LAS VEGAS — Bruton Smith, the chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which owns among its many tracks Las Vegas Motor Speedway, has offered to switch dates from Atlanta Motor Speedway to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
The plan would swap California’s Labor Day weekend date to Atlanta with the current late-October race date for Atlanta going to California. That would give Atlanta a chance to have a Labor Day weekend race in the South and would give California a better time of year for its second date. Last year’s Labor Day weekend race at California was marred by temperatures as high as 114 degrees.
“The proposal has been made that we give California the Atlanta date in October and Atlanta gets the Labor Day date,” Smith said Friday before NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifications. “It’s the thing to do. The people I’ve talked with within the sport and within NASCAR all agree it’s the thing to do. I hope we can announce that in the very near future. That will be for next year, yes.
“We’ve had conversation, but not in a written fashion yet.”
Smith also believes Las Vegas Motor Speedway should be given a second Cup date but pointed out that in his long history as a NASCAR track promoter, he has never officially been given a date for any of his tracks, that he has had to move those race dates from other tracks that he already owns.
“Las Vegas is a special place,” Smith said. “More people visit Las Vegas than any city in the world. It has more hotel rooms and in another 18 months there will be 180,000 hotel rooms here in the city. Now with all of that, maybe somewhere along the line, Las Vegas Motor Speedway has earned that other date that you are talking about.
“My answer was that maybe Las Vegas has earned a date.”