81 Facts About Bruton Smith

Ollen Bruton Smith was an American motorsports executive and businessman.

Bruton Smith was best known as the owner of two public companies, Speedway Motorsports, Inc and Sonic Automotive.

Bruton Smith was an entrepreneur, race promoter, and businessman during the rise of stock car racing that began in the 1950s.

Bruton Smith is widely regarded as one of the most influential businessmen in auto racing and a polarizing figure in the industry.

Bruton Smith used his wealth and power to turn racetracks owned by Speedway Motorsports into world-class facilities and to turn Sonic Automotive into one of the biggest car dealership businesses in the United States.

Businessmen who worked under Bruton Smith, including Humpy Wheeler and Eddie Gossage, viewed Bruton Smith highly for his actions.

Bruton Smith was embroiled in numerous legal battles and controversies, including his divorce with his only wife and his reaction to opposition of construction of a drag strip at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Bruton Smith "never did like that", and by the age of nine had decided he would leave the farm.

When he was 11, Bruton Smith began practicing with a home-made punching bag, and dreamed of becoming the middleweight champion of the world.

Bruton Smith recalled that he had numerous "crazy ideas" as a child: he saw a movie in which a tycoon owned a train and saw another featuring James Cagney owning a trucking company, and for a while decided that he wanted to own a train and a trucking company.

Bruton Smith watched his first auto-racing event at the age of eight at the Charlotte Speedway.

In 1946, Bruton Smith began selling used cars from his front yard, operating the business for about five years, according to The Charlotte News.

Bruton Smith bought his first race car at 17 for $700.

Bruton Smith claimed that on one occasion during his brief racing career, he managed to beat Buck Baker and Joe Weatherly, both of whom are considered early NASCAR pioneers.

However, Bruton Smith's mother opposed the idea of his racing, praying that Bruton Smith would stop.

Bruton Smith, stating that he could not "fight [his] mom and God", ceased racing.

Bruton Smith began promoting stock-car events as a 17-year-old in Midland, North Carolina, in the middle of a cornfield he nicknamed the "Dust Bowl".

In 1949, Bruton Smith took over the National Stock Car Racing Association, a league that had formed a year earlier in 1948 and was one of several fledgling stock-car sanctioning bodies that were direct competitors to NASCAR, which had been founded in the same year.

Early in the year, Bruton Smith announced the creation of a new division called the "Strictly Stock" division, which utilized newer models of stock cars instead of older, modified cars.

In 1951, Bruton Smith took over the lease of the Charlotte Speedway from Buck Baker, Roby Combs, and Ike Kiser to promote races at the speedway.

When Bruton Smith returned to civilian life two years later, he found that poor leadership in his absence had caused the NSCRA to disband.

Bruton Smith was known to get into disagreements and, on occasion, fights with drivers over issues.

Bruton Smith later called it "a miracle that the place got built", later admitting that he had lost over $150,000 constructing the track.

Bruton Smith was later assigned to serve as the promotional director.

In 1962, Bruton Smith was indicted over failing to properly file tax returns in 1955 and 1956.

Bruton Smith was found guilty, incurring a $4,000 fine and receiving a suspended one-year prison term in 1963.

Bruton Smith was known as an extravagant spender and wealthy dealer during his time in Rockford; his business became highly successful, and he later became president of the Rockford New Car Dealers Association.

Bruton Smith realized during the turbulence that he was "really working for my employees", which he no longer wanted to do.

Bruton Smith later stated that he did not want to be tied down to a strict schedule or to be "surrounded by bureaucracy".

Bruton Smith initially stated that he had no intention of owning the track again, stating that he did not know why he had bought so many shares.

In February 1975, Howard was threatening to resign from the board of directors, with both Howard and Bruton Smith both accusing each other of double-crossing the other, and Bruton Smith stating that he believed Howard had too much control over the speedway and had been responsible for financial irregularities.

Three months later, Bruton Smith had managed to buy nearly 800,000 shares, planning to become the majority stockholder.

Tension between the two grew, with Howard being regarded as a "good ol' country boy" who wanted to spend conservatively on the track, a stark contrast to Bruton Smith, who was regarded as an affluent, extravagant businessman who had ambitions to grow the track into a world-class facility.

In 1977, Bruton Smith bought a private jet from Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who was facing severe financial and political turmoil.

In June 1979, Bruton Smith founded Sonic Aviation, a charter jet service company.

In 1985, Bruton Smith managed to buy all remaining stock in the Charlotte Motor Speedway, making Bruton Smith the sole owner of the track.

Bruton Smith began buying more racetracks in the 1990s, including the Atlanta International Raceway in 1990 for $19.8 million, saying that he would expand seating and improve other facilities.

Bruton Smith was later treated as an outpatient for burns on his head during a media event that promoted a "grand opening" for the new lighting system.

Bruton Smith created a new division of short-track racing, named Legends Car, after feeling that the Charlotte Motor Speedway needed to cut costs for local, entry-level racing.

Bruton Smith later incorporated Speedway Motorsports, Inc in 1994, offering 4.5 million shares during the first business quarter in 1995 at a price of $18 per share.

Later in the decade, Bruton Smith bought the Bristol International Raceway and the Sears Point Raceway in 1996, and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1998.

In February 1997, Bruton Smith incorporated Sonic Automotive, a car dealership business.

At the time, Sonic Automotive had 20 dealerships, including the two that Bruton Smith had kept during his early days as a car dealership owner.

Bruton Smith's stated goal was to create an "auto mall", where numerous car dealerships would offer cars from multiple manufacturers near a flagship site.

In 2002, Bruton Smith was rumored to be retiring from the company after an announcement of a successorship plan made by his son Scott.

Bruton Smith continued buying speedways throughout the 2000s, including both the New Hampshire International Speedway and the Kentucky Speedway in 2008.

Bruton Smith acquired full control of the North Wilkesboro Speedway from Bob Bahre in 2007.

In 2019, Bruton Smith took Speedway Motorsports private and took the company off the NYSE; the Sonic Financial Corporation, another company Bruton Smith owned, acquired all outstanding shares of SMI.

Bruton Smith, according to Hendrick, had tried to advocate the usage of zMax, a micro-lubricant which had sponsorship rights on the Charlotte Motor Speedway dragstrip, on all of Hendrick's cars, despite the fact that Bruton Smith was immobile.

Bruton Smith was involved in numerous business and legal battles since his start as a businessman.

Since the construction of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bruton Smith faced financial difficulties and lawsuits filed against him.

In 1962, Bruton Smith was indicted for failing to properly file tax returns in 1955 and 1956, later being found guilty in 1964.

In 1997, Bruton Smith entered a bidding war with Roger Penske over the purchase of the North Carolina Motor Speedway.

In 2010, Bruton Smith sued Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton, claiming that Newton was delinquent on a loan he had personally guaranteed, then bought from Bank of America.

The next day, Bruton Smith stated his intent to file claims against every director at the company, calling the lawsuit "ridiculous".

Bruton Smith, who opposed the merger, stopped further negotiations with the company's management.

The company's board of directors later published a letter in The Charlotte Observer, stating that Bruton Smith had agreed to the merger and that the company did not feel that it was appropriate to hand over control of the company to Bruton Smith.

The letter stated that the lawsuit was to ensure Bruton Smith complied with the merger.

Bruton Smith continued to be the company's majority shareholder, with Harwood as president, presiding over a quick rebound of annual losses by 1986.

Bruton Smith vehemently disagreed with the session, stating that he wished that the speedway had never been annexed into Concord, and deciding to start preliminary grading on the dragstrip location regardless of the session's decision.

The next day, Bruton Smith demanded that the speedway and its surrounding land be unannexed from the city of Concord or he would shut down the speedway and either demolish the speedway or relegate the speedway to a testing facility, taking hundreds of millions of dollars away from the Concord economy.

Bruton Smith's actions regarding the speedway were widely viewed as negative by citizens of Concord and its county, Cabarrus County.

Many within the area felt that Bruton Smith had used his wealth and power to massively exploit the city of Concord for tens of millions of dollars.

The dispute was reopened in September 2009, when Bruton Smith sued Cabarrus County and the city of Concord for $4 million, demanding quicker payment of funds for roadwork.

Bruton Smith claimed that the $4 million was part of the $80 million incentive package.

Bruton Smith claimed that he believed that the payment was to be reimbursed within nine years, while the city of Concord said that the payment would be made within 40 years.

Bruton Smith made attempts to resurrect the lawsuit in 2013, claiming that the city of Concord had backed out of the incentive package.

Bruton Smith married Bonnie Jean Harris on June 6,1972, in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bruton Smith had met Harris in 1969 while selling her a Ford Thunderbird in Illinois.

Bonnie filed for divorce in July 1988 after a June 24 argument in which Bruton Smith was stated to have gone into "a rage", grabbing a fire poker and proceeding to tear down a portrait of her, according to court records.

Bonnie claimed that later that day, Bruton Smith threatened her with a butcher knife, repeatedly threatening her with physical harm if she began legal proceedings against him.

Bruton Smith later appealed that same year to lower the divorce award, after his requests to lower the award were declined by Brown.

In fall 1994, Bruton Smith agreed to pay a settlement of $19.4 million, which included a provision to pay Bonnie's attorney's fees of around $2 million.

Bruton Smith lost the case, with Bruton Smith being ordered to pay over $1.5 million in attorney's fees, a fee that he would not pay in full until 2001.

Bruton Smith was an evangelical Christian, reportedly having found religion late in life.

Bruton Smith was on the board of directors of the PTL Satellite Network, an evangelical Christian television network that was based in the Carolinas.

Bruton Smith had been placed into the Forbes 400 list starting in 2005, listed as the 207th richest American with a net worth of approximately $1.5 billion.

Bruton Smith fell off the list in 2009, with his last estimated net worth being $1.2 billion in 2008.

Bruton Smith died on June 22,2022, in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the age of 95 due to natural causes.

Bruton Smith was considered to be one of the most influential businessmen in both the auto racing and automotive sales industries by industry leaders and the media.

Former Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage stated that Bruton Smith was "the greatest boss ever", stating that he had managed to turn several racetracks across the United States into world-class facilities comparable to Charlotte Motor Speedway, the first track Bruton Smith owned.