Bruton Smith timeline: From a rural NC farm to fame and fortune on NASCAR tracks

Born to a family that grew cotton, corn and wheat in rural North Carolina, Ollen Bruton Smith grew up to be a visionary and feisty businessman and NASCAR Hall of Famer.

He died Wednesday, his company, Speedway Motorsports Inc., said. He was 95.

Here is a timeline of Smith’s life:

March 2, 1927: Born in the Stanly County town of Oakboro. He was the youngest of nine children.

1949: Formed the National Stock Car Racing Association, an early NASCAR competitor that staged races in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

1951: Drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War and trained as a paratrooper. Smith was never deployed overseas.

1953: Leaves Army and learns his racing organization dissolved because of mismanagement in his absence.

1959: Smith and NASCAR driver Curtis Turner begin construction of Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 1.5-mile track in Concord.

1960: Speedway hosts the inaugural World 600 on June 19. The race is now known as the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race of the season.

1961: Smith and speedway file for bankruptcy due to construction debts.

1966: Opens Frontier Ford in Rockford, Illinois, his first auto dealership.

1967: Group led by businessman Richard Howard of Denver, North Carolina, brings speedway out of bankruptcy.

1975: Smith regains control of the track after gradual purchases of shares.

1982: Founded Speedway Children’s Charities in 1982 in memory of his late son, Bruton Cameron Smith. The nonprofit has distributed more than $58 million to charities over the years.

1992: Lights are installed at the speedway, setting up the track’s first night races in May.

1994: Consolidates motorsports holdings to form Speedway Motorsports.

1995: Took SMI public in 1995 to become the first motorsports company to be traded at the New York Stock Exchange. The company now owns 11 racing venues.

1997: Starts Sonic Automotive in January and takes the Charlotte-based company public that November.

2000: Sonic becomes a Fortune 500 company. The company now has 160 retail dealerships in over 23 states.

2004: Speedway illegally cut down 166 trees around a new parking lot on the property. After the City of Charlotte ordered him to replace the trees, Smith instead solds the property.

2005: Smith offers to spend $50 million to help build an elevated rail line between uptown Charlotte and the speedway. Charlotte transportation officials said the plan wasn’t feasible.

2006: Named to the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame.

2007: Concord City Council voted to stop Smith from building what is now zMax Dragway. The council backs off after he threatens to shut down the speedway and build another one elsewhere. Concord sweetens deal with $80 million in incentives.

2008: Concord renames the road connecting Concord Mills Mall and Interstate 85 to the speedway to Bruton Smith Boulevard.

2011: Speedway installs a 16,000 square-foot high-definition video screen, then the largest in the world but since eclipsed by the “Big Hoss” screen at Smith’s Texas track.

2013: Smith threatened to move Charlotte’s fall race to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, another SMI track.

2014: Creates EchoPark Automotive, a retailer of pre-owned vehicles.

2015: Received clean bill of health after receiving diagnosis for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

2016: Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

June 22, 2022: Died at age 95.

This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 6:01 PM.