Turf Magazine, West Features, Fast Track By Patrick White

Other than the money in the casinos, there isn’t a whole lot in Las Vegas that’s green. An aerial view of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, for example, reveals a purely desert panorama with just a small oasis of lushness: the turf infield between pit road and the front straightaway.

That grass is under the purview of Bobby McKenna, director of facility operations at the Speedway. While other turfgrass managers worry about things like divots or dandelions, McKenna is faced with the prospect of an out-of-control race car tearing the turf to pieces. Just how much damage the cars do to the grass depends on how wet or soft it is at the time, he explains. “During the truck race in September, it’s pretty dry, so they sometimes just slip across the top of the grass without doing much damage at all. At the NASCAR race in late February, it can really tear the grass up.”

He says it’s not the fan-favorite donuts done by the winner that create the most damage to the grass, but rather a car that’s gotten a flat tire at high speed and shoots off the track, sliding sideways across the turf. “You can get a 6-inch rut that’s 200 feet long when that happens,” McKenna says. (more…)