Smith speaks
A few highlights of Bruton's Smith's morning press conference at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
“I’m real delighted, and I was pleased with our races (Saturday). I found out that this speedway was far racier than I had realized.”
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What changes are coming?
“I don’t know yet, but we’re working on plans. We’ll come back later and tell you what we’re going to do. Right now we’re going to make it better, better for the race fans.”
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“This place reminds me a great deal of Bristol, Tennessee. It’s the people, it’s the area, it’s the enthusiasm. Racing here is almost like a second religion. We have a large contingent of people who will be here today from Canada, but this whole area is racing like we see it in Bristol. We don’t see it all over the USA, so that’s great. If I thought it was going to be this good I’d have paid Bob more.”
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Might those same of those same people pose obstacles to some of the potential improvements in the future?
“We have to overcome that because I want to put lights up here.”
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Do you ever envision the NHRA coming here, and building a dragway?
“No. (Eight-second pause.) Never.”
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Are you considering rebuilding elsewhere on the property while continuing to race here until it’s complete?
“That has come up with the engineers, and it’s not a bad one. We have not ruled it out, but I don’t think we’ll do that. It’s something we’ll certainly consider when it’s time.”
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How is the current economic situation affecting some of the most recent decisions at expansion?
“I’m pretty happy with it. I’m a person that takes the heat in the kitchen, or whatever, and I’m very pleased.”
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How do you plan to get a Cup race in Kentucky, or a second race in Vegas, without moving another SMI race?
“Precisely. Carefully. What we’ll do there is, we may have to make a drastic move somewhere. I’m more concerned right now with Kentucky than Las Vegas.”
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Do you foresee that date coming from here, or do you foresee having to take a second date from here?
“No. We will try to accomplish that in another way. We’re working on some things.”
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Do you foresee major changes to the track itself?
“I was pleasantly pleased yesterday with the shows we had yesterday and how racy it really was. Prior to that I was very determined on making some changes. Right now we’re going to look at some things.”
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How has your pre-conceived notion of this marketplace changed, or has anything surprised you?
“I’ve met a lot of people here in the last year, and the warmth of the people that I get when I’m looking around restaurants and what, I’ve been pleasantly pleased by that. It reminds me so much of Bristol because I get that still at Bristol. I like being there because it is just a fantastic place, and I get the same feeling here.”
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“We like to make money. And if we have an event that’s not making money we’re going to clip it, cut it. That’s what we’re after. We’re after successful events, and when IndyCar was here before the split they did pretty doggone well. Hopefully Eddie can work this out and they’re running here next year.”
Pick up tomorrow's Monitor for a complete recap. Now let's go racing.
