Some fans who attended Sunday's NASCAR's Sprint Cup Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway "were not allowed to leave a locked parking lot until an hour after the race was over," according to Alan Snel of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. LVMS parking attendants, backed up by Las Vegas police and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers, said that "fans in the free parking lots could leave only after paid lots emptied." The speedway has "more than 10,000 free parking spaces," and crowds usually "exceed 100,000 people" for a Sprint Cup race. LVMS President Chris Powell "acknowledged it was a mistake to lock the gate and apologized." Powell explained that "weeks ago the speedway planned to lock the general parking gate so that fans paying $59 for weekend parking could leave first." But he said that he "reversed course in response to concerns raised by some staff members." Powell added that his "change of mind was not effectively communicated to parking attendants." He added, "I failed to communicate to proper personnel" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/13).
