Columnist Ron Kantowski: Traffic aside, LVMS is new and improved

Monday, March 8, 1999 | 10:19 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is the Las Vegas Sun sports editor. His notes column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at 259-4088 or ron@lasvegassun.com.

That smudge on the main straightaway wall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was caused by Winston Cup rookie Tony Stewart's Pontiac, after Johnny Benson's Ford spun in front of him in the early stages of Sunday's Las Vegas 400.

But it may as well have been the fingerprints of new track owner Bruton Smith. Because they were certainly apparent in a lot of other places around the sprawling speed plant.

Unfortunately, Smith, the Nevada Highway Patrol, Citizens Area Transit and even Winston Cup regular Rick Mast, who needed a police escort to get into the track in time for the mandatory drivers' meeting after his rental car stalled at Caesars Palace, apparently still haven't solved the traffic riddle.

But once you got in, you might have noticed some of the changes Smith has made since taking control of LVMS last December:

Grass in the tri-oval separating the track from the pits. And this year, it was green, or mostly green. At last October's Indy Racing League event, it resembled the color of uncooked sausage. Funny what a little water and green paint can do.

Temporary general admission grandstands overlooking turn 3. Besides boosting the track's seating capacity from 107,000 to roughly 127,000, they made it affordable -- well, somewhat more affordable -- for a family of four to attend the race. At $65, the G.A. seats were $45 cheaper than the blue seats (top third) in the main grandstand. Not a bad deal, given the early risers in the first section of $65 seats could almost reach out and shake hands with fans who paid $110 for theirs.

New parking lots and new gates and new pedestrian ramps feeding into those gates. And the credential office was moved, from the administration building on speedway grounds, to a site off property, so those with passes didn't have to talk their way past security to pick them up.

And when you did pick them up, the credentials looked like credentials. Gone were the old Imperial Palace time cards that served as race credentials in the past.

Small touches? Perhaps. But everything about the track on Sunday smacked of professionalism.

This isn't to say that former LVMS chief Richie Clyne and his staff were a bunch of boobs. They tried harder than Dick Trickle during second-round qualifying to make a day at the races a pleasurable experience.

But before raising the capital to erect LVMS, Clyne's only experience in operating a racetrack was acquired at the tiny paved oval that sits on the far southeast corner of the sprawling LVMS property. Before that, it might have been a Hot Wheels set.

Smith, conversely, collects speedways as if they were die-cast miniatures. Las Vegas is the latest acquisition to a portfolio that includes Lowe's (formerly Charlotte) Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Sears Point Raceway in California.

With his round face and bald pate, Smith bears more than a passing resemblance to comedian Don Rickles.

But when it comes to big-league auto racing -- and even if he did build a one-groove racetrack in Texas -- Smith is no hockey puck.