Fans roared as perennial NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson won the latest Shelby American Sprint Cup race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But event organizers and convention officials say the local economy was the real winner.

The NASCAR cup race on Feb. 28 likely matched or exceeded the nearly $107 million in nongaming economic impact of last year's event, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman Jeremy Handel said. The convention authority's initial attendance numbers from the LVMS are close to 150,000, he added.

"As a one-day event, Sunday's NASCAR race is up there with New Year's Eve," Handel said. Last year it drew an estimated 149,200 fans, including 108,300 out-of-town visitors. Feb. 27's Sam's Town 300 -- part of the NASCAR Nationwide race series -- isn't tracked by the authority. However, the Saturday race in Las Vegas drew 50,000 fans, LVMS President Chris Powell said.

NASCAR's only female driver, Danica Patrick, made Las Vegas' Sam's Town 300 her final NASCAR run for a while.

"We are estimating we sold 10,000 to 15,000 more tickets because of Danica Patrick," Powell said.

The $49 tickets didn't hurt, either. The special gave fans the chance to sit in seats that were once priced at nearly $100.

NASCAR was in Las Vegas during boom times, and was a nice extra revenue generator for the valley. Now the race means evens more to Las Vegas, he said.

"Now, the city needs NASCAR and this race as much as we need the city," he said.

Powell put Sunday's race attendance at around 140,000 -- a little lower than the authority's numbers, but still a sellout. Even the small number of empty seats were sold, Powell said.

Fans eagerly bought mementos of Johnson, "Junior" -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- and hometown hero Kurt Busch. But none sold as well as NASCAR newbie Patrick. The full-time Indy Car driver and part-time stock-car racer became the face of NASCAR weekend.

Billboard, media guides and other ads touted "Danica's Vegas Debut" for the Sam's Town race. And while a crash took Patrick out early, neither that nor rain could slow merchandise sales.

"Danica Patrick hats and shirts, we sold out," said Mary Grace Voss, a vendor at one of the concession stands inside the speedway's Neon Garage area.

The dollars from NASCAR are not limited to the speedway. Powell said he wouldn't be surprised if some 300,000 people came to town for the NASCAR weekend, and the dirt-track event the Thursday before.

A speedway and driver sponsor, South Point, hosted a fan event for its Nationwide driver Brendan Gaughan, who is the son of South Point owner Michael Gaughan. The resort did well all weekend. "NASCAR fans like to play slots. Our hotel occupancy was 80 percent on Friday night and we were sold out on Saturday night (before the Shelby American race)," South Point marketing director Tom Mikovits said.

The high-water mark for the cup race was in 2007, when the estimated attendance was 170,500. But Las Vegas isn't facing the steep declines of some other NASCAR towns, like Fontana, Calif. "We get the diehard NASCAR fans and the casual fans," Handel said. "With Las Vegas, you get a real vacation and your NASCAR fix."

NASCAR fan Don Craft made the trek from North Dakota for the second year in a row to see his favorite driver, Earnhardt. And in spite of his disgust at seeing another race go to Jimmie Johnson, Craft says he will return to Las Vegas next year. Craft said he'd also like to see a talked-about second NASCAR race held in Las Vegas in the summer. "I'd come if it was warm," Craft said. "This is the only race I've gone to two years in a row."