Smith calls for moving final race

HAMPTON, Ga. --- Bruton Smith wants NASCAR to yank its final race of the season out of south Florida.

The track owner said the championship-deciding race should return to Atlanta Motor Speedway, where it was held through 2001, or Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- both facilities he owns.

"Why have the last race of the season at some godforsaken area just north of Cuba?" he said, referring to Homestead Miami Speedway. "Wouldn't it be better off holding the race where you can draw 175,000 people?"

Smith, who controls Atlanta Motor Speedway and six other Sprint Cup tracks through Speedway Motorsports Inc., has long feuded with NASCAR and a related company that owns a majority of the facilities used on the circuit, including Homestead.

NASCAR officials shrugged off Smith's complaints and disputed his claims that attendance was poor, saying last year's race was sold out.

Smith also said NASCAR shouldn't let TV networks dictate the start times of races, pointing to a late-afternoon start for the season-opening Daytona 500. Rain halted the sport's biggest race before it could be completed.

SPUTTER THOSE ENGINES: Everyone will be listening to their engines a little closer than usual in Atlanta.

A rash of motor problems plagued some of the top contenders last weekend at Las Vegas, putting the focus on durability for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.

Several drivers said the problems at Las Vegas could possibly be traced to the Goodyear tires. Not that there was anything wrong with them -- quite the opposite.

"Goodyear should be congratulated for the tire it brought last week," said Kurt Busch , who had his own mechanical problems. "We got to RPMs we didn't expect to get to. I think we were running about 9,800. That's a lot of RPMs for an engine."

Jeff Burton pointed to testing rules imposed by NASCAR to cut costs in tough economic times.

"A lot of times before, stuff was going to break and it didn't break because teams were able to change things based on practice sessions and test sessions," he said.

COMPUTER MAN: Bobby Labonte made a pit stop Friday morning, stopping off at a Stockbridge, Ga., elementary school in his No. 96 Ford to donate new computers as part of the Safe Search Schools program, which is designed to steer children away from offensive or potentially harmful Web sites.