Speedway officials work to improve traffic flow

When Chris Powell was named the new general manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway last month, he promised the facility would become more fan-friendly.

Less than two weeks since arriving in Las Vegas, Powell already is living up to his word.

Powell and officials from new track owner Speedway Motorsports, Inc., are working on new traffic and pedestrian plans designed to improve spectator entrance and egress at this year's Winston Cup race at LVMS.

"We are in the process of developing an improved traffic plan into and out of the Speedway," Powell said. "We're not saying that you're going to be able to get in and out of the Speedway in 15 minutes, but it will be better.

"There will be different and better places for people to park. The traffic pattern itself will be largely similar, but there will be at least one more parking lot and there will be some little tweaks here and there."

Powell said details of the new traffic plans will be announced in the weeks leading up to the March 7 Las Vegas 400. New owner Bruton Smith has sent several people from his Charlotte Motor Speedway to assist Powell in improving traffic flow at the Winston Cup race.

"Traffic is almost a science, how you can get 130,000 people in here and out of here in two and a half to three hours," he said. "We're constantly studying it.

"Bruton's tracks have historically been unmatched in their efforts and their results in getting (traffic) into and out of his tracks. Our goal here is to get everyone out of here within two and a half hours of the checkered flag falling."

Among the improvements already being instituted are more rest room facilities and the addition of entrance gates for fans. At last year's inaugural Las Vegas 400, ticket holders were forced to enter the grounds through one of two gates located directly behind the main grandstand. Additional gates spaced along the main grandstand will allow fans to enter the grounds closer to their assigned seats.

Officials from Charlotte Motor Speedway also have been brought in, Powell said, to assist in ticketing snafus which have delayed the mailing of confirmation notices to many fans who renewed their ticket requests from last year.

"We have some people who have really, really worked long hours to get the ticket situation smoothed out because we did have some problems," Powell said. "I'm not going to hide behind excuses; we made some mistakes and because of some hard work (by) some experts who Bruton has in here from Charlotte ... we're getting back to people and we're getting things situated so that we feel pretty sure that everybody is going to be happy."

One announcement that should make most fans happy is that Powell said Speedway Motorsports has no intention of bringing personal seat licenses to LVMS. PSLs require fans to pay hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars for the right to buy the most desirable seats at a facility.

"We have no plans to institute permanent seat licensing here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it's just not something that I foresee happening," Powell said. "You never say never, but right now we're very happy with the way we disseminate our tickets."

What Powell does foresee is LVMS enhancing its season-ticket program in an attempt to encourage more fans to purchase tickets to all races at the Speedway.

Powell said he has been impressed with the morale of the Speedway's employees since Smith purchased the track and adjoining real estate for $215 million last month.

"I can't say enough about the people who are on staff here," Powell said. "People have a good attitude and I think they're excited about Bruton buying the race track.

"I can't say enough about the people that Bruton sent here from Charlotte to come in and lend expertise -- just hundreds and hundreds of years of expertise. Some of Bruton's plans are grandiose plans, but it's because Bruton is willing to make the investment in this facility to make it better for the long run. It's not just a band-aid approach, it's for the long term."

As far as Smith's effort to bring a second annual Winston Cup race to Las Vegas, and NASCAR president Bill France comments last week that a second date would not be forthcoming, Powell opted to stay out of the fray.

"I'll leave the Winston Cup date situation to Mr. France and Mr. Smith," he said, "and we'll just make sure that our one date that we have right now comes off as smoothly as possible."

archive