NASCAR Winston Cup series invades Las Vegas

Monday, Feb. 23, 1998 | 9 a.m.

They have run on the beaches at Daytona and, later, the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. They have traded paint on the short tracks of Bristol and Martinsville and conquered the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

And now they're coming to Las Vegas.

The 700-horsepower stock cars of the overwhelmingly popular NASCAR Winston Cup Series will invade the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week for the inaugural running of the Las Vegas 400.

"This is it, this is where we need to be at the turn of the century -- a race track like this," Mark Martin, who finished third in Sunday's Goodwrench 400 at North Carolina Speedway, said. "This is where our sport has come and this is what we need to be doing."

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, NASCAR long ago expanded from its Southeastern roots. But the Winston Cup Series' first venture into Nevada nonetheless is a monumental step for the series -- and for Las Vegas. The Las Vegas date was the only race added to the 1998 Winston Cup schedule, raising the number of points races to 33.

"I have felt we needed to be in this part of the country for a while now ... and now we have a tremendous facility to do it," said Dale Jarrett, the 1997 Winston Cup Series runner-up.

The popularity of the Winston Cup Series is unparalleled in auto racing, as evidenced by the mere 30 hours it took to sell all 111,000 seats for Sunday's race. Fan interest in the series has grown steadily since 1990, with more than six million spectators attending the 32 points races in 1997 -- a gain of nine percent from the previous year.

"Everyone is looking forward to going to Las Vegas," said former Winston Cup champion and current points leader Rusty Wallace. "It's neat to go to new venues and expose new fans to NASCAR and Las Vegas is definitely one of those markets we need to be in."

Many of the storylines that accompanied the first two races of this season will continue to unfold in Las Vegas:

* The new Ford Taurus, which replaces the Thunderbird this season, was rushed from the drawing board to the race track after less than seven months in development, and several Ford drivers wondered aloud whether the car would be competitive.

In its debut two weeks ago at the Daytona 500, the Taurus reached victory lane for the first time when Wallace drove his Miller Lite Ford to a win in one of the Twin 125-mile qualifying races. Four Tauruses finished in the top 10 in the 500.

The new Ford model last week further enhanced its standing as a formidable challenger as Rick Mast and Kenny Wallace qualified their Tauruses on the front row for the Goodwrench 400 at Rockingham.

* NASCAR's new "Five and Five" rule, which mandates that both the Taurus and the Chevrolet Monte Carlo must have front air dam and rear spoiler clearances of five inches, was used for the first time Sunday and will be in effect this week in Las Vegas.

Instituted to slow the cars down in the corners and help make for more competitive racing, the new rule was met with mixed results Sunday. Defending Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon won the race in a Monte Carlo, but said it took him nearly two-thirds of the 400-mile race to get the setup right on his car.

Wallace, who finished second in a Taurus, said the new rule did exactly what it was supposed to do, which led to a highly competitive race that featured 27 lead changes among 12 drivers.

"With the new Five and Five rule, I think the Taurus is really going to shine in Las Vegas," Wallace said. "I'm excited about getting to Vegas because I think that the Taurus is going to run exceptionally well there."

* Seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, who didn't win a race in 1997 for the first time since 1981, broke a 59-race winless streak and 19 years of frustration in the Daytona 500 with an emotional win two weeks ago.

Finally comfortable with the crew chief -- the highly respected Larry McReynolds -- team owner Richard Childress brought on board prior to last year, Earnhardt will continue his quest for a record eighth Winston Cup championship this week in Las Vegas.

"We're going to run for the championship this year," Earnhardt said. "We've got a great team and this team can win a championship. I think this year is our year because our focus is so good.

"I can feel it as a driver and I can see it in (my team members') eye. We won the Daytona 500 and ran out front all day and that's our plan for every race -- to be a contender to win. If we do that, that's how you win the championship."

* The supposed hotly contested Rookie of the Year battle between Kenny Irwin, Steve Park and Jerry Nadeau -- touted before the season to be one of the best in recent years -- has fizzled in the first two races of the season.

The best finish by one of the rookies was the 19th-place showing by Irwin in the season-opening Daytona 500. None of the three finished higher than 26th on Sunday.

These debatable issues aside, most drivers in NASCAR's premier series agree on one thing: Las Vegas Motor Speedway's smooth, wide racing surface will lend itself to some exciting, side-by-side racing.

"You can basically run three-wide all the way around and I think that's going to make for a great race," Ken Schrader, who has won twice at LVMS in Winston West Series races, said.

Bill Elliott, the 1998 Winston Cup champion who is fifth in points after two races, agreed.

"Every race (NASCAR has) run here has been a good, competitive race and I don't see why this one will be any different," Elliott said. "Everyone loves this race track and it'll definitely make for a great show -- it should be one of the best shows we've put on for a while."