IndyCar ups ante for event at LVMS

The winner of the IndyCar Series' inaugural World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this fall could receive $5 million, series chief executive Randy Bernard said Tuesday.

Some strings are attached, but it is believed it would be the richest payday in American racing and far surpass the $1.46 million Trevor Bayne made for his team for winning Sunday's Daytona 500 and the $2.75 million Dario Franchitti collected for finishing first in last year's Indianapolis 500.

At a news conference at Crystals in CityCenter, Bernard said regular IndyCar drivers will not be eligible to win the $5 million and that a selection committee will pick five interested professional drivers outside the series who will get a chance to qualify for the Oct. 16 race. If one of them wins the race, he or she will get the $5 million.

"A very important element of our sport is that we have the best, fastest, (most) versatile race-car drivers in the world," Bernard said. "Well, we're here to put our money where our mouth is."

Bernard said details of the offer haven't been finalized, but it was clear his hope is to attract NASCAR drivers such as Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and AJ Allmendinger, who all have IndyCar experience. Qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series race that week in Concord, N.C., is on Thursday and the race is Saturday night, so they would be able to participate in the new Las Vegas event Sunday.

"I heard that, and my first thought was to lose 15 or 20 pounds and give Roger (Penske) a call," said Al Unser Jr., a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Las Vegas resident, who won the last IndyCar race at the speedway in 2000, when the series ran under the Indy Racing League banner. He retired from racing in 2007.

The offer certainly is worth $5 million of buzz that it probably will create.

Another plan for the Las Vegas race is to offer every ticket buyer for this year's first 16 IndyCar races a free ticket to the LVMS race.

"We wanted to do something to reward our fans," said Bernard, in his second year running IndyCar after spending 15 years as chief executive with the Professional Bull Riders organization.

Open-wheel cars raced on the 1.5-mile speedway oval from 1996 through 2000 under the IRL and in 2004 and 2005 with the Champ Car World Series, which also staged the 2007 Las Vegas Grand Prix on downtown streets.

Each of those races took place when the open-wheel world was divided by the Indy Racing League -- now called IndyCar -- and the Champ Car Series that folded at the end of 2007.

"The biggest difference from past open-wheel races here is that the sport has come together as one," speedway president Chris Powell said. "The dynamics are so much better today."

Though the unification came in 2008, Powell said he didn't become interested in bringing IndyCars back to the speedway until Bernard was hired to lead IndyCar late in 2009.

"Randy brings new ideas, and the sport will get propped up with his ideas," Powell said.

The IndyCar race will be run after a 100-mile race for the developmental Firestone Indy Lights Series on the same day. The 350k NASCAR Camping World Series race will be run Oct. 15, and practice and qualifying for all three divisions will be Oct. 14.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.