Drivers happy with new Las Vegas track

Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998 | 2:13 a.m.

The Las Vegas 400 should fit in just fine with NASCAR's new big event concept.

With sparkling new tracks the order of business these days, the Winston Cup series is starting to burn rubber on new roads throughout the country.

There was a NASCAR stock car race in Las Vegas in 1955, but that was on a one-mile dirt oval that no longer exists. The race Sunday will be held on a 1 1/2 -mile banked oval at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a Taj Mahal of motorsports in the desert about 10 miles west of the Strip.

The track, which seats more than 103,000 and has 102 luxury suites, is the equal of the gleaming new Texas Motor Speedway and California Speedway, which joined the Winston Cup family last season.

"It compares as much to Michigan as it does to Richmond or Phoenix," said Mark Martin, who tested at the new track in January. "It's just a nice race track. That's the way I would have done it, if I was doing one.

"I think it's going to be great to race on. I'm real excited about being here."

The corners of the new track are banked at 12 degrees, while the front straightaway is banked 9 degrees and the back straight is 3 degrees.

Rusty Wallace, the Winston Cup points leader after the first two races, also is looking forward to the race.

"One of the weirdest things about the whole deal is that I've been out to Las Vegas several times during the last few years doing promotional work on behalf of NASCAR and the track, but I've yet to drive a race car on the track," he said. "The facility is all first-class, the surface is as good as you'll find.

"It's going to make for a heck of a race weekend for drivers, crews, fans, sponsors ... everybody."

Bobby Labonte, unlike Martin and Wallace, has raced on the track. He finished 12th last fall in the inaugural Busch Series event.

"It's a nice place, an absolutely beautiful facility," Labonte said. "The track is real smooth, and it's not as flat as you think.

"You need a lot of motor to get around here. It's just a horsepower race track. You've got to handle, too. You can run two-wide, and even three-wide sometimes."

All of the Winston Cup drivers had an opportunity to try out the new track during a four-hour practice Thursday. The extra-long session was scheduled by NASCAR to give the teams that hadn't tested at Las Vegas a taste of the track.

"Four hours should be plenty to get everybody up to speed," said Larry McReynolds, crew chief for Dale Earnhardt.