Second NASCAR race in Las Vegas is expected to be made official today

Is our Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority promising to pay Las Vegas Motor Speedway $2.5 million a year for a seven-year contract to promote the now two NASCAR races that are planned here starting next year?

The news is expected at an official announcement this afternoon, although I first tipped the second race via Twitter on Sunday. This new fall race will count as part of the 10-race Cup Series race-offs. Our spring race at LVMS will continue in March each year.

This weekend LVMS hosts Boyd Gaming’s 300 NASCAR Xfinity race Saturday and The Kobalt 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup race Sunday. Daylight-savings time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday with clocks springing ahead. Set alarms accordingly so that you arrive at LVMS on time and not one hour later.

Over the years of announcing driver introductions, LVMS chief Bruton Smith has told me that he was fighting for a second race at his track, which opened in 1996 and has hosted NASCAR events since 1998. LVCVA officials say the race draws 100,000 visitors for race weekend with an economic windfall of nearly $140 million.

NASCAR never wanted to expand its race calendar past the current 36 races and two exhibition runs between February and November. So SMI, the company that owns Las Vegas and New Hampshire tracks, settled for transferring one of two New Hampshire races to our valley. New Hampshire’s seating capacity is 89,000, Las Vegas’ 104,000.

We’ll update this developing story if we learn the date for the second NASCAR race. I expect that it to be late on the year’s schedule to avoid summer heat here and when October and November temperatures dip from furnace to something less brutal.

Updated at 3:03 p.m.: There is no date set yet for the 2018 race in Las Vegas, but NASCAR officials, LVCVA and LVMS are looking at September for another three-day weekend of racing.