It's Official: Indy Cars Coming To LVMS in October

From ESPN: INDYCAR finally confirmed on Tuesday that its 2011 season finale will be contested Oct. 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Of course, Las Vegas is known for (among other things) its quickie marriages, and Indy car racing has had its share of brief affairs in Sin City. The question is whether open-wheel racing's latest spin of the Vegas roulette wheel will result in a lasting, mutually profitable relationship.
USAC, CART, IRL and Champ Car all staged races in Vegas over the years. Bobby Unser won a one-off USAC tilt at the defunct Stardust Raceway in 1968, but Indy car racing disappeared from the scene until CART picked up the crumbs left behind by Formula One in 1984 to stage a one-and-done event in the parking lot of Caesar's Palace won by Mario Andretti.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway was one of the Indy Racing League's original ovals in 1996, but like many venues new to open-wheel racing during the CART/IRL war, it failed to attract a large enough audience to maintain staying power. Switching from a fall to a spring date failed to improve the commercial viability of the event, which was dropped from the IRL schedule after the 2000 season.
http://espn.go.com/racing/blog/_/name/oreovicz_john/id/6147576/yeah-stay-las-vegas
Of course there are questions if the Indy Cars will succeed in Las Vegas. Will they get as many spectators as the NASCAR Sprint race? Probably not.
Will they get as many people in the stands as the Indy 500? Doubtful.
But will they get about 50,000 people in the stands? I think so. Maybe the LVMS will have to give away some tickets to teachers, police and other agencies, but they should get a good paying crowd because in the same weekend, they will be holding the Sam's Town Camping World Truck Race at the LVMS. So, Indy Car fans and NASCAR fans will be together in one place at the same time. That should be interesting.
More from ESPN: Another positive is the fact that Las Vegas will host the Izod IndyCar Series championship finale, which has gone right down to the wire the past five years. Unless recent form is upset, fans are going to get a tension-filled event with significant championship implications.
The announcement of a $5 million prize for any non-IndyCar driver who manages to win the Las Vegas race could spur interest, though it may be difficult to find "name" drivers able to participate and teams in championship contention are unlikely to want to be distracted from their primary effort by running an extra car. Formula One is set to race in Korea that weekend, but the NASCAR Sprint Cup's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be the night before the IndyCar finale, theoretically opening the door for Cup driver participation.
This should be an interesting part of the weekend, a challenge of the Indy Cars to put up $5 million to any driver that can beat the Indy drivers at Indy Car drivers own game. So, there will be heighten interest. I see Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya calling along with a Formula 1 driver or 2.
It's going to be a great weekend.