1on1: Bruton Smith

He is the master showman, and he always seems to be most at home behind a microphone in Las Vegas.

No, we're not talking Wayne Newton here.

We're talking about -- and talking with -- Bruton Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc. Smith sat down with the media prior to last Saturday's running of the UAW-Dodge 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway track he owns and waxed poetic on some of his favorite subjects (i.e. his quest to land a second Sprint Cup race date for LVMS, and to have the end-of-year awards banquet moved to the real city that never sleeps).

The owner of seven tracks that host Sprint Cup events, including Atlanta Motor Speedway, where this Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 will be run, Smith also spoke candidly about some out-of-pocket subjects that came up.

Q: You like to build things and make them better, don't you? What is your philosophy when it comes to that?

Smith: I've got some of the greatest engineers that money will buy. We do things and we do things a little quicker because of our experience. We proved that when we had a hurricane that hit Atlanta and it destroyed the speedway, but we built it back in four months and about 20 days. So we can do things, and we do things in a big way. We believe sometimes if you have to work two shifts, 10 hours each -- that's 20 hours out of the day -- and spend the rest of the day having a little time off, that's the way we try to do things. And it works.

Q: Is it true that you went to the Las Vegas Convention Authority and asked for a commitment of up to $10 million from them to help them assist in getting a second race in Vegas?

Smith: That is true. If I get three more right, that's $100,000, right?

Q: If that's true, do you not have a specific plan to get a second race there other than hoping NASCAR, which has never simply awarded one of your tracks a race date, suddenly gets very generous?

Smith: If the question is: Do I have a plan? The answer is yes, I have a plan. I can't tell you what that plan is right now.

Q: Is it a safe assumption that if Vegas gets a second Cup race, it would be during the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship?

Smith: That we don't know, but it would probably be during the Chase, yes.

Q: You also are still hoping NASCAR agrees to move the awards banquet at the end of the year from New York City to Las Vegas, which they seem to be resisting. Is it still realistic?

Smith: I think so. Have I made headway? I can't tell you that I have. We keep talking about it. It's the thing to do. It should have been done some time ago, and it hasn't been done yet. But one person within the realm who can absolutely make the decision, they think the sponsors want to be in New York. That is not true. You can quote me. That is not true. I have researched that, and the sponsors would rather be here in Las Vegas.

Now another thing is, I don't know how y'all feel -- but if you go there, have you looked at your hotel bill when you go up there? I looked at mine and I thought it was my home phone number. It's just totally ridiculous. I just think the time has come where we ought to do something different, and the different thing would be to have the awards banquet right here [in Vegas]. We have a couple of locations. We could sell 16,000 tickets to the race fans, and let them be a part of the awards banquet. Then one day, we'd be somebody. And that's what we need to do. (Continued)