Comments (1) | Add a comment
LVMS in talks to bring back Indy Racing League next year
Tools
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Dario Franchitti and Danica Patrick could be headed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway to race IndyCars next year.
LVMS president Chris Powell has been negotiating with Randy Bernard, chief executive of the Indy Racing League, to return the open-wheel series to the track after a 10-year hiatus.
The IndyCar event would complement the speedway's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, scheduled for Oct. 15, 2011.
"We are in discussions about hosting an IndyCar race the day after next year's truck race," Powell said, adding that the race would be the IndyCar season finale.
Bernard on Thursday characterized his talks with Powell as "preliminary."
Bernard said he eventually wants the season-ending race and banquet to be in Las Vegas, where he built several relationships in the tourism industry during a 15-year tenure as chief executive of Professional Bull Riders.
For the past several years, the truck race has been a one-day event on Saturday with a night race. That will be the format for the Smith's 350k truck race Sept. 25.
Powell said that adding an IndyCar race would allow the event to expand to three days, with practice and qualifying Friday, the truck race Saturday and the IndyCar race Sunday, with both nationally televised races taking place in the afternoon.
Las Vegas hosted Indy Racing League events from 1996 through 2000, a period when the series competed nationally with the Champ Car -- formerly CART -- open-wheel series. Champ Car raced on the 1.5-mile speedway in 2004 and 2005 and returned in 2007 for the Vegas Grand Prix on downtown streets.
Champ Car folded in 2007, making IndyCar the only major open-wheel series in the United States.
Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.
Trending topics:
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
@Logan, you insurance is very costly you can save money on your auto insurance by making few simple changes find how much you can save http://bit.ly/ah5Jjm