Marcus Smith has been named chief operating officer and president of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. in addition to being selected as president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The announcement of the promotions were made following approval by the board of directors of Speedway Motorsports.

"This sport is in my blood," commented Marcus Smith. "I'm going to bring the same passion to work each day that the race fans bring to the track every week. I'm competitive and I want to be sure we're doing everything we can to provide a fantastic motorsports experience to our fans."

"We've got the best management team in all of sports, and I look forward to working closely with them as we move forward," Marcus Smith added. "We've got a lot more to accomplish this year, and 2009 will be even better as we celebrate the 50th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway."

Marcus Smith has spent a good bit of his life in and around the speedway business, beginning when he attended junior high school and worked summers at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in advertising from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and initially joined the speedway as a marketing assistant in the corporate sales department.

Marcus was promoted to account executive in 1996 before being promoted to manager of new business development for Speedway Motorsports in 1998. From that position he negotiated the first naming-rights agreement for a NASCAR speedway when he signed an exclusive contract with Lowe's Companies, Inc. to partner with the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The thirty-five year old son of Speedway Motorsports chaiman and chief executive officer Bruton Smith has served as director and executive vice president of national sales and marketing for Speedway Motorsports since 2004, working with all units of the company including seven speedways, Performance Racing Network, SMI Properties and 600 Racing.

"Marcus has been training for this opportunity throughout his professional career," said Bruton Smith. "He's come up through the ranks at Charlotte, proven his business savy with our most recognizable sponsors and handled our sanction negotiations with NASCAR."

"But the thing that's made Marcus a success and will continue to do so, is that in his heart, he's a race fan," Bruton Smith added. "He never loses sight of the fact that our customers are the key to everything we do and he always wants to put our fans first."