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Record Month for Speedway Motorsports

4 June 1999

Record Month for Speedway Motorsports

    CONCORD, N.C., -- Speedway Motorsports
today announced record results for its NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Series
events during the month of May at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
    A record number of households and viewers tuned on Saturday and  Sunday,
May 29 and 30, for the CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 and the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR's
longest race.
    Nearly 4,000,000 households watched the Coca-Cola 600 on Superstation TBS,
according to Neilson Media Research with approximately 10,000,000 viewers
tuning in to see Jeff Burton visit victory lane Sunday night.
    A record gate matched the record television viewership.  Spectators packed
the 157,000-seat facility for The Winston NASCAR Winston Cup All-Star event,
CTC Pole Night, the CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Busch Series, and the 40th
annual Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Winston Cup Series events held at Lowe's Motor
Speedway in Charlotte May 22 - 30.
    "This event month at Lowe's Motor Speedway continues to be one of the
biggest in American motorsports and this year's race was the most watched of
all time," stated Bruton Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of
Speedway Motorsports.
    "The Coca-Cola 600 and CARQUEST 300 broke all records as far as
attendance, television, drama and excitement," stated H.A. "Humpy", chief
operating officer and president of Speedway Motorsports and president and
general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway.
    "Our new parking areas accommodated all of the additional vehicles on the
road and the fans loved our new tram system which transported the fans from
parking areas to the entrance gates.  The North Carolina Highway Patrol and
the Concord Police Department did an excellent job with traffic and crowd
control," Wheeler continued.
    The Winston, broadcast on TNN, recorded a 3.2 rating with 2,384,000
households watching this year's event compared to a 3.3 and 2,389,000
households in 1998.  The CARQUEST 300 Auto Parts recorded a 1.9 rating with
1,487,000 households in 1999 versus a 1.3 and 965,000 households in 1998.  The
Coca-Cola 600 rated a 4.9 with 3,770,000 households in 1999 compared to a 5.0
with 3,741,000 households in 1998.
    Speedway Motorsports will host its next major NASCAR racing weekend at
Sears Point Raceway, June 25-27.   The Company is a leading marketer and
promoter of motorsports entertainment in the United States.  SMI owns and
operates the following premiere facilities: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol
Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte, Las Vegas Motor Speedway,
Sears Point Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.  SMI also provides event food,
beverage, and souvenir merchandising services through its Finish Line Events
subsidiary, and manufactures and distributes smaller-scale, modified racing
cars through its 600 Racing subsidiary.

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