Bruton's Las Vegas routine in need of new material

In all honesty, the man has the greatest head in all of NASCAR. Bruton Smith's spectacular pate is a glowing beacon in wraparound sunglasses, a radiant dome that, like some kind of small planet, reflects all the light around it. The automotive magnate and race track emperor just wouldn't seem like himself without that commanding cranium. Of course, sometimes you have to wonder what's going on inside it.

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Bruton Smith is holding out hope that he can get Kentucky a Cup Series date in 2010.

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Take last weekend, for example, and Smith's head-scratching declaration that the Sprint Cup season finale should be moved from its current home at Homestead-Miami Speedway to Atlanta Motor Speedway -- a facility, no coincidence, that he happens to own. The Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman pulled no punches when it came to the South Florida track, calling it "some Godforsaken area just north of Cuba," mocking its relatively small seating capacity and parking limitations, and in general making it sound like some isolated outpost in the Everglades rather than the top-notch motorsports facility that it is.

But haven't we seen this movie before? Has Smith forgotten the rain and ice and bitterly cold temperatures that sometimes plagued NASCAR's season finale when Atlanta hosted the event from 1987 through 2001? Has he been blind to the chronic attendance issue at Atlanta, painfully on display Sunday, or deaf to the chorus of complaints from old-timers who believe the place was ruined when it was reconfigured into a tri-oval? Has he noticed that Homestead has sold out for six consecutive years? Yes, the place seats only 65,000. But a lot of people were wondering if Atlanta drew that many last week.

Besides, this isn't about Atlanta, anyway. These days, Smith's agenda begins and ends in the same place, under the neon glow of Las Vegas. You have to wonder if Mayor Oscar Goodman has appointed him a one-man envoy to bring business to the city. "If they give us our date back, we'll fill up the place again and do something major for the sport," said Smith, speaking of Atlanta -- but not for long. "If that doesn't work, put it in Las Vegas. We'll add more seats, and sell out every one of them." (Continued)