Bruton Smith, the Owner/CEO of Speedway Motorsports and Charlotte Motor Speedway which is the home to three NASCAR Sprint Cup races, has a small beef with another prominent North Carolina sports owner – Jerry Richardson.
In a recent interview with Motorsport.com, Smith says he’s thought about purchasing the Carolina Panthers, calls them losers and says he gave Richardson the blueprint for what is now Bank of America Stadium – for which he is still waiting on a “Thank You.”
“Would I buy them? I’ve got some boys that want me to, and so we may — on a weak moment — we might would do that.”
“You’re dealing with a loser. They didn’t win. Right? So you’re buying a losing team. If they had won, it would have been different.”
“Here’s the thing, the guy that owns I think 48 percent, Jerry Richardson, you know that stadium (Bank of America Stadium), if you want to see a rendering of that stadium it’s probably hanging somewhere there at the speedway there in Charlotte because I hired the company when we worked and designed that stadium. When I was doing that I was going to build it across the street from the speedway.
“Well, Jerry messed around there and with Hugh McColl’s (former Chairman and CEO of BofA) help, he got the team. Well, I just backed away and let him go, and I gave him the blueprints on that stadium, and he built it like I would have done it. But he forgot. He has not gotten around yet to thanking me for giving them to him.”
“I paid $50,000 to design that thing, working with this company up in Ohio. But Jerry, bless his heart, I guess maybe he didn’t think or something, and he’s never said, ‘Thank you’ or anything, so far. So we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Not sure how a 15-1 regular season, NFC South Championship, Divisional Championship and a Super Bowl appearance constitutes a team as a loser, but I digress….
If these guys weren’t a little older, those comments might’ve sparked a nice Twitter beef. I think Jerry Richardson may have a different recount of that story. Either way, I don’t expect a “Thank you” is imminent.
H/T: Black & Blue Review