S&P lowers ratings for Bruton Smith’s SMI

Standard & Poor's has lowered its corporate credit and issue-level ratings on Speedway Motorsports Inc., criticizing the speedway for higher debt leverage and other practices.

The rating agency lowered its credit rating further into junk territory, to 'BB' from 'BB+,' and removed the Concord, N.C.-based speedway from CreditWatch, where it was placed with negative implications on June 18.

The rating outlook is "Stable."

"The rating change is based on Speedway Motorsports' more aggressive financial policy, higher debt leverage and our discomfort with the narrowing margin of compliance for the previous 'BB+' rating," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Andy Liu said.