FORT WORTH, Texas -- NASCAR is trading the Christmas lights of New York for the neon of Las Vegas.

The Sprint Cup postseason awards banquet, a fixture in Manhattan since in 1981, will be moved to Las Vegas for this season, sources have confirmed to NASCAR.COM. Although the venue is yet to be determined, the change has already been approved by NASCAR and is awaiting only final approval from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, a taxpayer-funded entity that has championed the move west.

"Maybe we could sell 10,000 tickets to the race fans and let them come and enjoy the festivities," said Bruton Smith, chairman of the company that owns Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and someone who has been lobbying to move the banquet for years. "That's what I'd like to see."

The banquet has been an annual event in New York since former NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. moved the ceremony from Daytona Beach, Fla., nearly three decades ago in an attempt to attract more sponsors and national recognition. Although it was difficult to beat the setting -- the opulent Grand Ballroom of the historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, festooned in holiday garland -- the event often struggled for acceptance from local media and area residents. A parade of show cars around Midtown was cancelled prior to last year's event, partially because of complaints from pedestrians who didn't like being stuck behind barriers as stock cars rumbled by.

And then there's the event itself, which has been limited to only invited guests, and received criticism for being staid and boring.

"Obvious, New York is very convenient from a logistical standpoint, but at the end of the day, our banquet needs some life injected into it," driver Jeff Burton said. "It needs fan involvement. It needs a fresh look with new ideas. The country music awards, those kinds of things where the fans are involved, the fans are right there, that's what we need. We need something new and exciting. What we do now is a really good thing. It's a great thing to entertain sponsors. It's a great thing to spend the night reflecting on the year and in some cases the history of our sport. But I just think it needs more energy. It needs to be built around fun, to be built around excitement that embraces the fans more, and Vegas may give us a better opportunity to do that."

Las Vegas native Kyle Busch also supported the move (watch video).

"I look forward to it if it happens," he said. "New York is a good place for it. We always like going to New York. I know the girlfriends love going there for the shopping and getting Christmas stuff out of the way. Vegas will be a little bit different in that respect, but at least the weather might be a little warmer. Maybe if we're going to be there for a whole week, there might be some time we can go out to the sand dunes or something. That would be fun, too. I look forward to it. If it changes, it changes and it'd be different scenery for sure. You find a place big enough to hold that many people then I'm sure we'll fill it."

The move to Las Vegas is something of a reversal for NASCAR, which as recently as this past December gave every indication that the awards ceremony would remain in New York in 2009. But the deepening economic crisis made NASCAR wary of asking teams to incur the exorbitant expense of spending several days in New York at the height of the Christmas season. The fact that Las Vegas has a race track gives the sport a heightened presence the series does not enjoy in Manhattan. And venues in Las Vegas allow for the addition of a fan element to the event itself. It all proved enough for NASCAR to leave the media capital of the world.

Yet Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Sprint Cup event, NASCAR officials were hesitant to confirm the move. "It's no secret that Las Vegas would be an excellent venue," was all series spokesman Jim Hunter would say on the issue.

While nothing has been signed, sources indicate that NASCAR has endorsed the move, and that final approval from the board of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is a mere formality. Rossi Ralenkotter, president of the LVCVA, attended the banquet in New York two years ago to get a feel for the event. His group also recently signed a deal to bring the National Hockey League banquet to town.

Although Las Vegas has no shortage of venues, some are already booked with other events on Dec. 4, the assumed date of the 2009 ceremony. One possibility is the Garden Arena at MGM Grand, a 17,000-seat facility that annually hosts the Country Music Association awards. But anywhere in Las Vegas will be fine with Smith, who said he's been "pleading and begging" for NASCAR to move the event out of New York.

"No. 1, the hotel rooms will [cost] half or less than New York," the Speedway Motorsports chairman said. "There wont be snow and ice on the ground, we won't be diverted. We'll be able to land an airplane there. If you want to come out there by air, you'll be able to land. Hopefully they'll get a good production company to put this thing together and do it, and do it right."

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