Know Your Track: Las Vegas

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Track Name: Las Vegas Motor Speedway

           

Nicknames: "The Diamond in the Desert"

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Capacity: 131,000

Date of First Race: March 1, 1998

Layout: Las Vegas is a 1.5 mile asphalt "Tri-Oval", meaning it has a significant bend in the front straightaway. The four turns feature progressive banking, starting at 18 degrees on the bottom and 20 degrees up at the top of the turns. Up until 2006, the turns only features 12 degrees of banking.

Current Sprint Cup Races:

• March 8, 2015 - Kobalt Tools 400, a 400.5 mile, 267 lap regular season points race. This is a Sunday afternoon event.

Most Wins:     

• All-Time: Jimmie Johnson, 4 wins
• Active: Jimmie Johnson, 4 wins
• Latest Winner: 
• 2014 Kobalt Tools 400: Brad Keselowski

Description: Las Vegas is both a driver and fan favorite track, with drivers enjoying the progressive banking and ability to race all over the track and fans enjoying the driver accessibility, most notably due to the Neon Garage area.

Being a relatively young track and also occupying such an early spot on the schedule, Las Vegas has never had the most dramatic of races, but that doesn't mean the racing there isn't enjoyable. The track is extremely fast for only being a mile and a half in length and the progressive banking allows for more passing opportunities than most tracks.

There have also been rumors for years now that Las Vegas could host the season finale race, taking that away from Homestead-Miami, due to the fact that the year end awards banquet is hosted in Vegas and, well, because it's freakin' Las Vegas, who more than likely would go all out for entertainment and showmanship if it hosted the finale.

Fun Facts: Insomniac Events helped organize their largest rave in North America at the speedway in 2011 and the event still continues there today, averaging an attendance of over 250,000 for the three day event.