Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Motorsport venue
Name = Las Vegas Motor Speedway| Location = Clark County, Nevada
Logo=lvms2.jpg
| Events = NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Capacity = 142,000
Owner = Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Address = 7000 Las Vegas Blvd. North, Las Vegas, Nevada 89115
Miles_first = True
Layout1 = D-shaped Oval Superspeedway
Surface = Tarmac
Length_mi = 1.5
Length_km = 2.41
Banking = Turns - 20°
Layout2 = The Bullring Oval
Surface2 = Paved
Length_mi2 = 0.5
Length_km2 = 0.8
Layout3 = Dirt Track
Surface3 = Clay
Length_mi3 = 0.5
Length_km3 = 0.8
Layout4 = Drag Strip
Surface4 = Tarmac

Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, is a 1,200 acre (4.9 km²) complex of multiple tracks for automobile racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The drag strip, known as The Strip, is open every other Friday night for locals to drag race in what is called the Midnight Mayhem program. This is an effort to get street racing off of local streets and into a safer environment.

The track is used by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as their driver training facility.

History

The Indy Racing League ran at the track from 1996 and 2000.

The speedway has often been referred to as "The Diamond in the Desert."

The speedway has also been known as "The House Of Roush" because nearly all of his drivers have had success at the track including Matt Kenseth (2), Mark Martin (1), and Jeff Burton (2). Burton and Martin also won NASCAR Nationwide (formerly Busch) events at LVMS, although Burton (Richard Childress Racing) and Martin (JR Motorsports) have won their most recent Nationwide Series races with different teams.

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.

Champ Car held two races at the speedway in 2004 and 2005, both were won by Sébastien Bourdais.

In 2006, plans were announced to reconfigure the track after the March 2006 NEXTEL Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) race. This reconfiguration entailed "progressive banking" which increases the degree of banking the further up the track you are located. This increased side-by-side racing. The speedway also constructed a fan zone nicknamed "The Neon Garage". This area has live entertainment, unprecedented access to the drivers and teams and is home to the Winner's Circle. The speedway moved pit road 275 feet closer to the grandstands, built a new media center and added a quarter-mile Legends oval in the tri-oval area.

As of August 8, 2006 the newly reconfigured track reopened to stock cars. 2004 NASCAR Cup Champion and Las Vegas native Kurt Busch, who drives the #2 Miller Lite Penske Dodge, became the first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup (Now Sprint Cup Series) driver to test a stock car on the newly reconfigured track. Jeff Burton became the first driver to win on the newly paved LVMS in a Busch Series (Now Nationwide Series) Monte Carlo SS. Jimmie Johnson won the first NEXTEL Cup Series race after its reconfiguration. He also drove a Chevrolet to Victory Lane.

Current Events

The 1.5 mile (2.4 km) "oval" hosts:
* NASCAR Sprint Cup Series - UAW-Dodge 400
* NASCAR Nationwide Series - Sam's Town 300
* NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series - Qwik Liner Las Vegas 350The quarter-mile (400 m) dirt oval hosts:
* other dirt-racing events The quarter-mile (400 m) drag strip hosts:
* Two NHRA events every year

Records

Track reconfiguration in 2006 increased the bank angles 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.

* NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying: Kasey Kahne, 29.212 sec. (184.856 mph), 2007
* NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race: Mark Martin, 2 hrs. 43 min. 58 sec. (146.554 mph), 1998
* NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying: Brian Vickers, 29.718 sec. (181.708 mph), 2008
* NASCAR Nationwide Series Race: Jeff Burton, 2 hrs. 13 min. 13 sec. (135.118 mph), 2000
* NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: Mike Skinner, 30.326 sec. (178.065 mph), 2006
* NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race: David Starr, 1 hr. 37 min. 3 sec. (135.394 mph), 2002

Tracks

*The Bullring (a 0.375 mile (600 m) paved oval
*Dirt Track 0.5 mile (800 m) clay oval
*The Strip (a drag strip)
*Superspeedway 1.5 mile (2.414 km) oval

Racing Schools

* [http://www.600racing.com/ 600 Racing Driving Schools]
* [http://www.driversedge.org/ Drivers Edge]
* [http://www.andrettiracing.com/ Mario Andretti Racing School]
* [http://www.1800bepetty.com/ Richard Petty Driving Experience]
* [http://www.fastfreddie.com/ Freddie Spencer's High Performance Riding School]

External links

* [http://www.lvms.com/ Las Vegas Motor Speedway Official Site]
* [http://www.nascar.com/races/tracks/las/index.html Las Vegas Motor Speedway Page] on [http://www.nascar.com NASCAR.com]
* [http://jayski.com/pages/tracks/lasvegas.htm Jayski's Las Vegas Speedway Page] - Current and Past Las Vegas Motor Speedway News
*High Resolution image from [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.271341,-115.011127&spn=0.013325,0.019741&t=k&hl=en Google Maps]