Speedway officials already gearing up for 2000 race

Tuesday, March 9, 1999 | 10:05 a.m.

Less than 24 hours after staging the largest sporting event in the state's history, Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Chris Powell was hard at work on next year's Las Vegas 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race.

Actually, Powell's planning for the 2000 race began even before the exhaust fumes from 43 stock cars and 50,000 passenger vehicles had cleared from the Speedway.

Prompted, no doubt, by the anticipation of complaints over traffic congestion at Sunday's second running of the Winston Cup cars in Las Vegas, Powell huddled with local leaders and Speedway officials just hours after Jeff Burton had taken the checkered flag.

"There were still cars in the parking lot (Sunday) when we were meeting about next year and what we could do to make (traffic) better," Powell said Monday.

"I'm thrilled at how things went but at the same time I'm very aware that we've got some challenges ahead of us. Traffic was the biggest concern going in (to race weekend) and it is a concern coming out."

It took Speedway personnel approximately 4 1/2 hours to clear nearly 50,000 cars and 130,000 people from the parking lots at the 1,600-acre facility via only two routes -- Las Vegas Boulevard North and Interstate 15.

The fact that there are only two access routes to and from the Speedway is not lost on Powell, who had been on the job only two months on race day.

"We know we're close to having a very good plan but at the same time, we have got to have more access," he said.

"You have, in effect, five lanes to get 120,000 people out in the same direction because I'd say 98 percent, if not more, of the fans are coming in from the same direction and returning in the same direction."

Powell said the congestion could be eased simply by widening Las Vegas Boulevard from Craig Road to the main Speedway entrance.

"We want to make Las Vegas Motor Speedway as accessible as possible and we can't do it just by ourselves," Powell said. "We need some assistance on Las Vegas Boulevard because we had a bottleneck there.

"We can't run all three lanes north in the morning and south in the afternoon because of the (Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital) -- people need access to that -- but we need a wider road."

Once inside the Speedway, fans found more entrance gates, concession stands and restroom facilities.

And, of course, the action on the 1.5-mile track proved to be remarkably better than a year ago, when Fords dominated the race and fans were treated to little of the side-by-side racing that is NASCAR's trademark.

"The race itself was an excellent race," Powell said. "It bore out what we said going into the race, that NASCAR had told us that they felt the rules would be more even for the different car makes. It was an exciting race and that, after all, was what people came to see.

"I'm just thrilled that we had as successful a weekend as we had. It was well beyond my expectations from what I came to town with two months ago. If there was a negative over the weekend, it was the traffic (but) we're not going to stand still ... we're always going to try to improve the traffic."

Powell also said that Speedway personnel were working to resolve the ticket problems that Speedway Motorsports Inc., inherited when it bought the track last December.

Because of a computer malfunction, many fans did not receive tickets this year in the same location they had for the inaugural race, although they were given tickets at the same price for which they had paid.

"That was unfortunate for the fans as well as the Speedway that some fans had to be seated (differently)," Powell said. "It is our intent to see that the fans who were shifted out of seats are given the priority to return to (their original) seat for the 2000 race."

The next Winston Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is 363 days away, but Powell already is promising a better atmosphere for race fans in 2000.

"Next year, with a year of experience and a year of planning, I think you'll see improvements in all areas," Powell said. "There was a certain amount of intensity in preparation for this event because we just had so little time."