The top table celebrates Jimmie Johnson's 2008 Championship in New York. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
The Las Vegas Examiner is reporting that the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star banquet is moving from New York City, starting this year. The newspaper cited an unnamed source at the Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority as confirming the move.
But NASCAR officials said Friday morning that no decision has been made yet. “Not much to say at this point, but: Las Vegas presents a very interesting option for the awards ceremony, but nothing has been finalized,” NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said in an e-mail to SPEEDtv.com
The banquet, which historically takes place on the first Friday each December, has been in New York since 1981. The newspaper said an official announcement is expected within the next few weeks. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reportedly would pay as much as $1 million a year to play host to the event.
Although New York has a long history with the banquet, it carries some major liabilities. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where the event is held is old, expensive and short on space. December weather in New York is unpredictable. And despite a weeklong parade of photo ops for the champion, the New York market has done little to embrace NASCAR, especially in recent years.
Not surprisingly, Las Vegas native Kyle Busch said he’d favor such a move. “It’d be special being that I’m from there,” said Busch Friday morning at Texas Motor Speedway. “It’d be pretty cool. I look forward to it if it happens. New York is a good place for it. We always like going to New York, I know the girlfriends love going there for the shopping and getting Christmas stuff out of the way. Vegas will be a little bit different in that respect but at least the weather might be a little warmer. … If it changes, it changes and it’d be a different scenery for sure. You find a place big enough to hold that many people than I’m sure we’ll fill it.”
