Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995                   TAG: 9502240085
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STAFF REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

As much as $90 million of stock in Speedway Motorsports Inc. of Concord, N.C., is expected to be traded today as the racetrack operator completes an initial public offering of 4.5 million shares.

The stock, which has drawn the interest of some Roanoke-area stock-car racing fans, was priced Thursday at $18 per share, said Tyler Pugh, senior vice president and branch manager of the Roanoke office of Wheat First Butcher Singer. The Richmond-based securities firm was a lead underwriter for the stock sale.

Pugh said Wheat First and co-underwriters J.C. Bradford & Co. have initial buyers for all the shares scheduled to hit the market this morning. He said 500,000 reserve shares likely were spoken for, as well.

Speedway Motorsports, which owns and operates the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Atlanta Motor Speedway, planned to use the proceeds of the sale to pay debts and expand seating at its tracks.

-Staff report\ No more smoking while you dunk

Dunkin' Donuts, a Randolph, Mass.-based chain of doughnut and coffee shops, said Thursday it will adopt a mandatory smoke-free policy June 1 in all of its nearly 3,000 company-operated and franchised shops in the United States. More than 60 percent of Dunkin' Donuts shops already have adopted smoke-free policies.

"We are taking this step because we believe a smoke-free environment is in the best interests of everyone - our employees, our customers and our franchisees," said Jack Shafer, president of the chain.

When the policy goes into effect, every domestic Dunkin' Donuts shop will have a decal in its window proclaiming it is a smoke-free environment.

-Staff report

Briefly ...

Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc., Joppa, Md., apparel retailer operating stores in Roanoke, said Thursday it has filed a reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that calls for distribution of up to $130 million in cash and market rate debt securities plus 75 percent of the stock of the reorganized company to unsecured creditors, and the distribution of 25 percent of the stock of reorganized Merry-Go-Round to shareholders, assuming $225 million in allowed unsecured claims. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 1994.

Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., Louisville, Ky., parent of Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem, said it will consolidate management of two of its Richmond hospitals, Chippenham Medical Center and Johnston-Willis Hospital, as part of developing an integrated regional health-care system. Johnston-Willis, in Chesterfield County, and Chippenham, in Richmond, are about five miles apart.

James River Corp., Richmond-based paper manufacturer, on April 1 will raise the price of the toilet paper, paper towels and food service products its sells to commercial customers by between 6 percent and 15 percent. James River's products include Quilted Northern toilet paper, Brawny paper towels and Dixie paper cups and plates.

HCMF Corp., a Roanoke-based operator of nursing centers, homes of adults and home health services, said Thursday it has purchased Laurel Meadows Home, a 60-bed nursing facility at Laurel Fork in Carroll County. Tri-County Homes Inc. was the seller; Virginia Lutheran Homes Inc. manages the facility. Terms of the transaction, to be completed by midyear, were not disclosed.