When NASCAR arrives at the track nearest whomever each week, it has been likened to the circus coming to town.

The exception might be Charlotte, N.C., and its surrounding burgs, where Bruton Smith reigns as NASCAR king and therefore the circus never really leaves.

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Even now, Smith isn't really threatening to. In fact, the billionaire chairman of Speedway Motorsports Incorporated doesn't even like the word "threat" to describe what he states he will do if the city of Concord, just outside Charlotte, continues to block his plans to build a $60 million drag strip adjacent to his flagship operation at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Told that many folks believe that his plan to close LMS and spend the estimated $350 million necessary to build another speedway elsewhere is nothing more than an idle threat, Smith replied Friday: "I can assure you that it is not. As a matter of fact, I've tried my best in the interviews that I've done to take the word 'threat' away because it's not a threat. It's just a business decision. So that's all it is.

"If we find this land to build, and it's a very suitable location, then of course I'll build. ... I'm very serious. I have two of my engineers right now who will come in and give me a report on that [very shortly]."

In an amusing and highly entertaining maneuver that happened to unfold earlier this week just as Smith was trying to sell tickets to the upcoming Bank of America 500 race at LMS, Smith went off on the small town that his track calls home.

At issue is a $60 million drag strip Smith wants to build on his property in Concord. In addition to the 165,000-seat speedway, Smith also owns a dirt track that seats 20,000 and much of the surrounding land, totaling more than 2,000 acres in all.

King Bruton thought he could add a drag strip to his sprawling complex without any trouble. But what he really has a problem with is what he says are misleading facts being presented by Concord city council officials.

Those officials balked when Smith started grading land for his new drag strip, and at a council meeting last Monday night they voted to change the zoning laws to specifically prohibit the building of such a facility. Concord Mayor Scott Padgett said that they had concerns about noise from the strip disturbing residents who live less than a mile from the proposed location for the new facility, and about the possibility of declining home values in that vicinity as a result.

This caused Smith to stomp his feet and wave his scepter angrily. He said the perception that he began grading the land for the drag strip without first letting Concord officials know what he was doing is ludicrous.

"That's an absolute lie. They absolutely knew what we were doing," Smith said.

He said that twice in the last two months he met with Padgett and other Concord officials to discuss his plans for the drag strip in detail.

"I told them exactly what I planned to do and everything, and there were no objections at all. They liked the idea," Smith said.

He said that six weeks ago he even had six Concord officials over to his office at his Town and Country Ford dealership in Charlotte to show them an architect's rendering of what was planned.

"They were excited about it and liked it," Smith said. "That was six weeks ago, so they knew all about what we were going to do."

He even claims that he had a grading permit that allowed him to begin preparing the land for construction of the strip. Grading commenced three weeks ago much to the apparent surprise of at least some city officials who obviously weren't in on the drag-strip information loop.

And that's why it caught Smith like a hard right to the jaw when Concord city council abruptly changed its zoning laws to exclude drag strips last Monday night.

"I'm just very concerned with this city over there because what's next? That's my main concern," Smith said. "If they're willing to sit there without any notice -- which is illegal -- and change our zoning, what are they going to do next? I've had people in my office and they're now concerned about the [Concord Regional] airport over there [from where many NASCAR teams and officials fly in and out]. Are they going to now legislate against the airport and say, 'Well, we don't want any more jets coming in and out of there?' Well, then that airport, as far as I'm concerned, will be doomed.

"They're acting like a runaway freight train, and I'm just very concerned about it."

It's amusing to hear Smith talk about someone else acting like a runaway freight train -- a description that no doubt has applied to him more than once or twice during his lifetime. And he surely went into public-relations spin overdrive when this feud erupted.

He went on local radio talk shows and told the local newspaper how he didn't feel appreciated, how he has given more than $5 million to various groups in Concord through Speedway Children's Charities, and how he even gave "a truckload of art to the old courthouse." Memo to King Bruton: It's not true charitable giving if you have to draw attention to yourself.

But this is what Smith does best when he figures the timing is right. He has done it time and time again throughout his charmed life, and he isn't about to quit now when he is in his 80s.

In 2003, when the Tennessee county that hosts Bristol Motor Speedway was considering raising money through an entertainment tax that would apply to race tickets, Smith threatened to pull his NASCAR races from that track and take them elsewhere. Sound familiar?

He eventually got the so-called powers-that-be from Sullivan County in Tennessee to back away from the idea, and the races stayed. It was a pure power play, and one well played by the king who truly held the trump cards.

In 2004, Smith got involved in a highly entertaining verbal brouhaha with Charlotte and Mecklenburg County leaders over some trees he cut down on his property near Lowe's Motor Speedway. He said they had given him permission to do so. The officials insisted they had not.

Smith cut down hundreds of trees anyway -- because he wanted to -- and dealt with the fallout from it afterward. It turned out to be rather minimal.

For years, Smith has amused followers of NASCAR by poking fun at the France family that runs the sport. His SMI tracks are the anti-thesis to the ones run by International Speedway Corp., the front for the Frances. And to be honest, on balance he appears to put more money into creative development and upgrades at his tracks --- and many of them, Lowe's Motor Speedway included, are about as good as it gets in this business.

Many times he is right when he attacks an issue with gusto. Like questioning why NASCAR refuses to give his Las Vegas Motor Speedway the second race date it deserves; or why NASCAR insists on continuing to hold its end-of-the-year banquets in New York, where no one cares, instead of in Las Vegas, where no one would care that no one cares because everyone would be having such a good time.

Who is right in this dispute? And is the ringmaster bluffing about closing down LMS just to get what he wants?

While the answer to the first question is murky and the answer to the second appears upon first glance to be a resounding yes, Smith would emphatically claim he is the former and a firm no to the second.

He said he already has been offered 600 free acres and free grading for a new facility by one neighboring community. Another, from Rowan County (which borders Cabarrus County where Concord is located), went public with its offer to support a move there if the dispute with Concord isn't worked out.

Smith said that no matter what happens, his vast operations will remain in the immediate Charlotte vicinity. But he added that he does not see building a drag strip separately, away from his other facilities, as a viable option at this time.

"It is amazing what's coming in from different people," Smith said. "I guess you could pick a lot of places to build. You know, I have a huge investment out there [in Concord], and I was about to make another big one other than the drag strip. So what I'm going to do on building another speedway, it will be in this immediate community. Because I've got to think, No. 1, what's going to be good for NASCAR racing. And it's got to be good for the fans. We'll do all of that.

"I have not talked to [NASCAR chairman and CEO] Brian [France] about all of this. I have a meeting with him on the 16th [of October]. But I can assure you that whatever I do, we will keep the interests of NASCAR racing and the fans first and foremost. I'm not going to do something that will adversely affect what we're all doing. I'm not going to do that. It's going to be a positive move when we make that move."

Notice that he said "when," not "if." Was it calculated? Yes. Does it mean anything? It's hard to say.

But for all those who think he won't do it, that's what they said before Art Modell moved the NFL's Cleveland Browns to Baltimore or Joe Gibbs Racing switched from Chevrolets to Toyotas, too. In the wacky world of sports, especially when it comes to the circus called NASCAR, you never know.

Conventional wisdom says that Concord city council, in the end, will not risk turning away Smith's sprawling empire simply to prevent a few possible sleepless nights and declining property values for a handful of its citizens. But even Smith said he is not sure what will happen next.

"I have no idea what they'll do," Smith said. "Because it was a shocker this past Monday night on what they did. So I have no idea."

But King Bruton does have some ideas, and the resolve to act on them if he doesn't get what he wants.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.