Tourism Race At Speedway: Seventy Percent of NASCAR Race Attendees At LVMS Will Be Las Vegas Visitors
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
There’s so much hype about the speedy, little open-wheel rockets coming to the Strip for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November that the raw boosterism for the Formula One event in the autumn can sometimes eclipse the fact that Las Vegas hosts not one but two NASCAR weekends every year.
The big boys of major league stock car racing will be at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for the Pennzoil 400.
LVSportsBiz.com caught up with Speedway Prez Chris Powell, who gave us five takeaways for NASCAR weekend.
One: Sunday’s 400 race is a major tourism event. Powell expects about 70 percent of the race’s attendees to come from outside the Las Vegas market. That’s essential because the Speedway receives $7.75 million in public sponsorship dollars through 2031 from the Las Vegas public tourism agency, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
Two: New Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, who defeated incumbent Steve Sisolak in November, will be the honorary pace-car driver and lead the racers to the green flag. Lombardo, the former Clark County sheriff, is no stranger to car racing, competing in off-road races. How did the Speedway line up Lombardo to be the pace-car driver? “I called him,” Powell told LVSportsBiz.com.
Three: Powell spilled the beans during a NASCAR lunch Tuesday that Las Vegas-born Bryce Harper, a two-time MVP in the National League, will serve as the 400’s grand marshal. Only thing is the Speedway didn’t send out the press release yet on the Harper announcement. But lo and behold, a press release about the baseball star serving as grand marshal was sent later in the afternoon.
Four: The Speedway is much more than a 1.5-mile oval track on the north end of the Las Vegas metro area. It’s become home to autonomous driving vehicles and the Electric Daisy Carnival, a massive electronic music festival set for May 19-21 at the Speedway. Here’s our interview with Powell.
Five: When the Speedway expanded from one NASCAR weekend to two a year, attendance for each race weekend was less than the one NASCAR weekend a year, Powell said. But if you add both NASCAR weekends together, it’s more than one NASCAR weekend at the Speedway, Powell noted.
