Bruton Smith spouts off on drivers in general, Dale Jr. in particular and maybe dumping the Chase

Agree or disagree with Bruton Smith, it's hard to ignore the man who heads Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns such tracks as Charlotte, Atlanta, Bristol, Las Vegas, Texas, Infineon Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He's outspoken. He's fought NASCAR. He's challenged drivers. He's outraged fans and also earned their cheers for his ideas, some quite unique.

Friday, he sat down with a small group of reporters and talked about various issues in the sport from the racing, to the need for rivalries, to Dale Jr.'s lack of success, to possibly dumping the Chase, and when Cup might race at Kentucky Speedway.

Smith also is not afraid to be blunt as the case when asked about the need for rivalries in Cup. "You just need a lot of drivers with a pair,'' he said. "That's all it takes. We need rubbing, somebody that is not afraid to stand on it or do a little rubbing and bumping. You've got some of them out there.  You've got Tony (Stewart). He's good. You don't need a bunch of Goody 2-shoes out there that's being concerned about everything. The greatest thing in the world right now is if Sunday when the race is over Jimmie Johnson got out of the car and slapped somebody. That would sell a lot of tickets. That's the kind of stuff I would like to see. And NASCAR has been doing things the right way for a change. I've been preaching this for three years to see a softer side of NASCAR (by not issuing fines and penalites for confrontations).''

When asked if the sport needed Jeff Gordon (or someone else) to win a race other than Jimmie Johnson, Smith brought up Dale Jr.'s name but questioned what the driver has done.

"Jeff Gordon is great for us,'' Smith said. "He's very popular. His souvenir sales are better than a lot. Not equal to Dale Jr. We'd like to see Dale Jr. win a race for a change. That would be great. Get him focused and we'll see him win. He's not focused yet.''

Asked how he sees that Dale Earnhardt Jr. might not be focused, Smith replies: "He's not winning.''

Bruton Smith also says he's confident that all the legal issues around Kentucky Speedway will be finished in time so NASCAR can award a Cup date to that track for next year. Does he know where the date will come from? He says, yes. So where? He won't say.

He does offer a suggestion on how to give Las Vegas a second date but it would require taking one race away from International Speedway Corp (the track company run by the France family) and would seem doubtful because it likely would impact ISC stockholders negatively. Bruton's idea is this:

"You move Home-and-stead (Homestead), that last race, to Las Vegas. That would be good for the sport. Then you take one of the events from California to Home-and-stead. Now you've got a winner. It's great for the sport. It will work. Naturally, the big winner will be Speedway Motorsports (Bruton's company), but we do things that build NASCAR. As Billy France said to me in New York (years ago), "Help me build NASCAR,' and I laughed like hell. I said, "Bill, what do you think I've been doing for the past 25 years.' That's what we've got to be doing is build NASCAR. Sometimes, it looks like we lost our way, and I don't think we have.''

Bruton stressed again his desire for NASCAR to change the purse structure so there is a much greater difference between first-place money and the rest of the field to encourage drivers to take those extra chances to win races. He does not like the concept of points racing and says the sport should put half the point fund money into the purses to make it about winning instead of running for a title.

Asked if he would dump the Chase, Bruton said: "I'm not saying that we do yet, but that might be in the future because we've got to get rid of this point racing crap. If it takes that, then do it. Let's make racing better. Let's put the money out there and they go racing.''

Also, don't get him started, though, on teams that start and park.

"That's a ... disgrace,'' he said. "

Asked if the sport needs a 43-car field, Bruton said: "Not if they start and park.''

COMMENTS ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here; comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its websites. Users must follow agreed-upon rules: Be civil, be clean, be on topic; don't attack private individuals, other users or classes of people. Read the full rules here.
- Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the report violation link below it.