Surrounded by 2,202 pounds of money, one million dollars in ones to be exact, Bruton Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Speedway Motorsports Inc., discussed this weekends Legends Million Presented by zMAX event at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a press conference held Tuesday afternoon.

The inaugural event, scheduled to broadcast live on SPEED Saturday July 17th, will be the first of its kind. It will offer up-and-coming drivers in the Legends car realm the chance to race for record purses and big publicity.

28 NASCAR drivers in the top-three divisions this year grew up behind the wheel of a Legend car or a Bandolero including Kurt and Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Reed Sorenson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The next big NASCAR star could emerge at the end of Saturday’s event.

The evening will be broken into an A-feature event for drivers in the Legend Semi-Pro/Young Lions Division, who will race for a $25,000 first-place payout, an A-feature event for drivers in the Legend Masters Division, who will race for a $30,000 first-place payout and the evening will be capped off with the Legends Million event featuring drivers in the Legends Pro Division and any driver from any other division that wants to participate.

Making the evening more interesting is a “Deal or No Deal” style twist that Don Hawks, the Vice President of Business Affairs for SMI and the Senior Executive at US Legend Cars International, created. The drivers who win both the Semi-Pro/Young Lions and Masters events will be given the option to take their winnings and run or give all or a portion up for a spot in the Legends Million race.

Gray Gaulding, the youngest entrant in the special event, was on hand during the press conference to demonstrate the Deal or No Deal scenario. He said the $25,000 looked and smelled good but he would give it all up for a chance at the $250,000 to-win in the Legends Million race.

Also on hand to promote the race were Legend Pro Division drivers Daniel Hemric, Kenzie Ruston, Darrell Wallace and current Summer Shootout Pro Division points leader Tyler Green, as well as winningest Legend driver at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Clay Hair, 72-year old Will Cagle, who will be the oldest participant, and SPEED commentators Marty Snider and Phil Parsons, who both have sons who race Bandoleros.

SPEED’s broadcast will begin at 8pm ET Saturday with legendary personalities Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Matt Yocum joining Parsons and Snider on the air. LegendsNation.com, the premier news media website for Legends and Bandoleros worldwide, will have LN Live Updates from the track for the entire 3-day event.

Drivers from 36 states and two foreign countries are already registered to participate in the event and 24 technical inspectors will be on hand to handle the post-race tech process.

Activities begin at the speedway Thursday, July 15. Tickets for the event will be $15 for adults and $5 for kids. Visit www.CharlotteMotorSpeedway.com for more information.

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