Bristol Smoking Ban Irks Some

At Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, all seats are reserved, meaning fans cannot move to avoid cigarette smoke, one reason track president Jeff Byrd felt compelled to impose the ban. (By Mark Humphrey -- Associated Press)

As Byrd explains, Bristol's 150,000 grandstand seats are all reserved, with no general admission available. So a non-smoker who sits next to a smoker can't get up and move to another seat if he wants to avoid his neighbor's secondhand smoke.

"I believe that smokers have rights, too," Byrd said. "I grew up in a town built on tobacco and worked for a tobacco company. But I still believe that's what the law they've passed is meant to do: protect non-smokers. And I think it's our duty to follow the law."

That policy puts Bristol Motor Speedway in line with major league ballparks around the country. But it's out of step with NASCAR tracks in neighboring states of Virginia and North Carolina, where fans are still welcome to smoke in the stands.

Said Clay Campbell, president of Martinsville (Va.) Speedway: "Virginia has such a rich history in tobacco, I don't see them banning smoking anytime soon. That was tried recently in the legislature regarding smoking in restaurants but it didn't pass."

Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon applauds Bristol's new policy and hopes other tracks follow suit.

"I think it's a smart thing for long-term," Gordon said. "Things are changing. People are focusing more on trying to be healthy, whether it's what they eat or things like smoking."

In his own way, Gordon is a poster boy for how dramatically stock-car racing's relationship with tobacco has changed. He never smoked, but he married a former Miss Winston beauty queen, whose job was to promote the Winston brand among NASCAR fans. Gordon has since divorced and remarried. He has also become a spokesman for Nicorette, an associate sponsor on his No. 24 racecar and "the official smoking-cessation product of NASCAR."

Just a decade or two ago Miss Winston paraded around the grounds and garages of NASCAR tracks handing out free packs of cigarettes to fans, drivers, pit-crew members and journalists alike. And even a few racers, such as David Pearson and Dick Trickle, were known to smoke in their racecars during laps run under the caution flag. It relieved the tension, they said.

"Our sport is transitioning fan bases right now," Byrd said. "We have found out in the last five years that our fan base has become much more sophisticated, much more worldly. They have more life experience than the last generation of fans simply because of the proliferation of major league franchises. The same people who go to FedEx Field come to Bristol Motor Speedway, and we can't suffer by comparison. We have to be just as clean, just as friendly, just as service-oriented and offer the same amenities that National Football League stadiums have. Are we there yet? Not up to the FedEx Field level. But we're gaining."