Bruton Smith might steer the rock's race to Texas.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler

Will Bruton Smith, the Charlotte billionaire who helped build stock-car racing into a major Tar Heel industry, be the person responsible for driving it out of Rockingham? Could be, under a proposed settlement for a lawsuit filed against racing's governing body by shareholders of Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc.

The settlement reportedly would require Daytona Beach, Fla.-based International Speedway Corp.--owned by the France family, which also rules NASCAR--to sell its Rockingham and Darlington, S.C., tracks to Speedway Motorsports, which owns Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord and five other tracks. That would enable Smith to drop Rockingham's remaining Nextel Cup race and possibly one of Darlington's, to add second dates at tracks Speedway Motorsports owns in Fort Worth, Texas, and Las Vegas. Rockingham has about 60,000 seats, and the Fort Worth track has about 200,000. The Tar Heel track also has lower average ticket prices--about $65 compared with $90 at Fort Worth. That's a difference of more than $14 million in ticket revenue.

Smith declines comment. He rescued what's now Lowe's Motor Speedway from bankruptcy in the 1960s. But Smith also hasn't hesitated to buy and close a Tar Heel track. That's what he and Bob Bahre, who...