NASCAR enthusiasts, start your debit cards

If you love watching good ol' boys drive in circles for hours on end, then we've got a deal for you.

When the 60-year-old Sahara crossed the finish line in May and closed its doors for good, it took with it the NASCAR Cafe and Cyber Speedway, a two-story restaurant loaded with official National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing memorabilia, including cars, uniforms and equipment such as gas cans and flag stands.

Starting Thursday at 10 a.m., the cafe's mementos, furniture and fixtures go on the market in a liquidation sale in the restaurant.

"There are a lot of people who had a lot of loyalty to the NASCAR Cafe," said Don Hayes, president of National Content Liquidators, the Ohio company handling the sale. "They've been waiting for this."

For as little as $25, NASCAR nuts can snap up drivers' pictures that graced the cafe's walls. For NASCAR aficionados with extra cash, Carzilla, a Dale Earnhardt Sr.-designed Pontiac Grand Prix stock car, will be available for $10,000. In between the pricing extremes are about 2,000 other items, including drivers' jumpsuits, bar stools, neon signs and restaurant tables featuring maps of famous racetracks across the country.

Even the urinals, bathroom partitions and kitchen sink must go, though Hayes is guessing restaurant operators and other hospitality professionals, rather than Earnhardt fans, will pick up those items (unless the urinals have pictures of Earnhardt rival Bill Elliott in the bottom of them).

Las Vegas natives and NASCAR celebrities Kurt and Kyle Busch don't have any memorabilia up for sale at the cafe's liquidation, Hayes said.

Hayes said he expects 500 or more fans to stop by the cafe looking to buy. He's fielded emails from fans as far away as Arizona and California expressing interest in attending the sale.

"I think it'll be very busy for the first couple of days, and everything will go quickly," he said.

The liquidation will continue daily until all is sold, though Hayes said he expects 90 percent of the restaurant's goods to go by Monday. He declined to say how much he anticipates the sale will bring in. The liquidation's proceeds will go to SBE Entertainment, the Sahara's owner.

The NASCAR Cafe's liquidation sale is the latest in a long line of Las Vegas clearance sales. National Content Liquidators has been conducting a liquidation sale for the Sahara since June. The Stardust closed in 2006 and sold thousands of items, including a set of giant, wooden African tribal statues, in 2007. And National Content Liquidators has overseen liquidation sales for the El Rancho, the Aladdin and the Landmark. At the Dunes' liquidation sale in 1993, the company sold a $10,000 harp, as well as a mobile "shell boat" that carried the harpist through one of the hotel's restaurants.

"People put this stuff in their living rooms," Hayes said. "People have been buying items from the Sahara and building 'Sahara' rooms in their homes."

The recent liquidation that most closely resembles the NASCAR Cafe event was the 2010 sale of several hundred items from the Las Vegas Hilton's shuttered "Star Trek: The Experience." As with the NASCAR Cafe sale, items started at $25, and included memorabilia as well as practical items such as furniture from Quark's Bar.

That's where the similarities end, though. Not to start an intergalactic war or anything, but Hayes, who wasn't involved in the Star Trek sale, thinks the upcoming NASCAR sale might have more mass appeal.

"It's a tossup, but I have to go with NASCAR. There's just a lot more people interested in NASCAR," he said. "Star Trek is a tight, little group. NASCAR is a national thing."

Which fan base is weirder?

"I'm not going to answer that," Hayes laughed.

Buyers can buy NASCAR Cafe items with cash, Visa or Mastercard. The sale runs 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, except Sundays, noon-5 p.m. To see pictures of some of the items, go to www.nclsales.com, and click on the "Current Sales-NASCAR Cafe" option under Liquidation Sales at the bottom of the page.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@review journal.com or 702-380-4512.