Columnist Ron Kantowski: Some simple planning can beat race traffic

Tuesday, March 9, 1999 | 10:07 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at 259-4088 or ron @ lasvegassun.com

Attention! Citizens of Las Vegas. This is your last and final notice:

If you plan on attending next year's Las Vegas 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race, leave early and stay late.

Outside of purchasing a helicopter or qualifying for the race -- and as veteran driver Rick Mast discovered Sunday morning when his rental car wouldn't start and he had to drive over lawns on the way to the track, even that's no guarantee for avoiding gridlock -- that's the best and probably only recourse to prevent your blood pressure from boiling over.

A poll that was more informal than Richard Petty's wardrobe indicated that everybody who left for the track by 6:30 a.m. was in his seat by 7:30. In fact, as I crossed over Craig Road at about 7 a.m., traffic on I-15 was proceeding toward LVMS at the speed limit.

Similarly, those who left LVMS via Las Vegas Boulevard at around 5 p.m. -- or about two hours after the checkered flag fell -- were home in plenty of time to catch ESPN2's replay of the race at 6:30.

Let's face it, nobody in town has a plan for exiting a parking lot. Anyone who parks in the main lot at the Thomas & Mack Center for a Rebel game or at Sam Boyd Stadium in the midst of a two-game UNLV winning streak (if you can remember that far back) can attest to it.

And those are relatively small crowds. With the Las Vegas 400, you've got 130,000 square pegs (race fans) trying to cram into one round hole (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) that essentially is served by only two access roads.

Experienced race fans are up to speed on that count. That's why instead of sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard or I-15, they tailgate at the track. Before and after the race.

That said, if LVMS encourages fans to ride the bus or take other public transportation to the track, then it has to make absolutely certain the buses and other public transportation can get to the track.

Anybody who rides the bus from downtown Indianapolis to the Indy 500 or the Brickyard 400 does so with the knowledge he's going to arrive at the track before the first round of pit stops.

This was the second straight year LVMS urged fans to "get on the bus." But many who did didn't see the start of the race.

As Dale Earnhardt might say: "That ain't right."

* GARTH SEEING STARS: Don't be surprised if Garth Brooks winds up in the Las Vegas Stars batting order sometime this year. A Stars spokesman said club officials are heading down to the San Diego Padres spring training headquarters in Peoria, Ariz., this week to firm up the details of Brooks' Cashman Field appearance.

The source said part of Brooks' baseball publicity stunt -- er, tryout -- with the Padres includes an agreement where Brooks would play one game in each of the Padres' minor league cities. On the plus side, Brooks, according to the source, is using his baseball experience to drum up interest in a new kids' charity.

But if the Stars really were serious about winning that game, they'd let Danny Gans hit ahead of Brooks. The Rio's singing impressionist occasionally takes batting practice with the Stars, and, unlike Brooks, is said to have a command of the strike zone and some pop in his bat.

* AROUND THE HORN: The first five finishers -- six if you count Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will make his Winston Cup debut later this year -- in Saturday's Sam's Town 300 Busch Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway were Winston Cup regulars. The Busch Series is billed as a developmental circuit for Winston Cup, but with their NASCAR big brothers cherry-picking their events, about the only thing the Busch guys are learning is how to load their cars on the trailer after failing to qualify. ... UNLV faithful take note: There were only 10,000 fans at the Mack for Friday's WAC Tournament semifinals and at the finals on Saturday but the atmosphere was electric, from start to finish. The Utah and especially the New Mexico fans are totally devoted to their teams ... Speaking of the Utah backers, it's a good thing, if you believe the stereotype, that most Utahans like to turn in at a decent hour. How else would they survive back-to-back weekends in Las Vegas and New Orleans, where the Utes were sent this week as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Regional? ... Banner in the Delaware cheering section Saturday (and probably also unfurled at other gymnasiums featuring NCAA Tournament double-digit seeds): "We want Arizona." ... It appears that Rancho High grad Michael Johnson is the only Las Vegan going to the NCAA's Big Dance. He's the starting point guard for Oklahoma, which meets Arizona in its Midwest Regional opener. ... The last time I saw a logo as big and ostentatious as the one the WAC put on the T&M floor last week, it was in one of those Homeboys vs. Away Boys games on MTV.