Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LVMS might discover two can be a crowd

Friday, April 23, 2004 | 10:35 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.

A settlement in Francis Ferko's lawsuit against NASCAR not only could lead to Texas Motor Speedway getting its long-awaited second Nextel Cup date, but also could result in Phoenix International Raceway landing a second annual Cup race, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported this week.

Ferko is a shareholder in Speedway Motorsports Inc., which built and operates Texas Motor Speedway, who sued NASCAR two years ago claiming NASCAR reneged on its promise to award Texas Motor Speedway a second Cup date.

Citing unnamed sources, the Star-Telegram reported that Texas Motor Speedway likely would pick up a second Cup date in early November. As part of the settlement, the paper reported, Darlington (S.C.) Raceway would lose one of its two Cup races and North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham would lose its lone Cup date; Texas and Phoenix would pick up those races in 2005.

According to the Star-Telegram, the second Texas race "probably" would be in early November while Phoenix would add its second race in February. If true, Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- which traditionally hosts its annual Nextel Cup race on the first weekend in March -- would have direct competition for some of the same race fans at roughly the same time of year.

That doesn't seem to bother LVMS general manager Chris Powell, who said he was reluctant to even discuss the matter until NASCAR releases its 2005 schedule.

"I don't want to want to speculate on what the schedule is going to be -- because I don't know -- and to make a comment on that issue would be speculative," Powell said.

"However, I think the track record we have here at this speedway and in this community is that people enjoy all we have to offer and I don't foresee that that would change no matter what events are adjacent to ours from a time-frame standpoint."

Last month's Nextel Cup race at LVMS attracted an estimated 142,000 fans and the event has grown into one of the more popular stops on the 36-race circuit. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimated that close to 70 percent of the fans for the Las Vegas NASCAR weekend come from out of town and the event pumped more than $142 million into the local economy.

KINGSLAND UPDATE: Casey Kingsland, a 19-year-old Las Vegas resident, will attempt to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut next month at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway in Ohio.

His father, Roger Kingsland, said he has purchased two Chevrolet Silverado trucks from McDonald Motorsports and plans to run Casey in "as many races as we can," starting with the May 16 Ohio 250 on the .44-mile track. Former Truck Series driver Tom Powers will serve as Kingsland's crew chief and the team will be based out of Jacksonville, Fla.

Kingsland, an Eldorado High graduate, attempted to make his NCTS debut last summer at Indianapolis Raceway Park. He just missed making the 36-truck starting field in an ill-prepared truck the Kinglands had leased from MLB Motorsports.

"It has been too long -- way too long," Kingsland said. "We were trying to do this last race at Martinsville but things didn't go through. I'm just looking forward to doing the Ohio race and take it from there."

Roger Kingsland said details on sponsorship for the truck would be announced in the coming weeks.

FitzBradshaw Racing's Tim Fedewa and Casey Atwood were sent to the rear of the field for the Aaron's 312 when it was discovered during post-qualifying inspection that the two cars had spacers in the roof flaps that were designed to deflect air over the rear spoilers. A NASCAR spokesman said the team could face further penalties for the infractions.

Gordon made more than 30 short runs in his No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet before taking both of his Indy cars out for brief 15-lap shakedown runs.

"We did an average of about 213 mph in the few laps we ran," Gordon said of the IRL cars. "We aren't trying to go fast, we just wanted to do an installation check and make sure the suspension is in working order and the car isn't leaking so when we go to Indy next week, we can roll out and have a good test."

Gordon will take part in an open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway next week prior to the May 9 opening day of practice for the 88th running of the Indianapolis 500. Gordon is fielding his own Dallara/Chevrolet at Indy, which he said would give him the best chance of winning the race.

"The closest that we've ever come to winning the Indy 500 is when I had my own team in 1999," Gordon said of his career-best, fourth-place finish. "This year, we've hired about 50 percent of the guys back and Thomas Knapp is engineering it. We were able to buy the right pieces and buy the right people.

"If I didn't think we were going to be competitive I would go back and drive for Andretti Green (Racing) again, but when we look back we had our best finishes when we had our own team."

Gordon, 35, will attempt to make his 10th start in the Indy 500. Last year, while driving for Andretti Green Racing, Gordon started third and finished 22nd after suffering a gearbox failure 31 laps from the end of the 200-lap race.

It was Carter's first victory as a crew chief in NASCAR's premier series.

"It's a heck of a trophy to remember my first win as a crew chief with," Carter said. "(My wife) Tracy and I will always be appreciative of Rusty and Patti for their thoughtfulness."

France was joined in the 2004 class by Bobby Rahal (CART), Charles "Red" Farmer (NASCAR), Shirley Muldowney (drag racing) and Bill Muncey (hydroplanes).

Bernstein, who won last weekend's O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, is a perfect 5-for-5 in final-round events in his brief 13-race career in the Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster. He has two victories in five races this season.

"When we're still racing and it's time to go into the finals, we don't have time to think about the statistics," Bernstein said, "but when you get a chance to digest it, it's pretty awesome to think we're 5-for-5 in the finals. And that tells you the performance of this team and how strong they are."

Bernstein took over for his father, legendary Kenny Bernstein, in the red dragster at the beginning of last season but missed the final 15 races due to a back injury he suffered in a violent crash in Englishtown, N.J.