Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
The Air Force Thunderbirds fly over before the start of the NASCAR Shelby American GT 350 Sunday, February 28, 2010 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Jimmie Johnson won for his fourth career victory in Las Vegas.
Monday, March 1, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Jimmie Johnson Wins at LVMS
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
For the fourth time in six years, Jimmie Johnson cruises to victory lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, winning the Shelby American NASCAR Sprint Cup series, Sunday.
As they are every year during NASCAR weekend, discussions about Las Vegas hosting a second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race were a hot topic at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Speedway officials have always kept their opinions consistent on the matter: They’d love to have a second race, but it’s just not that simple.
NASCAR isn’t going to add an extra date to its schedule, so a race would have to be taken away from another track to make room for a second date here. What complicates the situation is other tracks, such as the Kansas Speedway, also want another Sprint Cup race.
Some of the drivers at the Shelby American race this weekend, however, thought Las Vegas was worthy of a second race.
“There isn’t anyone in racing who doesn’t love coming here,” Tony Stewart said. “There’s not a lot of places we go where we’ve got so many options of what to do at the end of the day.”
While NASCAR battles the economy, some speedways around the country have seen a sharp decline in attendance. Reports from last week’s race at Fontana outside of Los Angeles, for example, indicated that only half of the seats were full and the real attendance was much lower than the announced 72,000.
Although Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s attendance reached its peak in 2007-2008, the race still registered as a sellout Sunday with an attendance near 140,000.
Attendance would be one of Las Vegas’ selling points. Joe Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing team, wouldn't mind another date in Las Vegas.
“I’d love it,” Gibbs said.
But there are people in NASCAR who are not so sure. The most prominent would be the man who won Sunday’s race, Jimmie Johnson.
Johnson said Fontana, which currently has two races, should be seen as a cautionary tale for Las Vegas. Fontana sold out every year up to 2004, when it got its second Sprint Cup race.
With two races per year, the track has never sold out and attendance has slipped drastically.
“I think you lose something when you go to two dates,” Johnson said. “I don’t think you can take a facility that’s seating 60 or 70 percent of its capacity, add a second date and expect it to be that big at both events.”
Johnson, who grew up in Southern California, said a group of his friends used to go to the race every year at Fontana before it got a second date.
“Now, they say, ‘I’ll skip the spring race and go to the fall race,” Johnson said. “The fall race comes around and they say, ‘I’ve got some things going on, I’ll go to the spring race.’ I now have friends who haven’t been in four years because of that cycle.”
Whether that would happen in Las Vegas is debatable, especially since the speedway reports that 70 percent of the attendance comes from out of state.
Thirteen tracks on the NASCAR circuit currently have two races. Las Vegas would love to join that group, and several NASCAR drivers wouldn’t mind, either.
“This place is very strong on service,” Mark Martin said. “That is a pleasure. When you come to Las Vegas, it’s a whole different feeling than it is a lot of other places where you feel like you’re a burden on folks.”
"NASCAR" Will follow the money like any other business' 2st race or not.
Fontana might have suffered because of a second race, but let's face it -- except for the actual race, it doesn't have much to recommend it to visitors. Whereas, Las Vegas attracts visitors without the race. Add the race in, and Bingo! The Speedway, NASCAR, and Las Vegas all win. I say take the later race away from Fontana and give it to Las Vegas.
I went down to Vegas from Seattle to see my first NASCAR race. Sort of a bucket list thing. That will
probably be my last NASCASR race because I thought it was one of the boringest things I every saw. After about 10 laps I had seen it all and only 157 laps to go. The cars went by me so fast I could not read the numbers on them and when they got far away I could not read the numbers. I could not hear a thing the anouncer was saying unless they were in a yellow flag situation. The screens they have there are worthless because of the glare from the sun. In other words I could not follow the race at all. I would rather watch it on TV.