Las Vegas Motor Speedway is "close to getting a second top-tier NASCAR race" beginning in '18, according to Richard Velotta of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority BOD has "scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday to consider" a seven-year, $2.5M annual sponsorship agreement with NASCAR that would include the "addition of a fall race" at the SMI-owned track. NASCAR since '98 has held a Cup race in Las Vegas, "usually in March." A proposed sponsorship and marketing agreement -- to be put to the 14-member board’s vote Wednesday -- would dedicate $1M per race plus $500,000 a year to "market both the spring and fall races, beginning Jan. 1 for seven years with an option for three additional years." There are also "clauses in place to cancel payments if a race is canceled and not rescheduled, the race isn’t a first-tier NASCAR event or if it isn’t broadcast on a major broadcast or cable television network." Velotta noted it is "unclear whether the added Las Vegas race would be a new race or if a track that currently has two races would relinquish one" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/4). MOTORSPORT.com’s Jim Utter cited sources as saying that the race “would come from an existing date on the Cup series schedule but not necessarily from a track that SMI currently owns.” Sources also said that the addition of a fall Las Vegas race to the Cup schedule could mean the "series’ annual awards banquet, which has most recently been held in Las Vegas, could move to Charlotte" as early as the '18 season (MOTORSPORT.com, 3/5).
TIME TO DOUBLE DOWN? In Las Vegas, Ron Kantowski wrote the LVCVA "wouldn’t be talking about spending money on a second race if it didn’t think it can succeed." NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick said, "I love Vegas, and I think it’s a great sponsor. I think it would be good. But sometimes you can turn one great (race) into two mediocres. That’s just something you have to be careful of and look at and really evaluate" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/5).
