June 21st, 2010 
Journo Concord (verb) – when a race track/auto dealership magnate threatens a municipality with the removal of a race event, or entire racetrack, in order to get what he wants – refers to what happened to the city of Concord, N.C.
Last week Bruton Smith took his fight with the police chief of Loudon, N.H. public. The ever vocal leader of Speedway Motorsports and Sonic Automotive said he is considering moving a date from the New Hampshire Motor Speedway after struggling to negotiate what he felt was an acceptable bill for police protection. The fight between the two has even reached New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch.
After hearing this I couldn’t help but think I’d seen this play out before with Bruton Smith. Turns out I have.
Let me take you back two and half years. The place: Concord, N.C. Bruton Smith wanted to build a dragstrip on the Charlotte Motor Speedway property. After protests from nearby homeowners, the Concord City Council voted against the dragstrip. Smith’s reaction? He threatened to bulldoze the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and move it somewhere else.
After almost two months of posturing and negotiation, Concord gave in and let Smith build his dragstrip. In addition, they gave him $80 million in incentives, and even renamed the road leading up to the speedway Bruton Smith Blvd.
How’s that for the having the upper hand? After Concording Concord, it looks like he’s Concording Loudon – though this time he may actually come through on his threat.
Since Smith bought NHMS three years ago there has been speculation that eventually the track would lose a date. While the track continues to be a favorite among fans, SMI would like to add dates to Las Vegas and Kentucky. And since Smith doesn’t have the emotional attachment to NHMS that he has to Charlotte, this could be a very convenient excuse (it also allows him to not have make the tough choice somewhere else within his organization).
We’ll see what happens in the weeks and months to come, but the police chief and town of Loudon are playing with fire. I know it’s a bad idea to give into a screaming child, but not doing so here could cost the city and state hundreds of millions of dollars – all over what amounts to about $100,000.
Unfortunately, the people that could stand to suffer most are the small business owners in and around Loudon who depend on the events, and the fans who love NHMS and the different racing it produces.
Here’s hoping this Concording has a happy ending.
Remembering Raymond Parks
NASCAR pioneer, and team owner Raymond Parks passed away Sunday morning. Parks, who was the last living person on hand at the meeting founding NASCAR in late 1947, won the first two championships in the sport – one with Fonty Flock and the other with Red Byron. Though he was not well known to the world, his impact on this sport was immense. Thank you for everything Mr. Parks.
Be sure to check out Ed Hinton’s eloquent eulogy of Raymond Parks.
Posted in 
Tags: 
Having attend races at Loudon the last 21 years it lost its fan charm along time ago.
When they gained the first Winston Cup date in ’93 it was very fan oriented. Sprinklers,autograph sessions before the race.Etc. Also thrown in were some Busch North (now K&N East Series)races through out the season.
Then came the second cup date.
The Busch North was scaled down to one race. Autograph sessions gone. And sweat in the aluminum grand stands.
Oh,almost forgot to mention the Christmas cards sent to all those who attended the races during the season. Hand signed!
All this went away as soon as NHIS got their second date to the demise of North Wilkesboro.
Don’t get me wrong, I love NHMS and will be making the trip Friday. However,maybe it’s time to go back to the future!!
There are a lot of great stories about Mr. Parks, his racing and his bootlegging in this book here:
Driving with the Devil : Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels and the Birth of NASCAR
by Neal Thompson
ISBN-10: 1-4000-8225-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-4000-8225-4
—-
I really enjoyed this book. It is the story of 1930′s – 1940′s stock car racing and moonshine running that led up to the creation of NASCAR.
Lots of shine running stories from Dawsonville to Atlanta and interesting comments on modifications made to the late 1930′s Fords with the V8s…. which are the cars that stock car racing thrived on back then.
It is also very well written.
RIP Mr. Parks.
-W
I am not a fan of Bruton Smith at all. He ruins way to much NASCAR history and destroys to many tracks.
I understand Burton Smith is a business man and playing hard ball with Loudon will help his bottom line by reducing overhead expenses but as a race fan in New England who has been at every Cup, Nationwide, and Truck race at New Hampshire it really ticks me off. If he takes a date from NHMS I might just boycott the 1 remaining race as to not put any money in his pocket. You want to take a race away from a track that basically has a whole market all to itself while Atlanta can put up terriable attendance numbers and has to complete with all the other tracks in the area not to mentiong you cannot tell the difference in racing from Texas, Charlotte, to Atlanta. But hey lets screw the loyal fans in New England.
MARCUS: You need to check out more NASCAR history. While I’m not a big fan of Bruton Smith’s tactics, he is also one of the fouders of NASCAR and racing would not be where it is without him. Even the France family will tell you that.
AJ: Go ahead and boycott the race. It will free up a ticket for someone else. I really love your “I’m going to take my toys and go home attitude”. That will show him. It will also hurt the state.
Bruton Smith is a spoiled old man who just wants his own way. this whole thing about buying race tracks just to close them down and move their date is pathetic.
Correction. I should not have said he was one of the founders but he has been a force in NASCAR and history shows that he was and is one of the best promoters that NASCAR has ever seen and without him NASCAR would not be what it is today.
There are a lot of people in Wilkes county who can tell you what a swell, truthful person Bruton is.
They coughed up 60 million dollars and now some underling in local government is going to fly the ointment over $100,000? I dont think so. This could cost the chief his job.
BUT….
The other side of the coin is ….. It is never a good idea to piss of the local PD becasue they can make intersting things occur. I wont go all conspiracy theory … I will just leave it at ….. “with the amount of money involved in NASCAR tracks and racing, $100,000 is a drop in the bucket.”
This is a joke issue, these dumbasses are making a mountain over a mole hill on the side of mount Everest. I can understand both sides, but this should never have gone public. It should have been settled in the back room.
Interesting story though, it is always amusing to watch the filthy rich and powerful argue about money.
Richard in N.C….. “There are a lot of people in Wilkes county who can tell you what a swell, truthful person Bruton is.”
There’s a lot of folks in Wilkes County who never thought once about attending an event there in addition to not supporting any ifrastructure improvments at the facility.
Blame the non-support, not Smith.
Darth Bruton and Bahre for years alleged that they did not get along and, thus, could not agree on how to operate NW – and that Bahre had agreed to never sell to Burton when Bahre bought his 1/2 interest. However, when Burton came up with 200+ million to buy Bahre’s track, part of the deal was that Burton had to buy North Wilkesboro – so much for alleged promises to widows. It would appear likely that Burton intended to kill NW all along, since it sits about midway between Bristol and Charlotte. A few years ago when a local group wanted to buy NW and try to reopen it to help replace the business lost when it closed, published reports were that Burton’s asking price was $12,000,000, just a couple of years before he sold Rockingham for $4,500,000. Moving the race dates is one thing, killing the track is something else – especially to the small businesses harmed.
Richard – “killing the track is something else – especially to the small businesses harmed.”
I’ll restate for possible penetraition, it closed from EXTREME lack of crowds AND a group of businessmen and others that refused every effort to upgrade the track.
Marc – I don’t recall the crowds having diminished that much, but that would justify moving the Cup & Busch dates. In hindsight it seems clear that Burton & Bahre were far from honest with the public for years about why the track was not being operated at all – as demonstrated when Bahre sold out to Burton despite his alleged promise to the widow of one of the Staley’s. It is also clear that the $12,000,000 asking price for NW was intended to ensure that there would not be races at NW that might keep people from buying tickets to Bristol or Charlotte. The only ones who were in a position to refuse to upgrade the track were the owners, B and B.