DATE: Wednesday, August 20, 1997            TAG: 9708200621

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB ZELLER

LENGTH: 60 lines

NASCAR REPORT Smith is quiet but still ``on the prowl,'' associate insists

While International Speedway Corp. and Penske Motorsports have been busy building, expanding, opening and buying into speedways around the country, Speedway Motorsports has been relatively quiet.

It's not that Speedway Motorsports has leveled off. In fact, the company last week announced record revenues in the second quarter of 1997, with a 155 percent increase in total revenues over the second quarter of 1996.

But after a flurry of activity that included the purchase of Sears Point and Bristol and the opening of Texas Motor Speedway, chairman O. Bruton Smith's company has been quiet.

And it has been ISC and Penske doing the talking, with their joint purchase of the Homestead, Fla, track, Penske's purchase of Rockingham and ISC's purchase of Phoenix.

Bristol Motor Speedway president Jeff Byrd was asked who's winning. So he put his spin on it.

``I don't think anybody is keeping a scorecard,'' he said Tuesday. ``When Bill (France, chairman of ISC) bought Phoenix, that was a good buy for him. We'd looked at that track and felt it didn't fit in our plans. I was on the road with Bruton when that happened, and he didn't seem that upset at all.

``You certainly haven't heard the last of Bruton's expansion plans. I think we're just being cautious right now. But we're still on the prowl.'' A vision of victory

Mark Martin had no hesitation about passing teammate Ted Musgrave (and Jeff Gordon as well) on his way to victory at Michigan on Sunday.

But he does exhibit a tremendous loyalty to both Musgrave and Jeff Burton, which probably goes a long way toward explaining why Burton had no reservations about letting Martin make up a crucial lost lap in the race.

``I dreamed last night that Ted won,'' Martin said in his winner's interview Sunday. ``It is right around the corner, and I'm going to be the first one to jump up and cheer when he does that.''

``We're knocking at the door, but then again, we haven't got the win,'' said Musgrave, who has 205 Winston Cup races under his belt.

``If you're running in the top five, it'll come to you sooner or later. For me, it seems like it's going to be later. Every time I'm up, some glitch comes into effect. We had to pick a day (to be good) when Mark was awful strong.'' ``Scene of the crime''

Rusty Wallace said he was in Detroit last week when a woman came up and asked him about the Bristol race in April, which he lost when Jeff Gordon bumped him on the last turn of the last lap.

``She asked me . . . if I had any plans of getting even with a certain driver that we all know,'' Wallace said. ``I kind of chuckled when she referred to Bristol as the `scene of the crime.'

``That seems to be all that anybody wants to talk about when the subject of Bristol comes up. I guess it's just human nature. Controversy just seems to be a driving force these days.''

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