Las Vegas Motor Speedway

History

Following the closure of Stardust International Raceway in 1970, plans were developed for a new racing facility in Las Vegas: the Las Vegas Speedrome. It consisted of a road course and drag strip, opening in 1972. Richie Clyne of Imperial Palace purchased the track in 1983 and added the 3/8-mile short track in 1985, renaming the facility Las Vegas Speedway Park. A new $72 million superspeedway opened on the site in September 1996. The first race at the speedway was on September 15 with an INDYCAR event which was won by Richie Hearn. A NASCAR Truck Series race followed in November. In December 1998, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. purchased Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Veteran motorsports publicist Chris Powell was named the speedway's president and general manager and still holds that position today.

The Winston No Bull 5 Million Dollar Bonus was held at the track from 1999 to 2002. Jeff Burton won a million dollars in 2000 and Jeff Gordon won the bonus in 2001. Burton and Sterling Marlin were not eligible in 1999 or 2002. The drag strip was relocated into the current The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, while the old drag strip and road course was rebuilt to the current outer 2.4 mile road course in use today. The 3/8-mile oval was rebuilt with a new pit lane and start-finish changed to the opposite side. In 1998, Las Vegas Motor Speedway was sold by Richie Clyne and Ralph Englestad to Speedway Motorsports, Inc., owned by Bruton Smith, for $215 million in December. During the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Champ Car also held races at the speedway, which were both won by Sébastien Bourdais.

In 2006, plans were announced to reconfigure the track after the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held in March, increasing the banking from 12-20°. This reconfiguration entailed "progressive banking" which increases the degree of banking on a gradient towards the outside of the track. This increased side-by-side racing. The speedway also constructed a fan zone called the Neon Garage. This area has live entertainment, unprecedented access to the drivers and teams, such as viewing areas for fans to watch their favorite driver's car get worked on and talk to the drivers, and is home to the Winner's Circle. The speedway moved pit road 275 feet (84 m) closer to the grandstands, built a new media center and added a quarter-mile oval for Legends Cars, Bandoleros, and Thunder Roadsters, in the tri-oval area.

On August 8, 2006, the newly reconfigured track reopened to stock cars. Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series Champion and Las Vegas native, became the first NASCAR Cup Series driver to test a stock car on the newly reconfigured track in his No. 2 Penske Dodge. Burton won the first Nationwide Series race on the new surface, taking a Monte Carlo SS to Victory Lane. The following day, Jimmie Johnson drove a Chevrolet to Victory Lane, capturing the first NASCAR Cup Series win on the new pavement.

In March 2011, Insomniac Events announced that their largest rave festival in North America, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), would take place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first time on June 24–26. More than 235,000 people attended the three-day event. The 2012 event was held June 8–10 with an attendance of 315,000 people. The 2013 event was held June 21–23 with an attendance of approximately 345,000 people. The 2014 event was held on June 20–22, and the 2015 event took place June 19–21. The twentieth anniversary EDC Las Vegas 2016 took place June 17–19, 2016; the 2017 version of the festival is scheduled for June 16–18, 2017. Insomniac has signed a ten-year contract with LVMS to host EDC through 2022.

A third road course designed by Romain Thievin was added in 2012. The course is 1.4 miles (2.3 km) long with 11 turns and an 1,800-foot (550 m) straight.

In 2018, a second Cup race at the track was added to the schedule, taking the place of New Hampshire Motor Speedway's weekend.

2011 IndyCar accident

On October 16, 2011, the final race of the 2011 IndyCar season, the IZOD IndyCar World Championship, was held at Las Vegas. However, the race was marred by a horrific crash on lap 11 that involved 15 cars, some of which burst into flames. The crash began when Wade Cunningham made light contact with James Hinchcliffe, but the situation turned into a big pile-up of cars. The crash allowed a red flag to be waved almost instantly, due to the remains of the damaged cars and the amount of debris on the track.

Four of the 15 drivers were seriously injured and taken to the nearby University Medical Center for treatment, one of which was two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 2005 series champion Dan Wheldon, who suffered severe blunt force trauma to the head after his car flew into the catch fence. He was pronounced dead on arrival two hours later and IndyCar's officials formally decided to abandon the race. Instead of completing the race with 188 laps to go, the 19 drivers who were not involved went back out on the track and did a five-lap salute in Wheldon's honor.

In December 2011, IndyCar announced that they would not be coming back to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the 2012 season and beyond and that the future of IndyCar depended on what they would learn from the ongoing investigation of the crash that claimed Wheldon's life.

Records

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series records

(As of March 8, 2015)

* from minimum 5 starts.

Tracks

Superspeedway track length

The NASCAR timing and scoring use a length of 1.5 miles (2.4 km). This length was also used by IRL between 1996 and 2000. In their last race in 2011 Indycar remeasured track length to 1.544 miles (2.485 km). This is the result of the reconfiguration of the track. Between 2005 (old layout) and 2011 (new layout), no indycar race was held there. NASCAR still use the old length of exactly 1.5 miles for the reconfigured oval.

Other events