Miller living every young kid's dream

GRANTSVILLE — When I was 11, I was a big thinker. I considered playing in the major leagues until Brad Young's fastball convinced me otherwise. (To my surprise, he didn't make the major leagues, either.)

But I wasn't clueless. I had a plan B, which was to be a sports and entertainment tycoon. I figured if I didn't play professional sports, it would be cool to own a team or two. Maybe have my own movie theater where I could grab Milk Duds whenever I wanted.

As long as I was thinking big, why not have my own restaurant, too? That way I could take my buddies out for all-you-can-eat, right after we finished giving wedgies to the fourth-graders.

The other thing I thought would be cool was to drive a racecar. Have a place where I could bury the gas pedal and see how fast my dad's Ford Galaxie could go.

None of that happened, of course.

I ended up employing plan C, which was to eat someone else's food, watch someone else's teams and see someone else's movies. So I became a sports columnist. But it has its advantages. I don't have to worry about getting hit by a fastball.

Plan B? Larry H. Miller took that. He's doing stuff the rest of us dreamed about all those years ago. And you know what? He's as enthused as, well, a kid.

Ask about his two professional sports teams, his restaurant, his movie theaters, his TV station, his insurance business, his financial services, his sports merchandise stores, his ranch and, of course, his 39 auto dealerships, and he'll say, yeah, they're great.

But ask about Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele County and he's a kid again.

"If I were in high school in 1962 again, I would have said that this is neat, boss, cool and groovy," says Miller.

The Jazz may be his obsession but the still-under-construction racetrack is his passion.

"Come out in October," Miller says conspiratorially, "and we'll have some cars out here to drive."

Sounds like a plan.

Will there be Milk Duds?

Miller openly admits, this one's for him. He spent a quarter century building an empire and now it's time to reward himself. So he built a track. It began with plans for a place where the locals could indulge their curiosity by testing their cars. Now he's anticipating national and world-class races.

That tends to happen when you overspend your original budget by 11 times.