Ten years ago, Bruton Smith had a dream. He wanted to build a four-wide drag strip in the desert just outside of Las Vegas. The NHRA nixed that dream. Smith, not to be deterred, built The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a four lane facility, just without the concrete and asphalt of the second pair of lanes.

With zMax Dragway in Concord, NC set to run the first modern day four-wide National event, Chris Blair, Vice President of Racing Operations at Las Vegas Motor Speedway admits all eyes will be looking to the east come March.

“We're ready,” said Blair when asked if how difficult it would be to add two additional lanes to The Strip. “Everything is in place. All we would need to do, basically, is add the concrete and asphalt.”

 

Ten years ago, Bruton Smith had a dream. He wanted to build a four-wide drag strip in the desert just outside of Las Vegas. The NHRA nixed that dream. Smith, not to be deterred, built The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a four lane facility, just without the concrete and asphalt of the second pair of lanes.

With zMax Dragway in Concord, NC set to run the first modern day four-wide National event, Chris Blair, Vice President of Racing Operations at Las Vegas Motor Speedway admits all eyes will be looking to the east come March.

“We're ready,” said Blair when asked if how difficult it would be to add two additional lanes to The Strip. “Everything is in place. All we would need to do, basically, is add the concrete and asphalt.”

Ironically, according to Blair, he had a conversation with Graham Light, NHRA Vice President of Competition at about the same time Smith started construction of the four-wide strip in North Carolina.

“Three years ago, Light asked if we had considered adding the additional two lanes,” revealed Blair.

While a majority of the drag racing world is focused on how four-wide racing might affect the nitro ranks, Blair has been looking at a bigger picture.

“We run a lot of events where it would be a great benefit both to the racers and the fans to have two sets of lanes running. We could run set of classes on one side and another set of classes on the other side. And, think of the fan. Four-wide racing at all levels is a benefit to the fan.”

When asked if he would be in favor of certain events running to the quarter-mile and billing them as Super Nationals, Blair smiled saying, “I like that.

“I think the fans want quarter mile racing. I think the newer fan gets confused when they see some classes running to the 1000 foot mark and other classes running the quarter.”

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