Race notebook: Mast knows firsthand to leave early for race

Wednesday, March 1, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

Rick Mast has two words for fans who are planning to attend Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"Leave early."

Mast, an 11-year veteran of Winston Cup racing, knows of what he speaks -- especially when it comes to Las Vegas traffic on race day.

Last year, Mast nearly missed the mandatory pre-race drivers' meeting -- and the race itself -- when the battery died in his rental car the morning of the race.

Mast can laugh about it now because he made it to the Speedway just as the drivers' meeting was starting. But the 43-year said he thought at one point that he would not get to the track in time for the start of the race.

"By the time I get out of the garage, it's 7:10 a.m.," Mast recalled. "I get on the interstate and go three or four miles and I see traffic stopped up ahead of me. I'm like 'Uh, oh, this is not going to work,' so I jump off the interstate and get on Las Vegas Boulevard. Heck, it's jammed up too, so now I think 'Here we go, now it's on.'

"I hit the back streets and finally get my way out of town. The roads leading to the race track are just jam-packed (the two that I knew about anyway) and there's nobody moving. So, I'm sitting in the middle of that stuff a long way from the race track. I'm sitting and sitting and sitting and it's not moving and not moving."

So Mast decided he would try off-roading it to the track.

"Finally, I realize that I should be able to get to the track at about 1 in the afternoon, so I said 'This is not going to work' and I tear off on the side of the road," he said. "I go through a backyard and go through the fields. There were ditches so I had to hop back up on the road and go by people and try to get by them on the shoulder.

"By this time, we're not far from the drivers' meeting, and I'm still not even close to the race track. I'm back in those fields and I come back through a yard and I jump up on the road -- I don't think I did any property damage. So I'm sitting up on the side of the road and I'm thinking 'Oh heck, man, I'm still screwed.' "

At that moment, Mast saw what he never thought he would describe as a welcome sight: The flashing lights of a Nevada Highway Patrol car in his rear-view mirror.

"I look back and see blue lights coming at me," Mast said. "I think, 'thank goodness,' because I've been trying to find a trooper or somebody to help me. I get out and it takes me a good four or five minutes to convince him that he doesn't need to arrest me.

"Once I convinced him who I was, it took another five or six minutes to convince him to help me because he was going to make me get right back in the middle of all that traffic and we're still looking at 1 o'clock at getting to the race track."

Mast finally convinced the trooper to call a motorcycle officer to escort him to the speedway. After driving the remainder of the way to the track -- primarily on the wrong side of the street, dodging oncoming cars -- Mast made it to the drivers' meeting just as they were calling roll.

* SCOUTS HONORED: Las Vegas-area scouts will be admitted free to Saturday's Sam's Town 300 Busch Series race when accompanied by a paying adult. The scout must be in uniform to take advantage of the offer.

* GAUGHAN OUT: Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan will not attempt to qualify for Sunday's Cars- Direct.com 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race after last week's test at LVMS was canceled due to rain.