NASCAR to make it official

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 10:44 a.m.

The long-anticipated announcement that Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host a 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup stock car race will be made within the next two weeks, the SUN has learned.

Sources close to the negotiations have confirmed the announcement is imminent and most likely will be made Aug. 11 -- a week from Tuesday -- at the Fremont Street Experience.

Unless NASCAR president Bill France has a sudden change of heart, the race is a done deal, according to the sources.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway officials declined comment and NASCAR public relations officials did not return phone calls Thursday. But star driver Rusty Wallace might have tipped NASCAR's hand Wednesday.

During a live hookup with local ABC affiliate KTNV Channel 13 following Brickyard 400 practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Wallace hinted the Las Vegas announcement was coming.

"That rumor is getting pretty strong, isn't it?" Wallace said with a wide grin that must have delighted Las Vegas race fans.

"I've got some money that says you're gonna see it happen. It'll probably be mid-August when they make that announcement."

A NASCAR source in Charlotte, N.C., said The Nashville Network will receive television rights to the race and already has begun approaching potential sponsors.

Most reports have linked Las Vegas with a March 1 race, which essentially would replace the rain-plagued spring Richmond, Va., date on the Winston Cup schedule. The first Richmond race will be pushed back to late spring or early summer, according to reports.

Sources couldn't confirm the race date, only that it would be revealed during an elaborate presentation on Fremont Street. The announcement apparently will rival the one that confirmed a Winston Cup date for the new Texas Motor Speedway, in which NASCAR drivers emerged onto the dais through a trap door.

After witnessing successful NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Busch Series races at the state-of-the-art, 1.5-mile superspeedway, most observers figured it only would be a matter of time until LVMS landed a Cup date.

Those rumors intensified in May, when Bob Bahre and his son, Gary, took over day-to-day operations of LVMS as president and vice president. The Bahres own New Hampshire Motor Speedway which this year was awarded a second Winston Cup date based on the success of its first one.

Immediately after the Bahres came on board, KTNV Channel 13, quoting NASCAR sources, reported LVMS would receive a 1998 Winston Cup race. The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal was the first to link LVMS with the March 1 date.

Gary Bahre was cautiously optimistic when asked about the NASCAR race last week, but wouldn't stray from the company line: That it's not a race until Bill France says it is.

But Bahre said a Winston Cup race, which probably would attract a sellout crowd of more than 100,000 fans to the superspeedway, would be a big boon to the city.

"Obviously, when that many people come to a community, it has an enormous, positive effect on the economy," Bahre said. "It would have to be a tremendous shot in the arm to have that many people here."