Bruton Smith’s battles with the neighboring homes around his ZMAX Dragway in Concord created quite the uproar in the local media earlier in the year. Homeowners lamented the high decibels of the unmuffled race cars would drive down property values in the area.

Smith felt vindicated after first day qualifying at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals.

He told a story of two local stations, neither of which he identified, performed decibel tests in order to measure the noise emitting from the facility. Bruton Smith’s battles with the neighboring homes around his ZMAX Dragway in Concord created quite the uproar in the local media earlier in the year. Homeowners lamented the high decibels of the unmuffled race cars would drive down property values in the area.

Smith felt vindicated after first day qualifying at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals.

He told a story of two local stations, neither of which he identified, performed decibel tests in order to measure the noise emitting from the facility.

Smith explained the news crews went into a neighboring housing development.

“They reported the crickets were higher in decibels than the track,” Smith said. “That’s kind of odd because there haven’t been any complaints about the crickets. They did use that. Thank God for crickets.”

Scott Cooper, director of Lowe’s Motor Speedway publicity, chimed in.

“In one report, the homeowner had to turn off a dishwasher and television set just to hear the drag strip,” Cooper explained.

“If I lived where they were, I wouldn’t have been washing dishes or watching television,” Smith said, a grin forming. “I would have been here.”