Bruton Smith Wants End to Start-and-Park

Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. told media attending the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway that he would like to see an end to start-and-park racing, a term that refers to race teams that run only a few laps of a race in order to collect a portion of the purse, but pull off the track before causing too much wear and tear on their equipment, thereby saving on the expense of running a full race.

"Start-and-park should not be a part of what we do," he said. "I think it's derogatory toward our sport. I'm going to try my best  and I hope you'll join me  to see if NASCAR can do something about this. It certainly isn't adding anything to our sport, and it certainly takes away."

He then asked media in the room to use their influence to put an end to the practice. Smith's other appeal was to encourage NASCAR to reduce the top speeds of the race cars, which he argued would make the racing safer but also create more excitement for the fans because the drivers will make moves with more confidence.