Marcus Smith Named COO and President of Speedway Motorsports; President and GM of Lowe’s Motor Speedway

Speedway Motorsports has named Marcus Smith chief
operating officer and president of the company, as well as president and
general manager of Lowe

’s Motor Speedway.

“Marcus has been training for this opportunity
throughout his professional career,

” said
Bruton Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Speedway
Motorsports.

“He

’s
come up through the ranks at Charlotte, proven his business savvy with
our most recognizable sponsors and handled our sanction negotiations
with NASCAR.”

“But the thing that
’s
made Marcus a success and will continue to do so, is that in his heart,
he
’s a race fan,
”
Smith added.
“He never loses sight of the
fact that our customers are the key to everything we do and he always
wants to put our fans first.
”

Since 2004, Marcus Smith has served as a director and executive vice
president of national sales and marketing for Speedway Motorsports,
working on behalf of all 10 motorsports-related operating units of the
company, including seven speedways, Performance Racing Network, SMI
Properties and 600 Racing.

The 35-year-old Smith has spent most of his life around the speedway
business and from junior high school spent his summers working at Lowe
’s
Motor Speedway. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in
advertising from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Smith
joined the speedway
’s corporate sales
department as a marketing assistant and was promoted to account
executive in 1996. He was promoted to manager of new business
development for SMI in 1998. In that role, he negotiated the first
naming-rights agreement for a NASCAR speedway as Charlotte Motor
Speedway partnered with Lowe
’s Companies, Inc.

“This sport is in my blood,
”
said Marcus Smith.
“I
’m
going to bring the same passion to work each day that the race fans
bring to the track every week. I
’m
competitive, and I want to be sure we
’re
doing everything we can to provide a fantastic motorsports experience to
our fans.
”

“We
’ve got the
best management team in all of sports, and I look forward to working
closely with them as we move forward,
” Marcus
Smith added.
“We
’ve
got a lot more to accomplish this year, and 2009 will be even better as
we celebrate the 50th running of the Coca-Cola
600 at Lowe
’s Motor Speedway.
”