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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: LMS Head Wants Vegas Bash
By moving the annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Banquet to Las Vegas, thousands of race fans potentially could attend.
Tom Jensen  |  Posted April 08, 2009   Harrisburg, NC
Could NASCAR end the season with a Sprint Cup race in Las Vegas? (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

Although nothing yet has been set in stone in terms of moving the annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Banquet from New York to Las Vegas, Lowe’s Motor Speedway President Marcus Smith said a change of venue would be a home run.

In an exclusive interview with SPEEDtv.com on Wednesday, Smith said that by hosting the banquet in Las Vegas, it would be a perfect opportunity to engage race fans. Smith, the son of Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman and CEO Bruton Smith, also said he’d love to see the NASCAR Sprint Cup season end in Las Vegas.

NASCAR officials last week said that Las Vegas was “a very interesting option for the awards ceremony, but nothing has been finalized.” The move, if it happens, likely would begin this year, with the traditional banquet date being the first Friday in December.

Marcus Smith said he’s excited about the thought of Las Vegas hosting the event, especially since Las Vegas Motor Speedway is an SMI-owned track. “We’re really pumped up about Vegas,” Smith told SPEEDtv.com. “For the fans, that’s our No. 1 opportunity. You could work in some really neat opportunities at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We’ve got the Neon Garage (fan zone) there, which is unlike anything in racing, so it gives you a tremendous opportunity to have a great fan entertainment option at the banquet.”

Smith also noted that Las Vegas has the infrastructure in place that New York lacks in terms of fans. “Tremendous hotel facilities with large arenas, 12,000- to 15,000-seat arenas, where you cut put on an event that could handle both the banquet and a fan element at the banquet,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like the CMT awards. They put those on and they’ve got the show that happens, and the awards that happen but there’s a tremendous country music fan audience in attendance as well.”

As far as lobbying NASCAR to end the season with a Sprint Cup race in Las Vegas — a move that couldn’t happen any earlier than 2010 — Smith added, “I have heard discussions about that before and of course I think it’s a great deal. We would love to have the season-ending race in Las Vegas at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, if that worked out. There’s not too many places in the country where you can race in late November, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway sure is one of those spots where you could do it.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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