Smith says no to cash refunds for those caught in Kentucky traffic

Smith says no to cash refunds for those caught in Kentucky traffic

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(July 15, 2011)

LOUDON, N.H.—If you were caught in traffic trying to get to Kentucky Speedway last Saturday and missed the inaugural Sprint Cup race there, don’t ask for a refund—it’s not happening.

Asked whether Speedway Motorsports Inc. considered refunding money to frustrated ticket holders, chairman Bruton Smith was succinct and abundantly clear.

“No, sir, we did not,” Smith said Friday in a question-and-answer session with reporters at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “We offered the exchange of tickets, yes. Are you talking about a cash refund? No, did not, and we will not.”

Asked why not, Smith was equally terse, “We don’t want to.”

Through a ticket exchange offer, fans who didn’t make it to the racetrack can exchange their unused Kentucky tickets for a ticket to another Cup event at an SMI track this year or to next year’s race at Kentucky—assuming there is one.

Smith says he will meet with Kentucky governor Steve Beshear and his support people next Friday. Asked whether he would consider pulling the Cup date from Kentucky if the meeting didn’t go his way, Smith quipped, “Las Vegas, baby!

“I would not answer that at this time. I’ll wait until after my wonderful meeting with the governor, and we’ll go from there.”

The construction of a new interchange on Interstate 71 doubtless will be on the table during that discussion. In Smith’s view, inadequacies of that highway were a main contributor to the traffic problem.

“Engineers have already engineered this (the new exit), and I’m sure I’ll be presenting that to the governor and his people, but that has already been engineered,” Smith said. “I’m sincerely sorry that everybody did not get in there. I’m sorry we had such traffic, although I had continuously warned people about that Interstate 71.

“I told everybody that would listen that that Interstate 71 sucked. It’s terrible. It’s the lousiest piece of interstate that I have ever driven on, and I was hoping that would get some attention. It maybe got a little, but it sure didn’t get a lot. That’s what we were dealing with, and I think that, when we go back there, you’ll find that maybe someone will have done something about it.”

Smith preferred to highlight the event as the most heavily attended Cup event of the season. Though he didn’t have a hard number in terms of ticket sales, he didn’t discourage the notion that 150,000 people may have come to the race—or tried to.

“I think most of the people in this room realize that what we do is large,” Smith said. “And what we did up there last weekend on Saturday … you’ve heard of the Super Bowl and this and that, and they’ll have 70-75,000. We had two Super Bowl crowds there.

“So when you’re dealing with the large crowds that we had, it takes everybody. It’s not just us as a corporation. You need the state, the county, the city—you’ve got to have that type of cooperation everywhere we go. Without that, you’ll get lost in the shuffle.”

Smith also had harsh words for other NASCAR speedways that tried to capitalize on the traffic fiasco at Kentucky. Michigan International Speedway president Roger Curtis, for example, sent an e-mail blast detailing the problems at Kentucky and pointing out that his track could do better.

“I was born and raised on a farm, and we had a jackass that got away from us,” Smith said. “He was young, frisky—my dad, I remembered saying, ‘That’s the sorriest jackass we’ve ever had.’ But he got away, and we never did recover him.

“But I understand that he had popped up now up in Michigan somewhere.”

Smith insisted he would never try to capitalize on another track’s problems. Why, then, does Smith refer to the location of Homestead-Miami Speedway as “North Cuba?” a reporter asked.

“Tell us where it’s located,” Smith said. “Isn’t it really in North Cuba? I don’t have any problem with you referring to this (New Hampshire) as South Canada, because we draw a lot of Canadians here—lots of ’em.

“As a matter of fact, if you’ll stay with us on Sunday, we’ll have some nice, wonderful person singing the Canadian national anthem. Now, do you sing the Cuban national anthem in North Cuba? Well, you should. Take a lesson from what we do here.”