Smith is ready to move Sears Pt. race here

Las Vegas Motor Speedway would host two NASCAR Winston Cup races a year beginning in 2000, if track owner Bruton Smith gets his way.

Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., for the first time Wednesday confirmed that he is looking at moving the race date at his Sears Point (Calif.) Raceway to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Smith and NASCAR officials have been trying to get improvements made at the 1.95-mile road course, but Sonoma County and state officials have been slow to approve those plans.

"NASCAR is getting very frustrated, and I guess you could say we are too, and we're ready to move that event to Las Vegas," Smith told the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.

Smith was said to be traveling this morning and was not available for further comment.

LVMS general manager Chris Powell said that he was not surprised to hear of Smith's comments, but added that he has not yet been told to prepare for a second Winston Cup race next year.

"That fairly well reflects the stance that I have heard from (Smith)," Powell said.

There have been rumors that some NASCAR drivers may boycott further races at Sears Point because of what they perceive as substandard conditions at the Northern California track, including a lack of permanent garage facilities.

"I have talked to a good many drivers and other race team members and sponsors ... and that was the overwhelming opinion, that they hope that date gets moved to Las Vegas," Powell said.

The major stumbling block facing Smith in his attempt to move the Sears Point date to Las Vegas is the fact that NASCAR officials repeatedly have said that NASCAR owns the race dates, not the individual tracks.

Smith would have to get NASCAR's approval for such a move, and the sport's sanctioning body is reluctant to dump the Sears Point date for two reasons: the San Francisco Bay area is a huge television market for the series and losing the Sears Point race would leave the series with only one other road course (Watkins Glen in New York).

In the interview with the Star-Telegram, Smith also expressed his frustration with NASCAR over it failing to give him a second Winston Cup race at his Texas Motor Speedway.

Smith got his first date at TMS only after purchasing North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway and moving one of the Winston Cup races to Texas.

"NASCAR owes us this (second) date," Smith said. "They've promised repeatedly, repeatedly, we need to be in Texas twice. For three years now we've been promised this date. We're still waiting for them to fulfill that promise."

Smith said one solution would be to move races from some of the series' smaller tracks to bigger tracks such as Texas.

"I think you'll see some dates moved from where they don't belong now," he said. "There's dates out there that don't belong there. I'm not going to name them, but people know where they are. I think you'll see some movement there."

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