Ready to roll

Monday, Feb. 28, 2000 | 10:30 a.m.

NASCAR's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" resumes this weekend as the Winston Cup Series comes to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the third annual CarsDirect.com 400.

Five drivers -- Dale Jarrett, Jeff Burton, Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin -- are eligible to earn a $1 million bonus in addition to the estimated $400,000 first-place check if they can win Sunday's 267-lap race.

The drivers qualified for the Winston No Bull 5 bonus by finishing in the top five at the most recent No Bull 5 race, the Daytona 500. Two of those drivers, Martin and Burton, have won the first two Winston Cup races at LVMS.

More than 140,000 fans are expected for Sunday's race, making the event the biggest sporting event in the state of Nevada. An estimated 260,000 fans will converge on the speedway this weekend to see the Pennzoil World of Outlaws (Thursday through Saturday on the 1/2-mile dirt oval), Saturday's Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Busch Series race and Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400.

Even without the million-dollar bonus, the Las Vegas stop on the Winston Cup circuit has become a hit with the drivers.

"Deep down, we all know we need to be running places like Las Vegas," said Jeremy Mayfield, who drove his Mobil 1 Ford Taurus to a seventh-place finish Sunday at North Carolina Speedway.

"If we're going to keep the sport growing and we're going to keep moving forward, we need to be in these kinds of markets. It goes beyond just, say, Mobil 1, but it involves every sponsor of every car in the whole series. What's good for them is usually pretty good for the rest of us too."

Kenny Irwin, who pilots the BellSouth Chevrolet Monte Carlo for team owner Felix Sabates, agrees.

"Whether you are building a sport or just trying to hold on to what you have, you have to keep moving forward," Irwin said. "Adding markets like Las Vegas or wherever -- good markets -- just helps all of us.

"BellSouth didn't get into this sport because they are in love with Kenny Irwin or Felix Sabates or whoever, they are marketing their products and services, just like a lot of people are. BellSouth is a high-quality company that has hooked up with a high-quality race team, and they want high-quality markets to make the whole package a great one."

Like Mayfield and Irwin, Michael Waltrip said it is crucial for the teams' sponsors to have a presence in markets such as Las Vegas.

"NASCAR is taking us into new markets and it's not coincidental," said Waltrip, who drives the NationsRent Chevrolet. "It's a situation where we have a sponsor, NationsRent, who is expanding across the country and that's the way NASCAR is going; they want to ride the wave with NASCAR.

"We're going to Vegas and Phoenix and Los Angeles and San Francisco now. The cities that we're visiting are new to the sport but the fans that come to those races aren't new to the sport. There are tons of fans on the West Coast and there are tons of fans up in New England when we visit New Hampshire and down in Miami when we go to Homestead. And, yeah, there are a ton of fans sitting right there in Las Vegas, too.

"We're not necessarily trying to introduce the sport to new fans, we're just trying to showcase ourselves to those many fans that are already in those parts of the country."

Although the majority of fans who will be attending this weekend's events at the speedway will come from outside of Nevada, Waltrip said he has noticed an increase in NASCAR's popularity among the locals since he first started coming here in 1997 to drive in the inaugural Busch Series race.

"(LVMS) added more seats and there's more enthusiasm around town every year when we return," Waltrip said. "It used to be you could go to Vegas and if you wanted to play blackjack or roulette or whatever, nobody knew who you were, so you just kind of sat around and did it.

"Nowadays, everybody in town is beginning to get aware of what's going on and NASCAR is enjoying it. You just sign autographs in between hands and hope the dealers understand."

While the casinos certainly can serve as a distraction for the drivers, two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin said the drivers and teams are focused on racing when they come to Las Vegas.

"You go to a place like Las Vegas and figure there would be a lot of distractions but, to be honest, there really aren't," said Marlin, who drives the Coors Light Chevrolet. "Yeah, you do have the casinos and everything, and you could sure waste a lot of sleeping time out there."

The race weekend gets under way Thursday with practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Busch Series cars at the 1.5-mile superspeedway, and the Pennzoil World of Outlaws at the dirt track. Friday's Busch practice and qualify sessions are open to the public, free of charge.

Practice and qualifying for the Winston Cup cars begin Friday.