Vote Bruton Smith, Josh Turn Wows Crowds and Cat-Cam Takes Flight

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VOTE BRUTON TO THE NASCAR HALL OF FAME: Next week, Bruton Smith will find out if a lifetime of achievement in motorsports has earned him a spot in the prestigious 2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame class. The committee of voters – 53 in all, including 21 from the nominating committee; 31 from former drivers, owners, crew chiefs, manufacturers and media; and one to represent the fan vote – will gather Thursday at the downtown Charlotte shrine to narrow the field from the 25 nominees.

Smith, Speedway Motorsports Inc. chief executive officer and chairman of the board has long been a pioneer in motorsports, dating back to the 1950s, when he was the promoter at tracks such as the old Charlotte Speedway and the Shelby Speedway located at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds.

Smith’s first major speedway endeavor began when he partnered with racing legend Curtis Turner to open Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 and held the first World 600 that year.  Since then he has built a racing empire of eight speedways across the nation under the SMI umbrella, with those speedways hosting 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, 17 NASCAR Nationwide or Camping World Truck Series races and many other high-profile motorsports events.

Smith has previously been inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (2007), National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (2006) and Texas Motorsports Hall of fame (2008).

JOSH TURNER CONCERT A HIT WITH NASCAR FANS: Country music singer, songwriter and two-time Grammy nominee Josh Turner entertained the infield crowd Saturday prior to NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race with his deep, melodic voice. The pre-race concert was presented by Lance sandwich crackers.

“I have done a lot of NASCAR events throughout my career.” said Turner. “It’s always fun to come out here, because the NASCAR fans and country music fans are kind of one and the same, from my experience.  Just being able to come out here and play in the infield, it’s just a lot of energy. People are excited about the show, the race and everything else going on around it. It’s great, and I’m honored to be here today at Charlotte.”

CAM ON A WIRE: By now everyone knows about Fox Sports and SPEED’s famous CAMCAT, the 85-mph, high-tech camera suspended above the race track by a pair of gigantic cranes positioned outside of Charlotte Motor Speedway. The camera made its debut this year at Daytona and will return to add excitement for today’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.

The two-point, flying camera system developed in Austria is suspended a maximum of 140 feet in the air, dipping to 45 feet above the track at the 2,900-foot cable’s midpoint.

Aside from the sheer engineering greatness of this cutting-edge technology, what makes the Cat Cam even more special for fans at the track is that speedway officials will be pulling that phenomenal footage from SPEED to air directly onto the world’s largest HDTV, the 200-foot wide, 80-foot tall screen located on the speedway backstretch.

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