Speedway exec's degree questioned
Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2009
Marcus Smith, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway and Speedway Motorsports and son of CEO Bruton Smith, did not graduate from UNC Chapel Hill as the company has asserted, according to a report Wednesday by Bloomberg News.
“The university registrar's office does not show that this person has earned a degree from this university,” UNC Chapel Hill spokesman Mike McFarland told Bloomberg. Smith attended for four years, majoring in journalism and mass communications, according to school records, McFarland said. Privacy laws prohibit disclosing why a student didn't graduate, he said.
In a securities filing last year, Speedway Motorsports Inc. said Smith graduated with a bachelor's degree in advertising.
Asked to comment by Bloomberg, Marcus Smith said in a statement: “I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1992 through 1996 and believe I had the proper credits for graduation. I'm checking with the university now for clarification.”
Speedway Motorsports, based in Concord, hosts one-third of NASCAR's Sprint Cup races. The company owns eight race tracks, including the 1.5-mile Concord facility, which marks its 50th year of operation this season, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The discrepancy in Smith's background was raised by Barry Minkow, co-founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute, a San Diego-based private investigator. Minkow, 42, served more than seven years in federal prison for fraud while running ZZZZ Best Co.
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