Second Cup event creeps closer

Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the closest it's been in years to getting a second annual Sprint Cup race -- or it could be just another move in the mental chess game of racing grandmaster Bruton Smith.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority two weeks ago submitted a proposal to Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) about landing a coveted race in the series' 10-race Chase for the Cup playoff as early as next year, possibly in mid-September. The additional race would complement the speedway's early spring Cup event.

Rossi Ralenkotter, the LVCVA president, confirmed this week that "on-again, off-again" negotiations with Smith heated up over the past month.

"We haven't hidden the fact that Las Vegas can and will support a second race," said Ralenkotter, who expects to hear back from Smith next week.

The only way Las Vegas can get a second Cup event would be for Smith, SMI's founder and chairman, to move an existing race -- with NASCAR's approval -- from one of his six other tracks that host 11 Cup races. NASCAR has been steadfast in refusing to extend its schedule by adding races.

An additional Cup weekend would be a windfall for Southern Nevada but costly for Loudon, N.H., or Atlanta.

"As long as we can get a second race, we don't care where it comes from," Ralenkotter said.

Nor should he. This year's Las Vegas Cup weekend Feb. 26 to 28 generated $167 million for the Southern Nevada economy, according to the LVCVA. The Cup race drew an estimated 150,000 spectators, and motor sports industry experts think a second race would attract at least 120,000.

A source close to the negotiations said the LVCVA is offering to pay SMI between $5 million and $8 million to land a second Cup weekend. The authority is funded through a hotel room tax.

Getting a second date for Las Vegas was Smith's top priority until December 2008 when he bought Kentucky Speedway, which does not have a Cup race. Smith, 83, made it clear he would find a Cup race for Kentucky before Las Vegas got a second one.

Crowds for Kentucky's Nationwide races have fallen from 70,000 for its inaugural race in 2001 to just over 60,000 this year. To make the track suitable for a Cup event, at least 30,000 seats would have to be added and other costly improvements made.

Making such major upgrades in this economy doesn't seem prudent. It makes better sense for SMI to shift one of two Cup dates from its track near Atlanta to Las Vegas.

A publicly held corporation like SMI should focus on maximizing profit, and it makes fiscal sense to move an Atlanta race to Las Vegas, where it will draw up to 40,000 more spectators. And let's not forget the LVCVA's multimillion-dollar inducement to SMI.

A new variable in Smith's race-shifting scenario is New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which SMI bought in 2007. The track in Loudon has two annual Cup races, and attendance estimates were about 100,000 at each of last year's races.

But Smith has thrown down the "I'll move" gauntlet after creating a firestorm with the Loudon police department over what the cops want to charge to handle security at this weekend's event. Loudon charged the track $250,000 per weekend for protection the city required in 2008, dropped it to $170,000 last year and expects to be paid $175,000 for this weekend's services. Smith insists on paying no more than $65,000 and will complement security with cheaper private companies.

The difference stands at $105,000, a paltry amount considering the track will probably net at least $20 million from the event. But Smith thinks the track is getting fleeced.

"We want to move somewhere where we feel like we would have respect," Smith told The Concord (N.H.) Monitor. "I guess we'd be better off somewhere else. I'm thinking about it."

This is not a new gambit by Smith. Three years ago he threatened to raze ultra-modern Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., and build a track in a more cooperative community nearby over a dispute with Concord officials, who didn't want him to build a dragstrip on the property.

The result: Smith got the dragstrip, and a boulevard near the track named for him -- and the Charlotte speedway is still standing.

We hope Las Vegas is more than a bit player in Smith's latest racetrack chess game. We don't want the tentative logo for a possible fall Las Vegas Cup race to be a pawn.

Jeff Wolf's motor sports column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247. Visit Wolf's motor sports blog at lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal/ throughout the week.