Texas Motor Speedway

They say that things are bigger and better in Texas, and Bruton Smith set out to prove it with Texas Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR’s most elaborate speedways.

The 1.5-mile state-of-the-art facility opened in 1997, with Jeff Burton winning the inaugural race.

After rushing to complete construction before the inaugural race, the track experienced major problems with traffic and parking and a multicar crash on the first lap that wiped out much of the field.

A year later, the track experienced problems with water seeping up through the racing surface, causing it to postpone practice and qualifying and NASCAR to threaten not to return to the Fort Worth track.

The track became embattled in a lawsuit against NASCAR when Speedway Motorsports Inc. stockholder Francis Ferko sued NASCAR for a second Cup date at the track. Smith and SMI obtained the first Texas race when Smith purchased half of North Wilkesboro Speedway and moved one of that track’s races to Texas, with the other going to Bob Bahre’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

When the Ferko suit, which alleged anti-trust violations against NASCAR, was settled, Smith wound up buying North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham and moving one of that track’s dates to Texas in 2005.

The track, which seats more than 122,000 fans, has held two Cup races a year since 2005, including a Chase For The Sprint Cup race in November.

The track held its first Cup race at night in April 2011.