Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LVMS seeks new date for truck race

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002 | 9:22 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

In an effort to boost attendance for the annual NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race here, Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Chris Powell is exploring moving the date.

Sunday's Las Vegas 350 went head-to-head with the Invensys Classic PGA tournament in town, and the NFL and the Major League Baseball playoffs on television and drew an estimated 15,000 spectators (LVMS officials do not release attendance figures). Powell said he would like to move the race to a time of the year where it wouldn't compete with pro football.

"It would be nice to stay away from football (season), but that's not a deal breaker," Powell said Monday. "I'm currently in some conversations with people from NASCAR about the truck race in 2003 ... and I've got some ideas and NASCAR has some ideas.

"I've thought about a number of things and my next conversation (with NASCAR) will be to see what are the available dates."

Powell said it was unlikely the race would be moved to the spring, when the track hosts NASCAR Winston Cup and a Busch Series race in March and the National Hot Rod Association in April.

With the Truck Series moving from ESPN to the Speed Channel next season, Powell said he expects to have more latitude in scheduling.

"This is the second time this has happened," Wallace said of switching car makes. "I remember when we left Pontiac (after the 1993 season), we finished second for the championship (and won 10 races). We were going for the championship right down to the last race with Dale Earnhardt and he nipped me at the line in Atlanta.

"We switched over to Ford (in 1994) and that year we were able to win eight races. I'm excited about the move to Dodge."

Busch Series team owner Rick Goodwin said over the weekend that he was going through with preparations to field a car for the 25-year-old driver in 2003. Goodwin had signed Renshaw to a contract earlier this year.

"We plan to run Deborah in the Busch Series next year, that hasn't changed," Goodwin said. "She just started testing last week and we were impressed."