Winston-Salem Journal from Winston-Salem, North Carolina • 31

WlXSTOX SUEM JOURNAL Saturday November 3 2007 PAGE C5 AUTO RACING CROSS COUNTRY SHREWD MOVE: Smith increased his power base By Mike Mulhern JOURNAL REPORTER ORT WORTH Texas Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre are both 80 and while Bahre is now looking at re tirement Smith is full steam ahead Retirement? "I know what that means" Smith said And after writing a check for $340 million to Bahre for his New Hampshire Interna tional Speedway Smith certainly have much time for any rocking chair Smith thrives on the thrill of the chase and this one was a good one "Bob was offered more and I knew that so I have much operating Smith said "So 1 had to get done' I really think my friendship with Bob had a lot to do with my being able to buy Smith talking about all the de tails But he said he would be relying on Bahre for advice because of Bahre solid contacts throughout New England Bahre sent a statement about the sale yesterday: "Gary and 1 would like to thank all of our employees and loyal fans for their continued support of New Hamp shire International Speedway over the past 18 years Our success is due to their dedication "We look forward to working closely with Bruton Smith and his team during the upcoming transition and for years to How can Smith justify spending $340 million to buy New Hampshire Interna tional Speedway? Well about 10 years ago a track owner angered his fellow track owners by boast ing that every time the green flag fell on one of his races it was like $10 million profit in the bank If that profit is now just $20 million a race (and probably much more) then it would take only eight years to get a return on the investment There is naturally much much more to this deal than just a couple of Nextel Cup dates and a track near the Canadian border "I called Brian (rance) a few days ago to tell him about this Smith said "His first question: How much did you pay for it? I told him he said you set the bar a little higher not just an idle comment: By pegging the value of a Cup date at $170 million Smith might now indirectly push ISC stockholders to reassess the value of the tracks the rance family owns: the 19 Cup dates at $170 million a weekend works out to a valuation of about $323 billion a whopping $1 billion more than the current market cap of the rance ISC $228 billion That analysis might put the rances under the gun to show they're doing the job for their stockholders To put it more bluntly it could force the rances to put some of their lesser performing tracks out in the marketplace That scenario is why the rances moved the Southern 500 from Darlington SC to the Los Angeles market Smith has long been the only check and balance for NASCAR and the ISC And this move increases power But Smith said obligated to help build this sport with as much as I have invested in it So I don't look at it as We will continue to work togeth er and walking down that road holding hands and building building There is another angle here threat to move Lowe's Motor Speedway from Concord has provoked a consider able controversy in North Carolina and South Carolina It has generated a major revaluation of the Lowe's track to North Carolina and to Charlotte as well as to Concord And it has generated a number of offers to Smith to move his track to new free land as well as tax incentives both to move and to stay Now with the implied threat of pos sibly moving one Cup date from Loudon Boston to Las Vegas Smith may be able to create some similar offers to keep both dates in New Hampshire Smith with the tease of perhaps mov ing a second Cup date to Las Vegas might also generate similar incentive offers in Nevada too Holding all those high cards Smith can afford to sit back and let the other guys at the table ponder the pot Chris Powell a Winston Salem native who runs Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Smith said his job now is to increase his lobbying in the Las Vegas business com munity to make the case to NASCAR for a second Cup date Smith said he was doing a good dance when pressed on the Loudon Las Vegas angle And it is obviously a delicate bal ancing act here Smith must reassure the Boston Loudon market that going to do good things at the to be renamed New Hampshire Motor Speedway not bad things while also raising some heat albeit indirectly on NASCAR to move or give a second date to Las Vegas "rom what I heard he left the door open and do everything we can in Las Powell said "I will lobby the city fathers and do what I can I have fol lowed what has happened in the Char lotte Concord area and maybe we need to show Bruton how much Las Vegas loves Speedway Motorsports and how much we want another Cup event in the fall" Powell declined to discuss any possi ble date switches with either the Loudon track or Texas but did say a September race at his track would be "perfect" Powell was noticeable merely by his presence And he was walking a fine line: "NASCAR has been very clear in the past that the way to get another date in Las Vegas is to move a date from within our own company and now our company has COMMENTMY SMITH Continued rom Page C3 time ever thanked someone for taking $340 million of my hard earned money "I had a lot of competition but I was able to put the deal together So Mr Bahre agreed to buy lunch always done great things in this sport and going to do some great things in New Hampshire been there with one of my engineers and we have some plans share with you later going to make a lot of changes and I think going to like at least some of Smith although he has the blueprints discuss the possibility of rebuilding the flat one mile track into a high banked three quarter mile track essentially a bigger Bristol a half mile track that holds 160000 Smith through his Speedway Motorsports company will now have 12 Cup races at seven tracks strategically located geographi cally near Boston San rancisco Dallas ort Worth Atlanta and Las Vegas plus unique Bristol and racing heartland Charlotte He said his investment in NAS CAR racing is now about $25 billion Smith said he pulled off the deal in a difficult battle against other bidders Roger Penske Kentucky Speedway's Larry Out with the old As part of his deal with Bob Bahre Bruton Smith winds up with 100 percent of defunct North Wilkesboro Speedway which has sat idle since it was closed by Smith and Bahre in 1996 Asked about the demise of that track Smith wasn't very kind: "There are some tracks that need to be scrapped And maybe the sport would be better off if those events were held somewhere else "North Wilkesboro Speed way was old old old De crepit Had no sewer system The track was worn out And NASCAR was very apprecia tive of closing it They wanted it closed "Maybe there are another one or two tracks that need to be closed too" Mike Mulhern Carroll John Henry and Jack Roush of the enway Group and George Gillett But Smith said his winning bid the highest offered In a long running remark ably humorous news confer ence Smith the only person on stage fielded all sorts of questions but offered few solid answers about what the future might hold It was a typical one man performance by Smith who thrives on the rapid fire delivery of one liners Those in the Boston Loudon area are naturally worried that Smith might take one or both of those Cup dates and move them to another of his tracks Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the clear target here and LVMS boss Chris Powell flew in for the news conference but did little more than smile despite a del uge of questions about a possible second date at his track Smith also dodged all ques tions about moving a date to Las Vegas But he did make it clear that his deal with Bahre didn't preclude him from moving one or both dates "Tell those fans up in the Northeast not to be worried but to be sure to buy their tick ets early for next year because we will be sold out and going to look at adding some more seats" Smith said NHIS crowds about 100000 fans into the stands and infield for both the July and September Cup races But what about Las Vegas plans? "Do you realize they have 146000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas?" Smith replied "And in 18 months be up to 175000 That's more hotel rooms than any other city in the world "Why is Chris here? Why he loves racing" Smith pressed again about moving a date to Las Vegas: "You weren't watching the dance No tice we tapping that's a joke have no plans to move any thing only a week into this thing and all our plans certainly aren in place And right now we have no plans of moving any thing" Despite the humorous dodges by Smith the key point is that this move by Smith puts pressure on Brian and Jim rance Smith has politicked for a second Cup date for Vegas for years and each time NASCAR executives have said sure but he would have to move that date from one of his own tracks Now Smith has two dates in the crucial Northeast market even more important to NAS CAR and the sport because of the rance inability to build a new track near New York City There are about 18 million people living within 200 miles of Boston Smith could pull a Cup date out of the Loudon Boston mar ket and move it to Las Vegas unless NASCAR were to relent and give him a second Vegas date in return for keeping both Cup races at the New Hampshire track The Nextel Cup is current ly 36 races with two special events and NASCAR president Mike Helton has said that it has maxed out As grueling as the official schedule may be teams this season have spent every "off day" testing somewhere NASCAR CEO Brian rance attend the announcement at Texas Motor Speedway but is sued a statement calling move "yet another indication that the NASCAR industry con tinues to grow and thrive" rance went on to praise Bahre a longtime NASCAR man who made his money in bank ing and who turned a rough neck motorcycle track into a high dollar NASCAR venue that has played to sellout audiences every Cup date since it opened 15 years ago "Capitalizing on national appeal and growth the Bahre family created a passion ate fan base and developed a valuable venue that has hosted the largest sporting events in New England including 26 con secutive sellouts" rance said "The industry owes Bob and Gary Bahre a debt of gratitude for their leadership and com mitment to NASCAR" rance said that 2008 schedule is already "signed and Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhernws journalcom RACING UPDATE On the Air Today 3:30 Busch O'Reilly Chal lenge ESPN2 Ch 32 WSJS (joined in progress) 600 Sunday 3:30 Nextel Cup Dickies 500 WXLV (ABC) Ch 7 WSJS 600 WBR981 Dickies 500 lineup At ort Worth Texas Position Driver Car MPH 1 Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 193105 2 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 192424 3 Juan Montoya Dodge 192417 4 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 192239 5 AJ Allmendinger Toyota 192239 6 Kurt Busch Dodge 192164 7 Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 192130 8 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 192068 9 Casey Mears Chevrolet 191904 10 Mark Martin Chevrolet 191605 11 Ryan Newman Dodge 191557 12 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 191449 13 Bobby Labonte Dodge 191388 14 M'ke Skinner Toyota 191381 15 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 191327 16 Paul Menard Chevrolet 191286 17 Kyle Busch Chevrolet 191272 18 Malt Kenseth ord 191191 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge 191022 20 Scott Riggs Dodge 191022 21 Carl Edwards ord 190981 22 Brian Vickers Toyota 190941 23 Greg Biffle ord 190887 24 Jamie McMurray ord 190813 25 Kasey Kahne Dodge 190665 26 Dale Jarrett Toyota 190665 27 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 190570 28 David Stremme Dodge 190476 29 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 190181 30 Bill Elliott ord 190034 31 Reed Sorenson Dodge 189860 32 Dave Blaney Toyota 189820 33 David Ragan ord 189807 34 David Gilliland ord 189640 35 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 189620 36 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet 189580 37 Kyle Petty Dodge 189354 38 JJ Yeley Chevrolet 188114 39 Ricky Rudd ord owner pts 40 Tony Raines Chevrolet owner pts 41 Robby Gordon ord owner pts 42 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet owner pts 43 David Reutimann Toyota 189321 ailed to qualify 44 Ward Burton Chevrolet 189082 45 John Andretti Dodge 188917 46 Michael Waltrip Toyota 188436 47 Burney Lamar Dodge 186419 48 Kevin Lepage Dodge 184332 O'Reilly Challenge lineup At ort Worth Texas Position Driver Car MPH 1 David Reutimann Toyota 191646 2 Tony Stewart Chevy 190954 3 Carl Edwards ord 190745 4 Kevin Harvick Chevy 190590 5 Kyle Busch Chevy 190081 6 Denny Hamlin Chevy 189847 7 Robby Gordon ord 189447 8 David Ragan ord 189102 9 Brad Keselowski Chevy 189076 10 Bryan Clauson Dodge 189062 11 Clint Bowyer Chevy 188653 12 Bobby Hamilton Jr ord 188633 13 Mike Bliss Dodge 188528 14 Bobby Labonte Chevy 188442 15 Jeff Burton Chevy 188166 16 Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 188114 17 Michael McDowell Toyota 187996 18 Dario ranchitti Dodge 187846 19 Stephen Leicht ord 187709 20 Greg Biffle ord 187682 21 Elliott Sadler Dodge 187591 22 Jason Leffler Toyota 187513 23 Brad Baker ord 187318 24 Casey Mears Chevy 186922 25 Matt Kenseth ord 186890 26 Tony Raines Chevy 186638 27 Marcos Ambrose ord 186612 28 Kelly Bires ord 186284 29 Jason Keller Chevy 186021 30 Stanton Barrett Chevy 186008 31 JJ Yeley Chevy 185778 32 Mark Green Chevy 185656 33 Mike Wallace Chevy 185255 34 Steve Wallace Dodge 185077 35 Jeremy Clements Chevy 185058 36 Kyle Krisiloff ord 184856 37 Brent Sherman Toyota 184250 38 Casey Atwood ord 184150 39 Kertus Davis Chevy 182500 40 Morgan Shepherd Dodge 182322 41 Richard Johns ord 182027 I 42 Robert Richardson Chevy owner pts I 43 Eric McClure Chevy 180072 RUNNERS Continued rom Page C3 a winning time of 16:1907 as a sophomore in 2005 then won again last season in 16:0010 Hill will come into the cham pionships after destroying the field last Saturday at the West Regional in Hendersonville He won in 15:2933 finishing 38 seconds of his closest challenger and was one of seven boys state wide to break 16 minutes in re gional competition Hill also ran the only sub 16 minute 5 in the western half of the state where the courses are generally not as flat Kirby and Hill aren't the only runners who will try to repeat as champions today as only two of the 2006 champions were se niors Those trying to make it two in a row are: Kimberly Spano of North Mecklenburg and Taylor Gilland of Chapel Hill in Class 4 A girls and boys Heather Beich ner of Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons in Class 2 A girls and Zatha Loewen of Hampstead Topsail in Class 1 A girls The 2 A boys and 1 A boys races are certain to end with new individual champions Also today five teams will try to extend championship streaks to at least three includ NCHSAA cross country championships The basics Day: Today Site: Tanglewood Park Admission: $6 Race schedule: 1 A boys 10 am 2 A boys 10:30 1 A girls 11 am 2 A girls 11:30 3 A boys 2 pm 4 A boys 2:30 3 A girls 3 pm 4 A girls 3:30 Area team qualifiers Class 4 A boys: East orsyth Mount Tabor NW Guilford Reynolds Watauga Class 4 A girls: Mount Tabor NW Guilford Watauga Class 3 A boys: Reagan Class 3 A girls: Reagan Class 2 A boys: Central Davidson Wilkes Central Class 2 A girls: Ledford Wilkes Central Class 1 A boys: Bishop McGuinness East Wilkes South Stokes Class 1 A girls: Bishop McGuinness East Wilkes Area individual qualifiers Class 4 A boys: Jared Neely (North orsyth) Thomas Willauer (West orsyth) Class 4 A girls: Stephanie Blair HP Cen tral) Anna olwell (Reynolds) Caitlin Tut terow (Davie) Class 3 A boys: Reyshawn Council (Parkland) Class 3 A girls: Hannah Par nell (Glenn) Class 2 A boys: David Riska (North Surry) Carlos Vega (Surry Central) Class 2 A girls: Jessica Baity (orbush) Olivia Myers (West Davidson) Kayla Schilly (East Davidson) Ann Scott (West Stokes) Class 1 A boys: Moe Schlechtweg (North Stokes) Class 1 A girls: Heidi Hooker (North Stokes) Stephanie Mitchell (South Stokes) Kaitlyn Mosteller (West Wilkes) Jessica Vine yard (North Stokes) ing the Hayesville girls who have won four straight 1 A titles for the longest active streak in the state Bishop McGuinness last Midwest 1 A Regional champion will be among the teams trying to end streak The Roberson girls with Kirby leading the way have been the most dominant program of late and will be try ing for their fourth straight 3 A title and their ninth in the last 1 1 years In Class 4 A the Chapel Hill boys and girls are going after their third straight titles In Class 2 A Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons swept the titles last year and the girls will be going for their third straight The championships will start at 1 0 am today with the running of the Class 1 A boys race The last race of the day will be the 4 A girls at 3:30 Mason Linker can be reached at 727 7324 or at mllnkerwsjournalcom Six premier properties ONE prestigious address' 1021 Glen Day Drive 5BR41 BA $749900 Exceptional home on golf course lot! 156 Golden Bear Lane 4BR4BA $665000 Golf course view of holes 3 1038 Muirfield Avenue 4BR21BA $369900 Spacious elegant living on flat lot! 4971 Salem Glen Boulevard 5BR41BA $738400 Impressive curb appeal! 1006 Pinehurst Court 4BR31BA $629900 Best view in the neighborhood! 1007 Castle Pines Court 3BR21BA $329900 Custom built traditional on cul de sac! 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