hundreds of investors who had purchased its stock from the courts years earlier. Smith then hired long–time collaborator H. A. "Humpy" Wheeler, who later became president and chief operating officer of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. "We'd both gotten our starts operating dirt tracks," Wheeler told Sports Illustrated. "We knew we'd done everything possible to run fans off. We dusted em, gave em lousy food. But not only did they keep coming back, they multiplied. We knew if we could ever fix up a track to be as nice as a modern stadium, this sport would be three or four times as big. We didn't know it would be 10 times as big."

In addition to increasing its audience in general, Smith also wanted to attract more women, knowing that this would likely increase his male audience even more. Smith's novel attention to detail—planting grass, flowers, and some 250 trees around the track—set the bar for all other racetracks. He also upgraded the facility to include VIP suites, chic restaurants, enclosed clubhouse seating, and major grandstand additions. Using unique promotional techniques to gain publicity and large audiences, Smith became famous for his pre–race shows, which included everything from a fire–breathing "robosaurus" to Elvis impersonators parachuting from airplanes. He added a lighting system to the Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1992, enabling it to host the first night race on a superspeedway. Some called the track "the Mecca of motorsports facilities."

Chronology: Ollen Bruton Smith

1927: Born.

1960: Partnered with Curtis Turner to construct the Charlotte Motor Speedway, then lost ownership.

1975: Regained majority ownership of the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

1990: Acquired Atlanta Motor Speedway.

1992: Hosted industry's first night race on a speedway.

1994: Established Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

1995: Began construction on the Texas Motor Speedway.

1995: Speedway Motorsports went public.

1996: Acquired Bristol Motor Speedway and Sears Point Raceway.

1999: Sold naming rights of the Charlotte Motor Speedway to Lowe's.

A risk taker with keen foresight, Smith announced in the early 1980s that he wanted to construct and sell condominiums overlooking the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Skeptics pounced on the notion. Late–night talk show host David Letterman, a NASCAR aficionado, telephoned Smith on–the–air with sarcastic comments. Even Wheeler, Smith's right–hand man, told him that the enterprise would fail. Undeterred, Smith built the condos—and they sold out within one year for about $125,000 each. "Just a giant extension of tailgate parties," he called the condos in Sports Illustrated. "Instead of getting to the speedways early, you wake up there. And your friends come."

In 1990 Smith expanded his ownership to a second track, the Atlanta Motor Speedway, and became its president, chief executive officer, and director. In December 1994 he formed Speedway Motorsports, Inc. as the parent company of his two tracks, taking the reins as its chairman and CEO.

The following year Smith poured $250 million into the construction of the luxurious, 200,000–seat Texas Motor Speedway. As of late 1999 the Texas track was the second–largest sports arena in the country. However, Wheeler was apprehensive about the prospects of the giant new speedway because it wasn't the venue for a Winston Cup race. Smith alleviated this concern by purchasing the North Wildesboro Speedway in North Carolina and transferring one of its Winston Cup races to the Texas track.

The Texas Motor Speedway became one of the most publicized speedways in history, regularly making national headlines. Smith came under fire for the extravagance of the track. Some in the industry argued that he sacrificed the quality of the track surface itself in favor of the facility's luxury. Although Smith regarded this attention not as negative but as simple publicity, he rebuilt the track itself in 1998 for $3.5 million.

In January 1996 Smith acquired the Bristol Motor Speedway and immediately doubled its seating to hold 135,000 fans. In November of that year, he purchased the Sears Point Raceway. Smith continued to implement his novel idea to build condos aside his racetracks. Those around the Atlanta and Texas Motor speedways were more elaborate than his earlier residences, selling for $550,000 to $650,000.

In 1999 the Charlotte Motor Speedway adopted the name Lowe's Motor Speedway in the industry's first naming rights deal. Sponsored by Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, the long–term licensing agreement first drew criticism, then followers.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Smith again made waves by proposing to split the Winston Cup into two leagues, the American League and the National League, in order to meet the increasing demand for race dates. Some industry critics argued that the idea would trigger a tug–of–war between tracks competing for racing stars to attract the crowds. "We don't know how many Jeff Gordons or Dale Earnhardts or Dale Jarretts there are out there in America," Smith argued in Sports Illustrated. "We do know there are more than 1,200 speedways in America, most of them small, running weekly events. That means there are tens of thousands of race drivers in this country. Young Joe America is out there running two, three events every week at small tracks, and he has tremendous talent. Bifurcate the series, double the opportunities, and it would bring up some great drivers whom you and I don't know today."

By the turn of the century Speedway Motorsports was one of the industry's leading racetrack operators. Races held at its speedways included 17 NASCAR events, three Indy Racing League, three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and four National Hot Rod Association races, as well as numerous short track racing events. The combined seating of all of the speedways was 712,000.

Social and Economic Impact

Throughout his career, Ollen Bruton Smith amassed a portfolio of some of the premier racing facilities in the United States. He became an innovator in the field of motorsports, one of the fastest–growing sports in the nation. He was a pioneer in promoting NASCAR events by offering sizable purses for the winners and providing upgraded facilities and services for the fans. He was the first to build luxury suites and condos around his lucrative tracks. Smith was also the first to take a motorsports company public.

Smith has gained enormous financial rewards due to his efforts in the motorsports industry. In 1996 he made his first appearance on the Forbes 400 list; this magazine recorded his personal wealth at $890 million in 2000. Revenue of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. continued to climb, reaching $354.3 million in 2000. As a reminder to Smith of his original motivation for success, Dove Bars are stocked in the freezers of his speedways' suites. "The Dove Bar is what the Eskimo Pie used to be," he told Sports Illustrated. "And I have one every damn day."

Sources of Information

Contact at: Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
5555 Concord Pkwy. South
Concord, NC 28027–0600
Business Phone: (704)455–3239
URL: http://www.gospeedway.com

Bibliography

"Bruton Smith Donates $5M to Local School." The Business Journal (Charlotte), 12 June 2001.

"Forbes 400: Sports Stars." Forbes, 9 October 2000, 240.

Gonzalez, Simon. "Bruton Smith Gets His Kicks." Fort Worth Star–Telegram, 25 March 1999.

Hinton, Ed. "Big Wheel: By Staying Ahead of the Curve, Bruton Smith Has Made Himself One of the Most Powerful Men in Racing." Sports Illustrated, 22 December 1999, 96.

"O. Bruton Smith." Charlotte, NC: Lowe's Motor Speedway, November 2001. Available at http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com.

"Speedway Motorsports, Inc." Hoover's Online, Inc., November 2001. Available at http://www.hoovers.com.

"Speedway Motorsports, Inc." Concord, NC: Speedway Motorsports, Inc., November 2001. Available at http://www.gospeedway.com.

Spiegel, Peter. "Life in the Fast Lane." Forbes, 1 November 1999, 266.