NASCAR Awards Going to Vegas Baby!

[crazytrain]

I think it's a good move................

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 1981, will be moved to Las Vegas for this season, NASCAR.COM has learned. The change already has 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.
"Las Vegas presents some very interesting options," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said, "but nothing has been finalized."
Yet Friday, finalizing the deal seemed only a matter of time. Rossi Ralenkotter, president of the LVCVA, attended the banquet in New York two years ago to get a feel for the event. One big unknown is the location -- venues like the Mandalay Bay Events Center and the Thomas and Mack Center are currently booked with other events on Dec. 5, the assumed date of the 2009 ceremony.
Bruton Smith, owner of the parent company of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, has long been sounding the drumbeat to move the awards ceremony to Las Vegas. Although the banquet had become a fixture in New York, it often struggled for acceptance from local media, and an annual parade of show cars through Midtown was canceled last year.
"Obvious, New York is very convenient from a logistical standpoint," said Jeff Burton, "but at the end of the day, our banquet needs some life injected into it. It needs some fan involvement. It needs a fresh look with some new ideas."

[rjordan1979]

It's a great idea. New York ain't a NASCAR town, and never will be. It looked horribly out of place.