Expect a second race in Las Vegas with sale of NHIS

Viva Las Vegas, baby!

Strip away all the smoke and mirrors and backroom handshakes and that's what Bruton Smith's latest acquisition adventure is all about: gaining a second Sprint Cup date for Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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And good for him. Vegas, the land of smoke and mirrors and backroom handshakes, has long been overdue for a second Cup date -- even if it comes at the expense of one of two well-attended dates at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H. It would have been better if perhaps one of the dates from, say, California Speedway represented the collateral damage instead. But anything will do.

Smith has scheduled a news conference for 12:30 p.m. ET on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, where he has hinted about making a "big" announcement. Sources confirmed in Thursday's Boston Globe that Smith, CEO and chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., intends to announce that he has entered into an agreement to purchase NHIS from Bob Bahre, the track's 80-year-old chairman.

Bahre is one of the last independent track owner/operators in NASCAR, part of a long but suddenly not-so-slowly dying breed, and has struck deals with Smith previously.

That Friday's public announcement of their latest collaboration was scheduled at Texas Motor Speedway was no coincidence. Nothing much with Smith ever is.

Smith acquired his first Cup date for the Texas track -- and Bahre his second for NHIS -- after they partnered in 1996 and bought North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. They promptly shut down North Wilkesboro and split that track's two Cup dates after receiving the blessing of NASCAR's governing body.

Smith's SMI empire already included not only the tracks in Texas and Vegas, but also Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C, just outside of Charlotte; Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.; Atlanta Motor Speedway; and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. All but Vegas and Infineon, a road course, currently host two Cup events per year.

All race dates and race locations must ultimately be approved by NASCAR, of course. And the schedule is already set for 2008. It was recently released by NASCAR, which has signed agreements with current tracks for all 36 races next season -- and a schedule that looks virtually identical to this year's (the only exception being a July race at Chicagoland Speedway that has been moved from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night).

So the second date in Vegas won't appear overnight.

But if Smith doesn't already have tacit approval to buy NHIS and move one of that venue's two dates to Vegas, which he probably does, you can bet that he has a team of able lawyers ready to sue so that he can have a second race date just down the road from the strip by 2009.

Prior to the running of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Vegas earlier this year, Smith suggested that it would be wonderful to hold the season's final race there each season -- and then have everyone in NASCAR stick around for the annual awards banquet. Again, not a bad idea.

Just as with the current setup with the end-of-year awards banquet being staged in New York City, two Cup events didn't quite fit in the way they are presently framed at Loudon.

Sure, the 1.058-mile oval has produced one impressive sellout after another in a Northeastern area long coveted by the powers-that-be in NASCAR. On Sept. 16, the track packed a crowd announced at 101,000 into the venue for the running of the Sylvania 300 on the same day the Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Yankees at Fenway Park and the New England Patriots entertained the San Diego Chargers in an NFL game at Gillette Stadium -- all within the same general major sports market, although Loudon is more than a little off the usual beaten path to Boston.

But even then, it just didn't seem the right place to kick off the Chase for the Nextel Cup and there were rumors that it was up for sale. John Henry, owner of the Red Sox and partner with Jack Roush at Roush Fenway Racing, was thought to be the favored suitor. Bahre admitted after the Sylvania 300 that someday he would have to sell his beloved track, but that he hoped to do so to someone who would keep both Cup dates there.

Smith, however, would not be acquiring NHIS if he didn't want to make a second date in Vegas a reality. He is smart enough not to move both dates out of Loudon as long as the joint keeps selling out and making money, but it will be interesting and telling to see how much cash he'll sink into upgrades there over the near future.

If he does the kinds of extensive and creative renovations that he's done at other tracks -- Vegas included -- it will mean Smith is in it for the long haul at NHIS, even with only one Cup date. If he doesn't, who knows? He could be looking to flip the property [maybe Henry's Fenway Group will still be interested] or maybe he'll lobby NASCAR for a second date at Infineon, making all the sport's road-course-starved warriors happy.

Smith likes to keep folks guessing.

It was way back in March when Smith stated his burning desire for the second Vegas date. It was before the third points event in a 36-race season that only now, nearly eight months later, is finally about to wrap up. His comments largely had been forgotten, overshadowed in Smith's case by his recent threats to shut down Lowe's Motor Speedway and build a new speedway elsewhere on the outskirts of Charlotte, N.C.

Smith may have been serious about that at one time -- until the Concord City Council where LMS currently is located started not only caving into his original demands to permit construction of a $60 million drag strip but also started talking about throwing in all kinds of extras. Look for that dispute to be resolved quietly as soon as Smith figures he has gotten Concord to kick in all it conceivably can.

Meanwhile, Smith was working the backroom with Bahre all along, scheming to spend upwards of $300 million not on a new track in Charlotte -- but on an existing one in New Hampshire that can give him what he's always wanted in the bright lights of the desert.

And now it will be coming to him -- and you -- soon, probably by the 2009 Sprint Cup season. Gentlemen, start perusing the gambling packages and booking your rooms.

You can bet on it.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer