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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
VODA: Snowbound at 73 Degrees
Many NASCAR teams spent an extra night in Vegas due to weather on a day that, oddly enough, couldn’t have been more picturesque at the race track...
Krista Voda  |  Posted March 04, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Krista Voda is the host of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Setup. (Image: SPEED)

We all know how integral a role travel plays in the NASCAR weekly circus. But after spending an extra 30 or so hours in Las Vegas following Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, I realized more than ever how a little hiccup can upset the entire process. And I wasn’t alone – many of the Cup teams spent an extra night in Vegas due to weather on a day that, oddly enough, couldn’t have been more picturesque at the race track.

For the first time this year, rain was not forecast for the race but snow up and down the East Coast meant weather once again would affect our travel home. Since much of the racing community travels through or to Charlotte, nearly everyone’s flights were oversold as a result of the four to eight inches of snow in North Carolina and attempts to exit Vegas as quickly as possible.

So, those of us flying commercial were stuck. But many of the race teams, who usually fly on private planes, were also stranded because they couldn’t land at the smaller, private airports in North Carolina and were scrambling to find alternate flights home.

Race winner Kyle Busch and his team stayed back and celebrated their win at his hometown track late into the night but I doubt they were lamenting the fact they weren’t home that night. A few of the teams made it out after the race but several elected to stay an extra night in Vegas, which meant paying for more hotel rooms, just to be on the safe side, and got up early Monday morning to head home.

Keith Barnwell, who handles logistics for Richard Petty Motorsports, was trying to find seats for 63 team members. The irony is that RPM and many of the teams flew commercial to Vegas to save money. In fact, word on the street was that RPM initially saved upwards of tens of thousands of dollars by flying everyone out commercial and combining their Fontana and Vegas weeks. They landed in Vegas the week of the Fontana race, rented vans and drove to Fontana for the race, then drove back to Sin City for the race to fly out commercial Sunday night. Instead, they were forced to seek out last-minute, back-up flights to the tune of a lot of extra money. Talk about poor timing in an even poorer economy.



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