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| March 21-27, 2002 | ARCHIVES |
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| "It's The Norm" - Recent Entertainment Events in Las Vegas | |
The recent NASCAR UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and the Busch Sam's Town 300 broke all kinds of records at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and within the State of Nevada. The first and biggest record was the 135,500 plus attendees for the 400- miler on Sunday. The second was the estimated 80,000 plus on Saturday for the 300 and then Friday the (my guess) 30,000 plus for practice and qualifying. That puts the total at a tad over a quarter-of-million tickets were actually used over the three days. Hey, that is a bunch of tickets! The Orleans Hotel, which sponsored Pole Day (Friday) and Sam's Town need to be congratulated for the effort they put out to get people to purchase tickets for the two events. Of course a bunch of tickets were given away through various promotions, but what counts is the people showed up and filled the seats. Believe it or not the drivers appreciate it when they look up at the grandstand and see a great crowd. For the media everything got underway Thursday at noon inside the NASCAR Cafe at the Sahara Hotel. We had the opportunity of a one-on-one with Cup driver Ricky Rudd and then the Speedway picked up the lunch tab. This was followed by a drawing in the "Storm Theatre" at Mandalay Bay, where five drivers and five lucky Winston No Bull winners were paired up. Winston cigarettes puts up a million bucks to a No Bull winning driver and another million to the lucky smoker paired with him should that driver win. Unfortunately for the five selected civilians none of the drivers won. Following the drawing Winston hosted a party for the media where they set up a group of 21 tables for a tournament with $1,000.00 up for grabs. Yours truly came in second and pocketed a cool $250.00. Winston does a great job with the No Bull promotion and of course with the Winston Cup promotion itself. |
Friday was tremendous with Kurt Busch, our locally raised Cup driver qualifying in the number three starting position by piloting his Ford to a speed of 172.298. The pole went to Todd Bodine in another Ford with a speed of 172.850. Busch did real well during the race running right up front most of the race until ignition problems late in the race dropped him back in the field. The eventual winner was Sterling Marlin and his Coors Light Dodge, who came from 24th starting position to win. Incidentally, Jeff Gordon who won the race last year started in the same 24th spot. Another very interesting event took place before the start of the 400 on Sunday. The back straight away was officially named the Nellis Straight. On hand to commemorate the event was 25 Las Vegas men and women who were sworn in as Air Force recruits. Four star General John Handy, Commander of the USAF Transportation Command, led a group of other high-ranking brass from Nellis AFB in saluting the new recruits. Lt. Colonel Richard McSpandlor, commander and leader of the famed Thunderbirds, did the honors of swearing them into the Air Force. Last month we were invited to another media event inside the Santa Fe Station Hotel and Casino out on North Rancho Drive. The occasion was to celebrate the opening of the third Memphis Championship Barbecue restaurant by founder Mike Mills and his new Blues Lounge. The restaurant has the feel and look of an old building from Beale Street in Memphis, complete with a 28-foot ceiling and brick walls. But what is truly exceptional is the food. Let me tell you I have been a fan of the Memphis restaurants ever since I discovered the one on North Las Vegas Blvd., out by the speedway. The baby back ribs are of course out of sight as is the chicken. They serve everything to perfection. Trust me on this gang, you can't go wrong if you want great barbecue food when you stop in at one of the Memphis restaurants. Hey, if it's good enough for our President, then it's good enough for us I figure. See, whenever the President feels like having a good barbecue dinner he calls on Mike. Mills has been cleared to board Air Force One to personally deliver the order from the Pres. I call that being well connected. That's it for another week. I'm outta here!
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