LMS track president Smith found true calling

He is known mostly as one of Bruton Smith's sons who happened to go into the family racing business.

But the truth is that Marcus Smith, now president of Lowe's Motor Speedway, very nearly avoided going into racing many years ago. Marcus talked about that and other subjects as the track his father owns and he runs prepares to host this Saturday's NASCAR Banking 500.

Q: Could you talk about how a conversation with renowned evangelist Franklin Graham many years ago guided you toward a career in racing, when you had been considering other life pursuits?

Smith: I was working at the speedway in Charlotte in my summers between school [years] and Franklin was the chaplain for Motor Racing Outreach. We had the chance to chat one-on-one and he asked me what I was going to do with my life. I told him that maybe I was interested maybe in medicine -- which I was at the time -- but I didn't do all that well in chemistry when I started out at [the University of North] Carolina, so that kind of put a damper on that. So I told him also maybe the ministry, and then also maybe this racing thing.

When I told him that, he said, 'Wow. Look at this place. You would be talking to so many people all the time. This would be a neat place for anybody to work at.' And he went on to talk a little bit about incorporating your faith into your everyday life -- which I hadn't really thought about before, to tell you the truth.

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I don't know if a lot of people think about that, about having your faith outside of church on Sundays. But he kind of outlined it for me and made it seem simple. That was really an inspiration for me and really made a difference on how I chose to focus the next few years. It helped me feel really good about going to work at the speedway.

Q: So you basically went up just to say hello and then ended up in this potentially life-altering conversation?

Smith: It wasn't life saving, but it definitely did give me a shove in the direction toward where I'm at today, and feeling really good about living my life with my Christian faith as the No. 1 priority -- yet still being comfortable in a job that's not involved in the ministry directly. He talked about living your life as a Christian wherever you are. That's your mission field. You don't have to be in Zimbabwe or preaching in the church to be used by God.

Q: Did you and Franklin speak to each other at all about the dynamics of possibly being overshadowed in your chosen fields by your legendary fathers?

Smith: You know we really didn't talk about that. I know his story because he's an incredible guy with world-wide recognition and impact. ... It made all the sense in the world to me that this was a guy who was sort of the black sheep in his family, and he came back -- kind of like the prodigal son, if you will. I obviously was impressed with his accomplishments and how he lived his life and made his own path. (Continued)