Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004 | 9:55 a.m.
By most accounts, Saturday's night's unique racing doubleheader at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a resounding success and one that should return to the speedway in 2005, according to those involved.
The "Double Down in the Desert" event, which paired the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the open-wheel Champ Car World Series, attracted a crowd estimated at 80,000 and drew rave reviews from drivers and series officials alike.
"I thought the response from the fans, as far as the turnout, exceeded everybody's expectations -- mine, the NASCAR people and the Champ Car people that I talked to," LVMS general manger Chris Powell said.
"Jim Cassidy from NASCAR said he thought it was easily the largest attendance at a Craftsman Truck event this year. We're looking forward to doing it again. It was just a great night; all of our attendance numbers were beyond what we expected."
With the addition of the Champ Cars to the scheduled truck race, this year's event easily eclipsed the crowd estimated at 63,000 for last year's stand-alone truck race. The speedway's decision last year to sell blocks of 5,000 tickets for $5,000 to local businesses -- which, in turn, distributes the tickets and promoted the event -- was repeated this year.
"It's something that this speedway is very proud of," Powell said of the marketing plan. "We've taken an event that was hard-pressed to draw 20,000 people (and made it a successful venture)."
Champ Car president Dick Eidswick said he was pleased with the event, which exposed the series to a group of fans that might never had seen the 750-horsepower cars race on a high-speed oval.
"The staff of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, under the leadership of general manager Chris Powell, did an outstanding job this weekend and pulled off a first-class event," Eidswick said. "I am sure that the crowd went away happy after seeing such a thrilling evening of racing."
Both races featured close racing and exciting finishes. Shane Hmiel won the Truck Series race with a bump-and-run maneuver two laps from the finish and Sebastien Bourdais edged Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bruno Junqueira by less than a tenth of a second after the two had raced side-by-side for the final 20 laps of the 166-lap race.
The only glitch in the weekend and happened outside the speedway. Although LVMS officials had stepped up their traffic plan from a year ago and were prepared to handle a crowd of 100,000, traffic on Interstate 15, the Beltway and Las Vegas Boulevard slowed to a crawl shortly before the 7:29 p.m. start of the truck race.
Some observers noted that most of the spectators were on the grounds of the speedway by 6:30 p.m., and a second wave of traffic -- perhaps Champ Car fans who had little interest in seeing the start of the truck race and left late -- caught those in charge of traffic control off guard.
"I think we can do a better job on traffic," Powell said. "We probably need to do a better job of getting information out as to how to use the three-lane exit that goes to the speedway off the interstate and get people to understand that if they're coming off Las Vegas Boulevard, there is public parking all the way up to the speedway and beyond."
Powell said that moving cars off the property and the conclusion of the event "was very smooth," but the majority of the crowd had departed long before the Champ Car race had ended at 11:45 p.m.
Powell said if the speedway stages a similar doubleheader next year -- as it appears it will -- he would try to start the truck race an hour earlier.
"What would be a best-case scenario next year is to announce a 6 o'clock start (for the trucks) and actually have a green flag about 6:20 because it did go a little later than we would have wanted," Powell said.
Although neither Powell nor Champ Car officials have made a formal announcement, it is likely the Champ Cars will return to LVMS next September.
John Lopes, Champ Car's executive vice president of operations, said the two sides "are close" on an agreement to have the series return to LVMS next year. Champ Car co-owner Paul Gentilozzi said it is important for the series to continue to run on road courses, street courses, short ovals and superspeedways.
NASCAR already has released its 2005 schedule and will race at LVMS on Saturday, Sept. 24. Champ Car has not yet finalized its 2005 schedule but Gentilozzi said he expected it to be released in "two, maybe three weeks."
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