Hey Gordon and Bruton – Sue This!
Will somebody get Bruton Smith his binky?
Now officially Rootin’ Tootin’ Bruton is not behind the lawsuit against
NASCAR by a Speedway Motorsports shareholder, a lawsuit alleging that NASCAR
exercises monopoly control and has denied Texas an allegedly promised Winston
Cup date. But of course it is universally known that Bruton is doing his Gerry
Anderson act here with Johnnie "Shoes Don’t Fit" Cochran as Bruton’s
Captain Scarlet and NASCAR and Int’l Speedway Corporation as The Mysterons.
Except that Johnnie Cochran is more like The Hood or Agent X20.
The monopoly argument is pretty much predicated on the fact that Int’l
Speedway Corporation owns Winston Cup racetracks at Daytona, Rockingham,
Darlington, Talladega, Fontana, Richmond, Michigan, Chicagoland, Kansas,
Phoenix, and Homestead. The argument will no doubt note that upon the completion
of the Chicagoland and Kansas Speedways, Winston Cup dates for each came in
rapid succession.
The argument, though, ignores the history of these racetracks and those under
Bruton’s Speedway Motorsports Inc’s empire. First off, most of the tracks under
ISC ownership got their Winston Cup dates when they were under someone else’s
control – Rockingham when it was controlled by L.G. DeWitt (who also owned
Atlanta from the early ’70s until his death), Michigan when it belonged to Larry
Lopatin, Phoenix when Buddy Jobe owned it, and so on.
As for Bruton, when L.G. DeWitt died in 1990, Bruton stepped in and purchased
Atlanta Int’l Raceway from his heirs. In 1995 he began the building of Texas and
in 1996 purchased Bristol Int’l Raceway from Larry Carrier. Then he purchased
Sears Point Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and there was even talk of him
building a racetrack in New Jersey.
Of course Bruton also purchased half of North Wilkesboro Speedway from Enoch
Staley’s heirs in 1996 and Wilkes’ April date immediately – and apparently
without NASCAR permission – went to Texas. Bob Bahre of NHIS purchased the other
half of Wilkes for its September date, but tried to keep the track open with
Grand National and Truck races, only to be rebuffed by Bruton; it is because of
Bruton that Wilkes has remained closed ever since.
Bruton has also eyed Pocono Int’l Raceway with an all-too-obvious intent to
close it up and siphon its Winston Cup dates; Joe and Rose Mattioli have refused
to sell, and reportedly Pocono would automatically go to ISC in the less than
likely event the Mattiolis change their minds.
It was all too obvious what Bruton was seeking with his racetrack buying and
building binges, and ISC and Roger Penske began hitting back – Penske built
Fontana and purchased Rockingham; ISC bought into Richmond and Homestead, and
their deal to build Chicagoland and Kansas was in alliance with Indianapolis
Motor Speedway; when Penske got out of the racetrack business at the end of 1999
his tracks went to ISC.
So Bruton’s monopoly argument doesn’t really wash, given that it was his
pursuit of his own monopoly that triggered the track binges of the latter 1990s;
moreover Bruton’s racetrack predations served as legitimate justification for
other tracks selling to ISC – do you want your dates to go the way of
Wilkesboro’s? NASCAR can argue that ISC’s actions saved numerous racetracks from
closure at Bruton Smith’s hands.
NASCAR can also point out that the way Bruton got Charlotte Motor Speedway in
the first place wasn’t exactly to the benefit of racing. Charlotte was
overoptimistically conceived and hurriedly built, and the slapdash nature of its
construction led to huge financial losses despite excellent crowds from the
start. Bruton, working with his pal Curtis Turner, ultimately bungled the track
into bankruptcy and Bruton left Pops Turner holding the bag, as acidly noted by
Pops’ widow Caroline "Bunny" Turner-Hall. The courts placed the track
into the hands of local furniture store owner Richard Howard, and it was Howard
who worked the track into solvency and into its status as the sport’s showcase.
Meanwhile Bruton retreated to Illinois, made millions in banking and used car
sales, and secretly assembled enough track stock to poach it out from under
Richard Howard in the mid-70s. Such is hardly the behavior of someone fit to
protest monopolies in NASCAR.
Johnnie Cockroach might stretch things by noting the massive penumbra of
NASCAR’s short track divisions – GN North, the Mod Tour, the Southwest and
Northwest Tours, etc. Johnnie and Bruton, though, need to look at such short
track bodies as USAR and ASA to see that NASCAR doesn’t hold a monopoly on such
areas of racing. If anything, if Bruton is REALLY concerned about a NASCAR
monopoly, he can invest in USAR and revive the American Racing Association as a
counterweight – last I checked ARA, which had some bang-up events in 2001, had
not run a race so far this year after a stout schedule last year; a restarted
ARA and also USAR would certainly get some positive publicity if Bruton got some
dates for them at at least a few of his racetracks, with Performance Racing
Network providing national coverage – a race like USAR’s recent New Smyrna 250,
where Bobby Gill and Mario Gosslin engaged in some exciting door to door combat
for the lead, would be right up the ally of Doug Rice, Mark Garrow, Chuck
Carland, Steve Richards, and Brett McMillan.
SMI investment in ARA and USAR would certainly be more constructive than
filing a lawsuit against NASCAR.
Bruton can help the sport a lot more if he’d work with it. Defang Johnnie
Cockroach once and for all and accept what you’ve got in your racetrack empire,
Bruton, because what you’ve got is enormous – six racetracks, your own radio
network for them, and so forth.
And the sick joke that is Jeff and Brooke Gordon’s marriage and its collapse
goes on.
Jeffie has filed his own lawsuit against Brookie, claiming he should not have
to give up what she wants from him because he risked his life getting all that
dough for multiple mansions, servants, airplanes, ungodly expensive cars, and
the rest. Brooke’s attorney calls Gordon’s counter suit "arrogant and
selfish." And that’s being polite about it. How Wonderboy forgets how
Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, and others raced in a more lethal
era of NASCAR and their marriages held up very nicely – the meltdown of Bobby
Allison’s marriage came AFTER he stopped driving, and was patched up in 2000.
Gordon’s counter suit, in short, is simply a diversion, and the sick joke
that this whole deal was from 1993 on keeps on coming.