Flow of traffic at race pleases LVMS officials

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 | 10:30 a.m.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway officials were "ecstatic" over the traffic flow into and out of the facility for Sunday's fourth annual NASCAR Winston Cup race, but vowed to keep working to improve the situation.

LVMS general manager Chris Powell said the Speedway was able to empty the facility's parking lots in 3 hours and 15 minutes -- only 15 minutes shy of his goal.

"While the industry standard (for clearing parking lots) is three hours, the industry standard is set at other facilities where people are going in different directions," Powell said. "Given that in Las Vegas, we've got probably upwards of 95 percent of the people going in one direction, I think that was a phenomenal success."

Powell said that the majority of 125,000 fans who attended Sunday's race were on the property 50 minutes prior to the 11:30 starting time.

"We're just ecstatic over inbound traffic; we had everybody in by 10:40 a.m.," Powell said. "For an 11:30 start, that's quite amazing -- especially when you consider that two years ago there were people still on (Las Vegas) Boulevard at the drop of the green flag.

"I think we really showcased the city and the Speedway as well as we possibly could this weekend."

Powell cited cooperation from local entities for improving a traffic situation that had drawn the ire of many fans who attended the first three Winston Cup races at LVMS.

"We owe a lot of that to Metro Police, the Nevada Highway Patrol and the state department of transportation," Powell said. "This was a prime example of a lot of groups working together -- and I mean really working well.

"We made some quick decisions and re-routed some things to improve traffic flow in one area or another when it was warranted. With everybody working in the same room together, it was absolutely as harmonious as you could ask for."

Powell also credited the CAT buses for helping to alleviate traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard both before and after the race. Powell said he estimated that close to 10,000 people used public transportation to get to and from the track.

Powell said LVMS officials are working with various local and state agencies to continue to improve the traffic flow for the state's largest sporting event.

"We have got some other ideas to improve traffic but they involve the Bureau of Land Management, for starters," Powell said. "There are a lot of opportunities to make it even better.

"We've got some short-range plans and some long-range ideas but that's going to take a lot of work with all these different entities."

One of the few sad notes of the weekend came after the race when Laurel Parshley, a 59-year-old man from New Hampshire, died after suffering a heart attack in the Speedway parking lot.