THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 29, 1994 TAG: 9411290409
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Bruton Smith, who owns the Charlotte and Atlanta superspeedways, announced Monday in Texas that he plans to build a $75 million speedway in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and would like to decide on a site ``very shortly.''
Smith said he is seeking a site with a minimum of 1,500 acres and has narrowed potential locations from 10 to five.
``I will build a superspeedway that all will be absolutely pleased with,'' Smith said. ``This will be a world-class facility . . . and I will deliver.''
The track, to open in 1996, initially is to be a 1.5-mile oval with 150,000 seats and about 200 executive skyboxes, Smith said. It will feature a 2.25-mile road course, two Legends racetracks, testing and research facilities and an office complex. Ultimately, more than 250,000 seats will surround the speedway, he said.
Billy Meyer, who also is planning a speedway in Texas, made an effort to steal Smith's thunder in an unusual Sunday press conference that featured the mayor of Dallas.
Meyer, 40, owner of the Texas Motorplex, widely considered the country's premier drag-racing facility, said he planned to build a 1.5-mile oval track, with a road course, on a 1,000-acre tract in Oak Cliff.
NASCAR, meanwhile, is taking a wait-and-see attitude.
``We're spectators right now,'' spokesman Kevin Triplett said Monday. ``There are a lot of other markets we'd like to go to, and Dallas-Fort Worth is a good market. But we have no commitments other than the one we've made to Roger Penske and the California Speedway to hold a race there after that track is completed.''
FATAL CRASH: The two teenage children of Barry Dodson, Kyle Petty's crew chief, died in a one-car accident early Saturday in Darlington, S.C., that apparently was alcohol-related.
David Trey Dodson, 17, and Tia Jan Dodson, 16, were killed when the car in which they were riding careened at high speed off a curve, glanced off one tree and hit another.
Tia Dodson was pronounced dead at the scene. Trey Dodson died at a local hospital about two hours later. Another teenage passenger died Sunday morning. A fourth passenger was seriously injured.
The driver of the car, David Elliott, 21, of Darlington, also sustained injuries.
Darlington Police Chief Roy Williams told the Florence (S.C.) Morning News that all five of the car's occupants apparently had been drinking and that none was wearing a seat belt.
``Most definitely there will be charges'' filed in the case, Williams told the newspaper.
The Dodson family requested that memorial donations be made to the Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxiliary, P.O. Box 251, Harrisburg, N.C. 28075.
On Nov. 9, Craig Michael Myers, 24-year-old son of Dean Myers, who owns the No. 32 Active Motorsports Chevrolet, was killed when the motorcycle he was riding struck a horse in a road not far from his Mooresville, N.C., home. by CNB