Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith wants more caution flags thrown during Sprint Cup races and advocated Saturday for cautions specifically thrown to bunch up the field.
Smith’s company owns five 1.5-mile tracks (Atlanta, Charlotte, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Texas) as well as the half-mile Bristol, 1-mile New Hampshire and the Sonoma road course. It is at the intermediate tracks where NASCAR has faced its biggest challenge to produce exciting racing, with the sanctioning body having changed the rules already twice this year to increase competition.
That might not be far enough for Smith, who wouldn’t mind caution flags to set up more double-file restarts throughout a race.
“We need caution flags,” Smith said Saturday prior to the Quaker State 400. “I don’t care what you want to call it, we need those caution flags because that adds excitement to what we do.
“You just can’t sit there and nothing is happening. It ruins the event. It’s damaging to our sport. Look at some of your other sports—they have a mandatory timeout, TV (commercial) time and all these things, and that creates things within the sport. We need to be creative in what we do in NASCAR.”
As one of the two major track owners—the other being the NASCAR-owning France family—Smith said he has talked to NASCAR president Mike Helton about adding cautions. It is part of the balance of competition versus providing entertainment.
NASCAR spokesman David Higdon said NASCAR always looks at ways to improve the racing. In trying to improve the racing, NASCAR has changed the specifications of how high the body of the car sits off the ground twice this year in hopes to improve the ability of cars to catch and pass the leader.
“If you have them (cautions) every 20 laps, I don’t care,” Smith said. “It adds to the show. Someone once said we were in show business.
“If we’re in show business, let’s deliver. Let’s deliver that show. Right now, we’re not delivering.”
Smith also advocated that NASCAR should ask Goodyear to produce a tire that wears out more during a run, creating the need for possibly more pit stops and also to allow the drivers who don’t abuse their tires to make passes on those whose cars’ handling goes away as their tires wear.
He said Goodyear will bring a softer tire to Bristol in August.
Smith said it is not a problem with the racetracks.
“We cannot go out here and start condemning mile-and-a-half speedways,” Smith said. “They’re there. They’ve been there a long time. I built Charlotte in 1960 and it stood the test of time.
“Don’t carry the argument that ‘It’s the speedway.’ Bullcrap. That’s not the case. What we have is a tire problem. We have a lot of different problems, but it’s not at mile-and-a-half speedways.”
As far as where the Sprint Cup Series races, the summer is the time for SMI to negotiate sanction agreements with NASCAR. Smith would not comment on if he’s requested any changes to his current alignment, which has two races at Charlotte, Texas, Bristol and New Hampshire and one race at the rest of the SMI tracks.
Smith’s company owns five 1.5-mile tracks (Atlanta, Charlotte, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Texas) as well as the half-mile Bristol, 1-mile New Hampshire and the Sonoma road course. It is at the intermediate tracks where NASCAR has faced its biggest challenge to produce exciting racing, with the sanctioning body having changed the rules already twice this year to increase competition.
That might not be far enough for Smith, who wouldn’t mind caution flags to set up more double-file restarts throughout a race.
“We need caution flags,” Smith said Saturday prior to the Quaker State 400. “I don’t care what you want to call it, we need those caution flags because that adds excitement to what we do.
“You just can’t sit there and nothing is happening. It ruins the event. It’s damaging to our sport. Look at some of your other sports—they have a mandatory timeout, TV (commercial) time and all these things, and that creates things within the sport. We need to be creative in what we do in NASCAR.”
As one of the two major track owners—the other being the NASCAR-owning France family—Smith said he has talked to NASCAR president Mike Helton about adding cautions. It is part of the balance of competition versus providing entertainment.
NASCAR spokesman David Higdon said NASCAR always looks at ways to improve the racing. In trying to improve the racing, NASCAR has changed the specifications of how high the body of the car sits off the ground twice this year in hopes to improve the ability of cars to catch and pass the leader.
“If you have them (cautions) every 20 laps, I don’t care,” Smith said. “It adds to the show. Someone once said we were in show business.
“If we’re in show business, let’s deliver. Let’s deliver that show. Right now, we’re not delivering.”
Smith also advocated that NASCAR should ask Goodyear to produce a tire that wears out more during a run, creating the need for possibly more pit stops and also to allow the drivers who don’t abuse their tires to make passes on those whose cars’ handling goes away as their tires wear.
He said Goodyear will bring a softer tire to Bristol in August.
Smith said it is not a problem with the racetracks.
“We cannot go out here and start condemning mile-and-a-half speedways,” Smith said. “They’re there. They’ve been there a long time. I built Charlotte in 1960 and it stood the test of time.
“Don’t carry the argument that ‘It’s the speedway.’ Bullcrap. That’s not the case. What we have is a tire problem. We have a lot of different problems, but it’s not at mile-and-a-half speedways.”
As far as where the Sprint Cup Series races, the summer is the time for SMI to negotiate sanction agreements with NASCAR. Smith would not comment on if he’s requested any changes to his current alignment, which has two races at Charlotte, Texas, Bristol and New Hampshire and one race at the rest of the SMI tracks.
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