LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Las Vegas Motor Speedway has become the most diverse motorsports facility in the world and the largest sports venue in Las Vegas. Hosting more than 2,000 event days per year, LVMS is also one of the busiest sports facilities as well.

The speedway opened in 1996 as the brain child of 2004 Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame inductee Richie Clyne. In 1998, the NASCAR Cup Series made its first stop ever in Las Vegas with the inaugural Las Vegas 400. That event has been run annually since

The LVMS File

and has become one of the crown jewels on the NASCAR schedule.

Charlotte-based Speedway Motorsports purchased the speedway in December of 1998 and has continued to make improvements to the speedway which has it recognized worldwide as one of the most prominent motorsports venues. In 2000, the speedway added the state-of-the-art dragway, which is one of only three dragstrips to host two NHRA national events. In 2018, NASCAR added a playoff race to the speedway’s calendar

OPENED: September 15, 1996 making it one of very few speedways to host more than one NASCAR Cup Series race per year.

CLAIM TO FAME: Largest sports venue in Nevada and home toNASCAR, NHRA and many other local and regional racing events.

LVMS has also branched far beyond the racing world. Since 2011, the speedway has hosted the Electric Daisy Carnival – the largest electronic music festival in North America that draws almost a half million people over three days. The speedway also has hosted thousands of corporate events, is home to multiple driving schools as well as research companies. LVMS even hosted golf’s long-drive competition once.

LVMS also gives back in the community as its Speedway Children’s Charities chapter has given out almost $5 million dollars to Las Vegas area charities since its inception in 1999.

An accomplished athlete at both the high school and collegiate level, Karen Weitz never set out to be a coach, much less one of the most successful girls’ high school basketball coaches in the country. However, Weitz’s college career led her on this journey. She played collegiate basketball at both Boise State and then Scottsdale Community College. She then earned a scholarship in track and field at UNLV. In 1988, Weitz won the National Title in javelin and was named 1st Team All-American. Weitz graduated from UNLV in 1992 and began her teaching and coach-