Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Speedway at LVMS
Location	Clark County, near North Las Vegas, Nevada
Capacity	142,000
Owner	Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Address	Las Vegas Motor Speedway 7000 Las Vegas Blvd. N. Las Vegas, Nevada 89115
Opened	1971
Major events	NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Smith's 350 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals Big O Tires NHRA Nationals
Tri-Oval Superspeedway
Surface	Asphalt
Length	1.5 mi (2.41 km)
Banking	Turns – 20°
Lap record	226.491 MPH (Arie Luyendyk, Treadway Racing, 1996, IZOD IndyCar Series)
The Bullring Oval
Surface	Asphalt
Length	0.375 mi (0.604 km)
Dirt track
Surface	Clay
Length	0.5 mi (0.8 km)
Drag strip "The Strip at LVMS"
Surface	1/4-mile asphalt

The horrific crash at Las Vegas 2011. Dan Wheldon's car, at the bottom of the picture, has just left the racing surface.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada near Las Vegas, is a 1,200-acre (490 ha) complex of multiple tracks for automobile racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

History

Following the closure of Stardust International Raceway at the end of 1970, plans were developed for a new drag strip north of Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Speedrome. It consisted of a road course and drag strip. Through changes of ownership, a 3/8 mile short track would by the end of the 1970s become part of the complex. In 1995, refurbishment of the tracks, including a new $72 million superspeedway, opened in September 1996. The first race at the speedway was on September 15, 1996, with an Indy Racing League event, which was won by Richie Hearn. The first NASCAR Sprint Cup (then Winston Cup) event was held March 1, 1998 with Mark Martin winning the inaugural event. In December 1998, Speedway Motorsports purchased Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Veteran motorsports publicist Chris Powell was named the speedway's president and general manager and still holds that position today.

The Winston No Bull 5 Million Dollar Bonus was held at the track from 1999 to 2002. Jeff Burton won a million dollars in 2000 and Jeff Gordon won the bonus in 2001. Burton in 1999 and Sterling Marlin in 2002 were not eligible. The drag strip was rebuilt and relocated into the current The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 3/8 mile oval was rebuilt with a new pit lane and start-finish changed to the opposite side. During 1998, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was sold by Richie Clyne and Ralph Englestad to Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which was owned by Bruton Smith, for $215 million dollars in December. During the 2004 and 2005 race seasons, Champ Car also held races at the speedway, which were both won by Sébastien Bourdais.

In 2006, plans were announced to reconfigure the track after the March 2006 Sprint Cup Series race. This reconfiguration entailed "progressive banking" which increases the degree of banking on a gradient towards the outside of the track. This increased side-by-side racing. The speedway also constructed a fan zone called The Neon Garage. This area has live entertainment, unprecedented access to the drivers and teams, such as viewing areas for fans to watch their favorite driver's car get worked on and talk to the drivers, and is home to the Winner's Circle. The speedway moved pit road 275 feet (84 m) closer to the grandstands, built a new media center and added a quarter-mile oval for Legends Cars, Bandoleros, and Thunder roadsters, in the tri-oval area.

On August 8, 2006, the newly reconfigured track reopened to stock cars. Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion and Las Vegas native, became the first Sprint Cup driver to test a stock car on the newly reconfigured track in his #2 Miller Lite Penske Dodge. Jeff Burton won the first Nationwide Series race on the new surface, taking a Monte Carlo SS to Victory Lane. The following day Jimmie Johnson drove a Chevrolet to Victory Lane, capturing the first Sprint Cup Series win on the new pavement.

In March 2011, Insomniac Events announced that the Electric Daisy Carnival would take place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway June 24–26. More than 235,000 people attended the three-day event and plans are already being made for the EDC (largest rave) to return to LVMS for a five year contract. The 2012 event will be held June 8–10 and attendance for all three days is estimated 315,000 people to enter the Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the three day spread.

2011 IndyCar Accident

At the IZOD IndyCar World Championship there on 16 October 2011, the final IndyCar race of the IndyCar season was held at Las Vegas. However the race was marred by a horrific crash during the 11th lap of the race which involved 15 cars, some of which burst into flames. The crash resulted in a red flag being shown very soon after, due to the remains of the cars and the amount of debris left on the track. The crash was started by light contact between James Hinchcliffe and Wade Cunningham, but the problem soon became a pile-up.

Four drivers were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, one of whom was two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon who suffered severe blunt force trauma to his head after his car flew into the perimeter fence of the track and burst into flames. He was pronounced dead by the hospital two hours after the crash and the race was formally abandoned by IndyCar officials. Instead of completing the race, the unaffected drivers drove a five-lap salute on the track in honour of Dan Wheldon.

In the aftermath of the crash and Wheldon's death, there was lots of criticism about the Las Vegas track, mainly about the steeply-banked turns and the relatively small oval track. IndyCar officials, including Randy Bernard, have also been criticized after they were accused of trying to make the race more exciting by making it more dangerous. For instance the maximum amount of cars allowed in races for IndyCar is 33, but in this race there were 34. Also a publicity deal gave the eventual victim of this race, Dan Wheldon a chance to win $5 million dollars if he started from the back of the grid and won the race.

Future of IndyCar at Las Vegas

In December 2011, IndyCar officials confirmed that they would not be returning to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the 2012 season and that the future of IndyCar at that track depended on what they learn from the ongoing investigation into the fatal accident that killed Wheldon.

Records

Track reconfiguration in 2006 increased the banking in the turns. Subsequent testing before the 2007 season showed significantly higher speeds, with Sprint Cup Series drivers recording unofficial laps at better than 185 mph (298 km/h).

• NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying: Matt Kenseth, 28.589 sec. (188.884 mph), 2011
• NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race: Kyle Busch, 3 hrs. 34 min. 40 sec. (119.513 mph), 2009 Shelby 427 (427.5-mile (688.0 km) distance used for first time in 2009)
• NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying: Brad Keselowski, 29.122 sec. (185.427 mph), 2010
• NASCAR Nationwide Series Race: Jeff Burton, 2 hrs. 13 min. 13 sec. (135.118 mph), 2000
• NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Qualifying: Mike Skinner, 30.326 sec. (178.065 mph), 2006
• NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race: David Starr, 1 hr. 37 min. 3 sec. (135.394 mph), 2002

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Records

(As of 3/7/11)

Most Wins	4	Jimmie Johnson
Most Top 5s	6	Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin
Most Top 10s	10	Mark Martin
Starts	14	4 Drivers
Poles	2	4 Drivers
Most Laps Completed	3,560	Jeff Burton
Most Laps Led	485	Jeff Gordon
Avg. Start*	5.2	Kurt Busch
Avg. Finish*	10.6	Jimmie Johnson

* from minimum 5 starts.

Tracks

• The Bullring (a 0.375-mile (600 m) paved oval
• Dirt Track 0.5 mile (800 m) clay oval
• The Strip 0.25 mile(1320 ft drag strip)
• Superspeedway 1.5 mile (2.414 km) oval

External links

• Las Vegas Motor Speedway Official Site
• Las Vegas Motor Speedway Page on NASCAR.com
• Jayski's Las Vegas Speedway Page – Current and Past Las Vegas Motor Speedway News
• LVMS on RacewayReport.com – Local area information, track specs, mapping, news and more.
• High Resolution image from Google Maps
• Richard Petty Driving Experience at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Las Vegas Motor Speedway Tickets