“When they said it couldn’t be done, Bruton Smith did it,” how former and active NASCAR drivers reacted to the Hall of Famer passing away

“When they said it couldn’t be done, Bruton Smith did it,” how former and active NASCAR drivers reacted to the Hall of Famer passing away

Kyle Busch, Bruton Smith and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The late Bruton Smith aka Ollen Bruton Smith born on March 3rd, 1927 passed away on June 22nd, 2022 at the age of 95 was a race promoter and the founder of Speedway Motorsports Inc., an organization that hosts race events for NASCAR, IndyCar Series, NHRA and other racing series too and he also built and owns the iconic Charlotte Motor Speedway back in 1959 and he is also a NASCAR Hall of Famer since 2016 and he also made to the Forbes 400 list in 2005 and also the oldest CEO in the Fortune 500.

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Coming to Bruton Smith’s early days, he began watching races in 1935 and bought his first race car at the age of 17 in 1944 he also began promoting races in the following year he later quit racing but didn’t stop promoting races and he relinquished the National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA) in 1949 and was rivaling NASCAR’s founder Bill France Sr., in beginning their own line of stock car racing series but they later went on to form a coalition.

Bruton Smith later went on to fight the Korean War in 1951 and when he returned a couple of years later only to learn that the NSCRA had to be dissolved due to poor management and he later founded Speedway Motorsports Incorporated in 1994 which owns the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway and these tracks host most NASCAR races and also races in other series.

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Here’s how NASCAR drivers reacted to Bruton Smith’s demise

bruton smith
NASCAR Hall of Famer Bruton Smith passes away at 95

The famous NASCAR Hall of Famer inductee and the founder of Speedway Motorsports Inc. made friends with almost every racing legend the sport has seen and they irrespective of their careers now immediately took to their Twitter handles and expressed their emotions on hearing the sad news of his death and those who tweeted include the sports icons, three-time Cup Series Championship winner Darrell Waltrip, Stewart Haas-Racing co-owner and former racer Tony Stewart, sixteen times NHRA Funny Car Champion John Force and many other active racers like Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Cole Custer, Ryan Blaney honoring Bruton Smith.

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Also read: NASCAR Hall of Famer and Nashville Superspeedway owner Bruton Smith passed away ahead of the Ally 400