You either like him or not, but dang, ya gotta respect the man for standing up to NASCAR and speaking his mind. He tells it the way it is.

Incidentally, I agree with everything he did say. Get the banquet the hell out of NYC and out to Vegas and make it a big production, Vegas style. I hated every minute I was in Manhattan a couple years ago while there on business. NYC is expensive as hell, a clustered mess getting back and forth between airports, and driving your car there requires a bottle of Prozac and a stash of money for parking tickets.

I had to laugh over the Texas promoter who is putting up money to any driver who throws his helmet. he feels the same thing I do, let the drivers show some emotion. I said this during my Tampa Tribune interview - get the handcuffs off these drivers and let them be human.

Chris

Here is the Article:


By Bruce Martin PA SportsTicker Contributing Editor

LAS VEGAS (Ticker) - Bruton Smith, the chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., has offered to switch race dates from Atlanta Motor Speedway to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California in the fall.

Speedway Motorsports owns, among its many racetracks, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is the site of this weekend’s UAW-Dodge 400.

The plan would swap California’s Labor Day weekend date to Atlanta, with the current late October race date for Atlanta going to California.

That would provide a chance to have a Labor Day weekend race in the South and would give California a better time of the year for its second date. Last year’s Labor Day weekend race at California was marred by temperatures as high as 114 degrees.

“The proposal has been made that we give California the Atlanta date in October and Atlanta gets the Labor Day date,” Smith said Friday before NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifications. “It’s the thing to do. The people I’ve talked with within the sport and within NASCAR all agree it’s the thing to do. I hope we can announce that in the very near future. That will be for next year, yes.

“We’ve had conversation but not in a written fashion yet.”

Smith also was direct in his criticism of holding NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Banquet in New York City. Instead, he wants to have the season-ending awards banquet held in Las Vegas, where it would be an even bigger production that would be warmly received by teams, sponsors and fans.

“It is the thing to do,” Smith said. “It should have been done some time ago and hasn’t been done yet. One person within the room who can make the decision thinks the sponsors want to be in New York. That is not true. The sponsors want to be in Las Vegas. I looked at my hotel room bill and I thought it was my home phone number. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

“We should have the awards banquet right here. We could sell 16,000 tickets to fans and make them part of it.”
Smith said the format of NASCAR’s New York banquet is “long and boring.” He said that would not be the case if it were moved to Las Vegas.

“You have a lot of people that put shows together out here,” Smith said of Las Vegas. “I could picture a production. You don’t have it in New York. “There has been an attempt but a lousy attempt in my opinion.”

Smith also believes Las Vegas Motor Speedway should be given a second Cup date while pointing out that in his long history as a NASCAR track promoter, he has never officially been given a date for any of his tracks. Instead, he has had to move those race dates from other tracks that he already owns.

“Las Vegas is a special place,” Smith said. “More people visit Las Vegas more than any city in the world. It has more hotel rooms and in another 18 months there will be 180,000 hotel rooms here in the city. Now with all of that, maybe somewhere along the line Las Vegas Motor Speedway has earned that other date that you are talking about.

“My answer was that maybe Las Vegas has earned a date. Do you realize that NASCAR has never, ever given me a date? It really disturbs me when youth is wasted on young people. When I built Charlotte, I was operating the dirt Charlotte Speedway and moved those two dates to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. They gave Prisonland (Chicagoland Speedway) a date but never ever a date to me. I think that’s just an oversight.”

Chicagoland is in Joliet, which also houses the state penitentiary.

ANGER MANAGEMENT:

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage wants to see NASCAR drivers be more expressive. So he has come up with a financial incentive to the Cup drivers to lash out at another competitor.

“I’m offering $15,000 for any helmet thrown by a Cup series driver during a race between now and the April 6 Samsung 500,” Gossage said of the spring Texas race. “I have a huge helmet collection from drivers through the years and it would be great to add to the collection.

“And as NASCAR allows the drivers to open up and show their personalities even their frustrations I imagine the likelihood of true emotions are more likely to bubble to the top. I’ve seen some helmets thrown during a race and never have they injured anyone or damaged another driver’s car. We’ll see what happens.”

Gossage said the $15,000 is available to the driver or will be paid to the charity of the driver’s choice.

One stipulation is the helmet must be thrown on the race track during competition.

Im glad that Im not the only one that feels this way. I have been bored to tears with NASCAR for the last few years. It would be great to see some more emotion, and sincerity from the drivers. Im tired of the "Chase for more..." More Sponsors, More Exposure, More Fans, More MONEY!!!! MORE MORE MORE!!! Get back to your roots NASCAR, let the drivers personalities show, like the good ol' days, and give DW something interesting to talk about!

Watch NASCAR lighten the reins a little at a time with the drivers as their viewer ratings continue to fall and attendance drops. They need a boost and this is one way to do it.

I am not the only one who is screaming to let the drivers be human. There are some people in this sport much more powerful then I ever thought of being quietly telling France to loosen the reins and let these boys show some emotions.

Sad as it may seem, emotions and controversy sells tickets.

Chris

What Bruton really should have proposed to them was to get Homestead swapped out with Las Vegas. (I know that is much trickier than tracks that he owns but you never know until you try.)

Not only should they have the championship celebration in Vegas for a billion good reasons but they should also have the final race of the season there then follow it up that week with the celebration. Give the fans a chance to really get in on things and share it all with the drivers. All the drivers not just the top 12.

NY is not a family place to take your kids for a couple of days of fun, as if many can afford it, but Vegas is.

Once he accomplished that feat then he could work on getting the second date at Vegas or swapping other dates, etc.

As a footnote, I like Brut but I am still PO'ed at him for raping a great short track for one of his cookie cutter
1/5 mile tracks -

North Wilkesboro

Chris