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closeDeal to swap race dates near, Smith suggests
DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Friday, Feb. 29, 2008
LAS VEGAS – Bruton Smith worked the room in the media center Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, confirming he has proposed swapping his Atlanta track’s October date for the Labor Day weekend slot at Auto Club Speedway in California.
“It is the thing to do,” said Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. “I hope that we will have an answer on that in the very near future.”
Smith also said he believes the track here has “earned” a second race on NASCAR’s schedule. But he said flatly he wouldn’t move a race here from Atlanta and sounded reluctant about taking a race from New Hampshire to put here.
“Maybe they will feel sorry for us some day,” Smith said. "You realize that NASCAR has never, ever, never given me a date. They’ve given a lot of other people dates. ...It’s just an oversight. I am sure they meant to.”
Smith also renewed his pleas to move the annual Sprint Cup series awards banquet from New York to Vegas, and that he would be interested in buying the National Hot Rod Association – at the right price.
