Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LVMS Winston Cup race could get later start

Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | 9:21 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.

Las Vegas' annual Winston Cup race could be affected by NASCAR's desire to realign its schedule in 2004 and beyond.

That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that Las Vegas Motor Speedway's traditional date -- the first weekend in March -- would change.

George Pyne, NASCAR's chief operating officer, suggested recently in an interview with nascar.com that the starting time of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at LVMS could be pushed back to 1:40 p.m. (Pacific time) to attract more television viewers. This year's race at LVMS started at noon.

"If you look at Las Vegas ... if you switched (the start) to 1:30, would it make a difference to the people coming to the race? Probably not," Pyne said.

"Now, if you moved it from 2:30 to 4:40 (Eastern time), it would probably be a lot better. What's the difference? There are a million to two million more people watching the race, which is better for the sponsors, better for the drivers selling T-shirts and hats."

LVMS general manager Chris Powell said he has not yet entered discussions with NASCAR regarding the 2004 race but said he would not be against changing the starting time.

"I have not talked to (NASCAR) about that but I don't think we would have a problem with starting the race later," Powell said. "It would give our fans more time to enjoy the whole experience."

Although there has been talk of moving race dates from tracks in the Southeast to venues in the Midwest and West and introducing more night races, Pyne said he did not expect drastic changes in the 2004 schedule.

"If you look back historically, NASCAR has not ever made dramatic changes to the schedule; we've gone in increments," he said. "While we are going to be looking to realign the schedule, (NASCAR chairman) Bill France said this was in 2004 and beyond.

"If you go back 10 years, our schedule looks a lot different. We made a lot of changes in the last 10 years but they were all gradual. There was never one year when you looked up and the whole world looked dramatically different."

Pyne said he expected the 2004 schedule to be released in late August or early September.

But he clearly wasn't pleased with the performance of his Roush Racing Ford.

"We've got to take this car and dissect it -- motor, chassis, every bit of it," Busch said after the race. "I've never driven anything quite like this. We weren't anywhere near where we needed to be (Sunday) and that's not acceptable."

Busch figures to be in better spirits this weekend as the series heads to Talladega Superspeedway. In four career starts at the 2.66-mile tri-oval, Busch has three top-four finishes, including a third-place showing in the spring race last year.

A series of bright LED lights, resembling airport runway lights, were embedded into the asphalt at the base of the walls in the speedway's four turns. The system was trumpeted by track officials as making it easier for drivers to see when the track's caution lights came on. Jeff Gordon, for one, was not impressed.

"For the Indy Racing League guys, especially at night, I hope it works for them," Gordon said. "I think at night, with those guys doing 230 miles an hour around here, I think I'd want it to look like a runway out there.

"During the day ... I hope they didn't spend a lot on it; I never even saw them."