Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NASCAR EVENTS: Speedway eyes first weekend in March

Las Vegas Winston Cup race will be March 7, source says

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Next year's NASCAR Winston Cup weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway appears likely to be March 6 and 7.

The Las Vegas Cup race will be March 7, according to a source close to the NASCAR series. It would mark the seventh consecutive year that the speedway has hosted a Cup race on the first Sunday in March.

"I can't confirm (those dates), but those are the tentative dates we've been working with," said Chris Powell, the speedway's president and general manager.

The tentative dates would put Cup qualifying on March 5, a Friday, and the NASCAR Busch Series race on March 6.

Because 2004 is a leap year, it was thought that the Las Vegas race might have been shifted to the weekend ending Feb. 29 while remaining the third race of the season. The season-opening Daytona 500 is slated for Feb. 15, with an expected visit to Rockingham, N.C., the following weekend.

Although NASCAR will not officially comment on its 2004 schedule, which might not be released in its entirety for a couple of months, it looks as if the Cups teams will have a weekend off between the races in Rockingham and Las Vegas.

Although the Associated Press reported Tuesday that Rockingham will lose one of its two Cup races next year, it is not expected to disrupt the North Carolina track's date in February.

It would, however, give the California Speedway near Los Angeles a second Cup race.

This year's Las Vegas Cup race on March 2 sold out and produced a track-record crowd of 142,000, strengthening the speedway's hold on being the largest single-day sports event west of Fort Worth, Texas.

Also, the speedway this week began demolition of a concrete portion of its main grandstand overlooking the fourth turn to make space for a 15,000-seat expansion. The new Dale Earnhardt Terrace will seat 22,000 when completed.

Ticket sales for the Cup weekend in Las Vegas currently are limited to renewal orders except for seats in the Earnhardt Terrace. For information on seats in the new section, call 644-4444. Other tickets for the weekend will go on sale in September.

• ANDRETTI FIRED -- Petty Enterprises on Tuesday fired John Andretti as the driver of its No. 43 Dodge in the Cup series. He will be replaced by Christian Fittipaldi.

In six seasons and 172 races with Petty, Andretti won one race and two poles. His best season was in 1999, when he finished 11th in points.

He was 31st last year and is 33rd this year with one top-10 finish in 14 starts.

Fittipaldi, 32, a veteran of Formula One and CART, joined Petty late last year after competing in the CART Champ Car Series for eight years. Fittipaldi competed in two Busch races last year.

Fittipaldi will attempt to qualify for this weekend's Cup race in Brooklyn, Mich. In three previous Cup starts this year, he has crashed twice and has a best finish of 35th in the Daytona 500.