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Doing business

Red tape a fact of life for NASCAR tycoon

Stories  • The right stuff NASCAR is conservative in the political arena -- and proud of it. The choice for the stock-car set is the Republican Party. The two have combined to form a strong, beneficial union.  • One of their own When it comes to paving the road to political office, NASCAR knows how to pick winners. When Arizona Senator Jon Kyl was up for re-election he pitted with NASCAR and won.  • Doing business Red tape is a fact of life for NASCAR tycoon Bruton Smith. But that hasn't stopped him from building a $1 billion corporation and becoming the king of clout in motor sports.   • Contributing factors The political bent of NASCAR is clear cut. But elsewhere in the celebrity universe, the money is split for the Republicans and Democrats.  Campaign Contributions  • The NASCAR crowd  • Sports and Entertainment Figures

By Mike Fish, CNNSI.com

Politics in sports doesn't end with a contribution to a favorite candidate. There are issues and red tape to confront almost daily in the course of business, especially for speedway owners.

And, of course, it's the issues that drive racing's hierarchy to a conservative Republican agenda.

By his estimate, Bruton Smith spends 30 percent of his time haggling on the political front. His Speedway Motorsports Inc., a $1.9 billion publicly traded company, employs an army of specialists whose sole job is to navigate government regulations and bureaucracy.

His Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., where $35 million of improvements are under way, is a classic case in point. Smith is wrangling with the Yellow Flag Alliance, a small, loosely aligned group of anti-racing folks and environmentalists in the vineyard-rich area of northern California bent on protecting the endangered California red-legged frog.

"I've been out there and said, 'Let's go find us a red-legged frog,''' said Smith, who was raised on a farm in rural Oakboro, N.C. "And we haven't found one yet. People that have worked there for eight years haven't seen one, either. They want to protect the red-legged frogs, but we can't find any.

"Ah, it is beyond crazy. It is absolutely 10 nightmares. If somebody were to sentence you and say, 'You're going to have to deal with this,' you'd say, 'Wait a minute, isn't there something else I can do? Can I go to prison for awhile or something?'''

The red-legged frog joined the threatened species list in 1996, after widespread agricultural and urban development had shrunk the frog's natural habitat to a quarter of its former size. But the decision was not without controversy; even then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt called it "a case that cries out for more biology and careful research.''

For Smith, the frog battle produced a three-year delay for the improvements before ground was broken last September. As part of the deal, Smith agreed to create a natural habitat for the red-legged frog on the sprawling grounds that sit about a mile from the closest vineyard. He also scrapped plans for 65,000 permanent grandstand seats in favor of naturally landscaped terraces built into the adjacent hillsides.

Sonoma County supervisors eventually approved the project by a 5-0 vote.

"The track is very well supported by the political community,'' said Steve Page, Sears Point's president/general manager. "All the major political figures, from the federal to the state and county, are regular attendees at our events.''

Page said the track generally doesn't contribute to local campaigns, but he acknowledged a "couple contributions'' were made to Sonoma county supervisor races last year. Three supervisors were up for re-election. Page himself contributed $200 to Michael Cale, whose district includes the racing facility, but county records indicate the track also donated to the campaigns of four of the five supervisors in recent years.

The legal haggling in California is not far out of the norm for Smith's company, which owns six major racetracks and a handful of racing-related subsidiaries, such as Finish Line Events and the Performance Racing Network.

His attorneys are now busy fighting a Federal Trade Commission suit alleging bogus advertising claims about the engine addictive zMax, which is manufactured by one of Smith's subsidiaries and heavily promoted at his racetracks.

At Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, his newest track, Smith spent $1 million after just the first year addressing changes to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Tweaking of the federal code required modification of restroom stalls and adjusting the height of water fountains.

"Some times you have involvement with elected officials,'' said Eddie Gossage, executive vice president/general manager of Texas Motor Speedway. "Most of the time, it's with the bureaucrats. They don't care about your business.''

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