Unless there "is a significant walk-up crowd" for
Saturday's IRL Vegas Indy 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
(LVMS), it "could be the last visit to the track" by the
IRL, according to Jeff Wolf of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL,
who cites an LVMS official as saying that about 3,500
tickets have been purchased for the race. IRL VP/Sales &
Marketing Bob Reif: "I'm not convinced that Las Vegas is an
open-wheel market. I'm looking at 15 markets for races next
year. [Las Vegas] has to come a long way for us to come
back. I'd love to come back to Vegas. It's a great market,
but it might not be a great open-wheel market." But LVMS GM
Chris Powell said, "I've had no reason to believe [the IRL]
wouldn't come back, but I don't want to get into that. I'll
talk to them when they get here." More Powell, on ticket
sales for Saturday's race: "We expect to have a good crowd.
Let's just wait until Saturday and we'll evaluate when we
know more instead of speculating." Reif said, "I'm guessing
we'll see 20,000 people (in Las Vegas for the IRL), but it's
tough to run a race for which you're paying $1 million in
prize money with 20,000 coming" (REVIEW-JOURNAL, 4/19).