Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: City finds the racing spotlight

Monday, Aug. 20, 2001 | 11:31 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089. Regular columnist Dean Juipe has the day off.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the Indy 500, Brickyard 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race and the lone U.S. Formula One event, proudly boasts of being the "Racing Capital of the World."

Daytona International Speedway, with the Daytona 500 and virtually every other form of racing, lays claim to being the "World Center of Speed."

Although Las Vegas Motor Speedway can't yet lay claim to being a racing capital or a world center of speed, the Valley found itself at the center of a trio of major motor sports news events in the past week.

On Wednesday, the focus of attention in the Indy Racing League was on Henderson resident Sam Schmidt, an IRL team owner who lost his driver to rival team owner John Menard with three races remaining in the season -- an unusual move even in the cutthroat business of auto racing.

Two days later, the big news in NASCAR concerned the "Humpy Bumper" -- an energy-absorbing device designed to lessen the impact of head-on and near head-on impacts on drivers -- as it nears final testing and, presumably, approval from NASCAR.

The "Humpy Bumper" was designed and is being developed by Paul Lew, a Las Vegas businessman who operates out of a shop at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway's research and development park. It will be introduced to the national media and race teams via a public crash test next week near Charlotte, N.C.

On Saturday, the attention of NASCAR again was focused on Las Vegas as 16-year-old Kyle Busch, the younger brother of Winston Cup rookie Kurt Busch, made a bid to win a nationally televised NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in only his second start in the series.

The younger Busch, who is in line to get a full-time ride next year in the national touring series, was leading the race when a miscalculation by his crew led to him running out of gas with 12 laps remaining.

In that same race, another native Las Vegan -- Brendan Gaughan, the 2000 NASCAR Winston West Series champion and current NWWS points leader -- battled his way through the pack from the 27th starting position and finished in 10th place. It was Gaughan's third top-10 finish in only five truck races this year.

In addition to the Busch brothers and Gaughan, there are six other Valley residents who are racing in major national series: CART drivers Jimmy Vasser, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani, part-time Henderson resident Al Unser Jr. in the IRL and National Hot Rod Association Pro Stock driver George Marnell.

After winning Rookie of the Year in the truck series last season, Kurt Busch has shown signs this year of being able to run up front in the highly competitive Winston Cup Series. His younger brother already displays maturity beyond his years on the track and quite possibly could be a superstar one day in the same sport.

Gaughan, although older than the Busch brothers, also has the potential to move up through the NASCAR ranks and one day could be competing in Winston Cup with Las Vegas-based Orleans Racing.

As well as being exceptionally talented drivers, all three are exemplary representatives of the city of Las Vegas and the state of Nevada.

Las Vegas may not be known for hosting high-profile races, but it quickly is becoming known for producing top-quality racers.