Smith recalls getting race track opened 50 years ago (cont'd)

"I went to him because I knew he was a fabulous race car driver, and all the media people listed him as 'millionaire lumberman.' I took that seriously. I thought, 'Well, maybe he really is.' I thought he could help me with the financing," Smith said.

Problem was, whenever Turner did make money in the family lumber business, he spent it as quickly as he made it. Smith said he still remembers their first meeting, when he asked Turner if he was sure helping him come up with the money they would need would not be a problem.

"Oh, yeah. No problem, no problem," Turner replied.

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Smith quickly learned another truth.

"That was what he said to everything. He always said, 'No problem, no problem.' But then everything turned into a problem involved with Curtis," Smith said.

"He took my idea and went with two other people. And they announced one day that they were going to build a speedway. Then I announced the next day that I was building one."

The problem was, neither one of them had the financing lined up to do it. They eventually sold stock out of the trunks of their cars for a dollar a share to try to raise enough to begin construction.

"There was no way in the world we were going to build two. So finally he came to me and we agreed on that. He said, 'We can't do this.' And I said, 'Well, you've got to get rid of your two partners.' Which he did," Smith said.

"I used his name to promote it, because he had great name in racing. He was at the groundbreaking -- then he didn't come back until I had it about 70 percent completed. He came back and said, 'Oh, man, this'll never work.' And I was like, 'What will never work?' He said, 'You won't be able to go more than 75 mph down the home stretch.'

"I was like, 'You came back to tell me that NOW? Well, somebody will go faster than that, Curtis. Don't worry about it.'"

Eventually the first race was held on June 19, 1960 -- three weeks behind schedule after some rare spring snow and construction crews who refused to work because they were too slow to get paid.

There were many problems, including places where the track was coming apart. The night before the race, 800 tons of asphalt were removed and replaced in the track's four corners. The new asphalt was covered by 2,000 gallons of liquid rubber sealer, or "bear grease."

Drivers feared the track would literally rip apart during the 600-mile event -- and their fears were well-founded. Smith said he will never forget how driver Jack Smith seemed to have the win well in hand, building an eight-lap lead, when a chunk of flying asphalt ruptured his car's metal gas tank and ruined his day.

"He ran over something and punctured a fuel tank. Back then, whatever the manufacturer put in the car, that's what we ran with. So he had a big hole in his fuel tank and was spewing gasoline all over the track. He was black-flagged and had to come in," Bruton Smith said.

His pit crew got a stick, put some caulk and a rag on it, and tried to push it up in the hole in the gas tank. But after he attempted to go back out on the track two more times, NASCAR finally told the driver to park it. His day was over after he earlier had led a total of 198 laps.

"We had about 15 laps to go, and he just got out of the car and sat there and cried," Bruton Smith said. "To see kind of a burly, rough-and-tumble kind of a man sitting there with his head in his hands, crying, that's a sight I will never forget."

It showed Smith how much the drivers and their crews cared about what they were doing, and challenged him to keep working to get the track right. From there, each year he was able to improve it little by little until it eventually developed into the gem it is today, with some 160,000 grandstand seats.

They advertised 40,000 seats for that first race, but in actuality there were closer to 20,000.

"We got it built, and got it open. I was so glad we did," Smith said. "We continue to build. We haven't finished it yet. We've only had 50 years to do it. One of these years, we'll do it."

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.