CONCORD, N.C. -- Bruton Smith, owner of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., said Tuesday that if Concord does not work with him on a controversial drag strip, he’ll take Lowe’s Motor Speedway somewhere else.

Smith told Eyewitness News he is already looking for plots of land in the Charlotte area. He said he’ll close LSM and build a new speedway and his own airport so that race car drivers will easily be able to fly in and out of town.

“I’ve built more speedways than anyone else in the world,” he reasoned. He said it would only take him 11 months and about $350 million to erect another one.

Concord doesn’t look like it’s going to be a place for him to grow, he said, so if city leaders don’t change their minds, he will take his business and go.

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Smith said he’s dumbfounded that the Concord City Council voted against a proposed drag strip near the speedway on Monday night, effectively changing the area’s zoning rules. Workers had already started grading the land to make way for the strip.

Dozens of residents showed up at the city council meeting to protest the strip so close to their homes. Others argued the economic benefits of such a motorsports attraction, which would provide jobs and revenue in the area.

Smith will have to take the city to court in order for the decision to be reversed. He wants to undo an annexation, which made the speedway, and the land around it that had been zoned for motorsports, part of the city limits.

“Either they go, or we go,” he said.

Eyewitness News contacted the mayor of Concord and told him what Smith had to say. He said he had no comment.

Smith is estimated by Forbes to be worth more than $1.4 billion.

Speedway Move Would Have Big Economic Impact

More than $6 million was deposited by LMS leaders at Bank of America on Tuesday for winners of the October races -- the amount is just a fraction of the billions of dollars NASCAR pumps into the local economy.

Now the future of the track at the center of the local racing world is in doubt – but John Cox, the president of the Cabarrus County Chamber of Commerce, believes even after Monday night's decision an agreement could still be reached.

"Anything that they can do, can be undone, so I think until we come to the end of the race, there's an opportunity to make something good out of what's bad," he said.

Cox said Concord and Cabarrus County are already in trouble after losing several large industries, and losing LMS would hurt more than all those combined.

But with the bad news, track president Humpy Wheeler remains positive.

“There's room for improvement, as they say," he said.

The speedway is not only a big moneymaker for Concord. According to the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, each of the NASCAR Nextel Cup events held at LMS brings $100 million into the Charlotte economy, meaning Charlotte gets at least $300 million a year from speedway events.

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