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Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, by Megan Edwards

NASCAR’s on Its Way

I’ll admit it up front. I know extremely little about car racing. Even so, I did once drive a VW bug around the Nürburgring in Germany, I’ve watched electric cars race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and I once spent a scary night in an anti-smoking RV at the Marlborough 500. I still don’t know much about NASCAR except that if you live in Las Vegas, you can’t ignore it the weekend of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. NASCAR fever seizes Sin City, and all roads lead only one place: the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Since I probably won’t be joining the throngs on race weekend, I headed out there today. The Speedway offers tours every hour for eight bucks a head. And if you’re a local, I discovered when I forked over my money in the gift shop, it’ll only cost you six.

Because the grounds of the LVMS cover a sprawling 1,600 acres, tours of the facility are conducted in a cargo van big enough to hold about eight people. For a while I thought I might get a private showing, but just before we pulled out, three other people climbed aboard. I was already riding shotgun.

The LVMS is right next to Nellis Air Force Base, which means that it often has the added appeal of expensive military aircraft doing loop-the-loops overhead. Two F-16s were performing as we headed out to the drag race course.

“The Strip,” as the drag race course is called, is one of nine separate courses at the Speedway. Although its real raison d’etre is to accommodate professional drag racers, it has also played a role in reducing illegal street racing in Las Vegas. “Midnight Mayhem,” which occurs two Fridays nights a month, allows anybody who wants to pay $10 the opportunity to race like a madman and not get arrested. It cost $5 to watch, and I have to admit I find the idea tempting. It’s cheaper than a bargain matinee of “2 Fast, 2 Furious,” and it isn’t fake.

Police cars, lights flashing, were zipping around on of the two “road courses.” Metro uses the track almost daily to practice high speed pursuits and techniques for pushing cars off the road.

In the stands overlooking the big track, we were treated to a glimpse inside a “VIP suite.” Big enough to hold 150 privileged fans, the suite has two rows of seats in front of big glass windows, more seats at tables, and a lavish bar. Such layouts are generally leased by casinos and corporations — the one I visited belongs to the Stardust.

Pricey suites notwithstanding, enjoying NASCAR doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. When the race teams are in town for testing, the grandstands are open to the public for free. On “Pole Day” — when cars compete against the clock for the starting order — tickets are only $26. Grandstand seats for the Busch series (on Saturday) start at less than $40, but the same seats for the main event (on Sunday) are two or three times as much. “Weekend Packages” start around $300, but prices rise steeply to more than $700 in the “Vegas Clubhouse.” Of course, seats in the fancy suites are even more expensive unless you have the right friends.

Probably the best deals at the track are the events in the “Bullring,” where a family of four can tailgate at the edge of track and watch “blood and guts” stock car racing for $35. The course is a 3/8-mile paved oval, and the cars go nearly a hundred miles an hour.

One of the grooviest features of the LVMS tour was doing a couple of laps on both the main speedway and the “Bullring.” Even though I was in a cargo van going considerably slower than Dale Earnhardt, Jr., it was still pretty darn cool to go around a 12-degree banked turn and zip over the checkered finish line.

And I learned something else. If I ever did want to know what it’s like to drive a race car, I can find out first hand by signing up at one of the professional driving schools at the track operated by people like Mario Andretti. While I haven’t exactly turned in an application, I can’t help thinking that driving a real race car on a real track has a certain tantalizing appeal. When ordinary driving in Las Vegas gets too boring, I’ll know just where to go.

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