Las Vegas Motor Speedway NASCAR Race Track

Las Vegas Motor Speedway: The Blue Oval

The 4.9 square kilometer Las Vegas Motor Speedway complex, is situated in Las Vegas Boulevard North, and is home to four racing tracks. Speedway Motorsports Inc. are the owners of the entire complex, and have their head offices in North Carolina.

Several racing teams are based here and since 2005, the track opens twice a week for local drag racing. This initiative has been started to ensure the safety of the drag racers, and the innocent road users that could get hurt. It provides a safe environment and assists the authorities by discouraging drag racing in the streets. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway also hosts the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, during their driving training courses. The Las Vegas Speedway has a 800 meter paved oval that is called The Bullring, a clay oval 800 meter Dirt Track, the drag strip that is known as The Strip and the tri-oval Superspeedway that is 2.4 kilometers in length.

Plans to reconfigure the Las Vegas Motor Speedway track was announced in 2006. This would include ‘progressive banking’. Banking means the angle that you are driving at on the track. To increase this means that drivers will be able to drive higher up on the track, and can drive side by side. Also included in the new construction was a new pit road and a fan zone. The new Las Vegas Motor Speedway track was opened on 8 August 2006, and stock cars were first on the track, together with Kurt Busch. Busch is a NEXTEL Cup Champion and is always seen behind the wheel of the #2 Miller Lite Penske Dodge Charger. He was the very first NASCAR Nextel Cup Driver that tested a stock car on the new reconfigured and reopened Las Vegas Motor Speedway track.Just like any other speedway, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, has also received affectionate nicknames, in regard to its history and events that have taken place on its grounds. Most of the Nextel Cup Series that has been held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been won and dominated by drivers, behind the wheel of a Ford. It was therefore often called “The Blue Oval”. The only drivers that have won here, and not been driving a Ford, are Sterling Marlin, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Roush has also seen many successes here at the Las Vegas Speedway track, with drivers such as Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin. The track was known to many as “The House of Roush”. For a few years, the Winston No Bull 5 Million Dollar Bonus was held at the Las Vegas Speedway. This race would award one million dollars to the race winner and was won twice by Jeff Burton, while Jeff Gordon walked away with the prize money in the 2001 race.