Speedway Motorsports chairman Bruton Smith confirmed Friday that he has agreed to buy the New Hampshire track for $340 million from 80-year-old independent owner Bob Bahre in a deal that should be completed early next year.

Smith was much less direct about how the purchase could affect his long-standing desire to add a second Cup race at Las Vegas, one of the other six tracks Smith already owns.

''We don't plan to make any changes at this time,'' Smith said. ''We're new in this. We've just done this. It's going to take us some time to develop all of our plans that concern the speedway there.''

There is widespread speculation that Smith will move one of the races from New Hampshire, possibly the Chase for the Nextel Cup race, to Las Vegas as early as 2009.

Asked numerous times and different ways about that possibility Friday, Smith maintained that it was too early to know.

''We've only been here a week, and have not had time to develop some of the answers to some of your questions,'' Smith said from Texas, one of his tracks and where the NASCAR Nextel Cup, Busch and Trucks series run this weekend.