Game Day, Then Grand Prix: Getting Through November From Dean Martin Drive

For Panorama Towers, the Grand Prix started on Sunday, October 11, at the corner of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. Crews began building the temporary two-lane Flamingo bridge over Koval that day, and the intersection stays closed around the clock through October 16. The Las Vegas Review-Journal called the bridge the most disruptive part of the setup. It also pointed drivers to Tropicana or Sands avenues as the east-west detours.

Race weekend is November 19 through 21. From Dean Martin Drive, the event works like a schedule that slowly narrows the routes east across the Strip over six weeks. The tightest point comes in the days before the cars ever run, when the race setup collides with a Raiders home game and a run of Golden Knights dates at T-Mobile Arena.

Why the Flamingo bridge comes first

The 3.8-mile circuit runs mostly along Las Vegas Boulevard, Koval Lane, Harmon Avenue and Sands Avenue. That puts it east of the Strip, not on the Dean Martin side of I-15. For people on the west side, the circuit matters wherever a regular route east has to cross it.

Flamingo is the crossing being engineered to stay usable. According to the Review-Journal, the new two-lane bridge exists so that essential traffic can still move in and out of the resort corridor while the track is active. Harmon gets its own fix. The preliminary construction schedule lists a temporary vehicle bridge on Audrie Street over Harmon, plus pedestrian bridges at Rochelle and Koval and at Flamingo and Koval.

Both of those bridge sites are under construction now. This week Flamingo is closed at Koval. Harmon also loses one eastbound lane at all hours from October 12 through October 23.

The calendar from October 11 to November 23

Taken together, the published dates show a gradual narrowing with a few sharp points. The first three Koval entries and the Harmon lane closure come from the weekly circuit-preparation schedules on the official Grand Prix transportation site. The event dates come from each venue's own calendar.

The race is one day earlier than last year. The 2025 race weekend ran November 20 through 22. That earlier shift is part of why the arena and stadium calendars now overlap the race-week window so closely.

Where the dates collide: November 14 through 19

Koval closes at all hours on Saturday, November 14, between Rochelle and Harmon, the same night Teddy Swims plays T-Mobile Arena. On Sunday, November 15, the Raiders host Seattle at 1:05 p.m., and the Golden Knights face Vancouver at 6 p.m. The official race-week window opens at midnight that night. The Golden Knights then play Dallas on Tuesday and again on Thursday, November 19, the first day of race weekend.

Allegiant Stadium sits directly west of I-15 between the Russell Road and Tropicana Avenue exits. On select event days, the Hacienda Bridge closes to cars so fans can walk across from Las Vegas Boulevard. Rideshare pickup and drop-off is in Lot N, just north of the stadium. The stadium also says some streets are converted to one-way on game and event days.

Two transit options are new or returning this season:

• Game Day Express. The RTC's Game Day Express is back for the 2026–27 season. It costs $4 round trip from six casino pickup sites, starts departures three hours before kickoff and runs return trips after the game.
• Waymo zone. The Raiders announced a multiyear partnership with Waymo on August 13. It includes a dedicated, signed pickup and drop-off area at the stadium for games, concerts and major events. The announcement doesn't give the zone's street location.

What officials haven't published yet

The details that matter most for the evenings of race week aren't public as of October 12. The 2026 materials do include a preliminary construction schedule and staged closure maps. Those maps show freeway ramps closing at 12:30 p.m., inbound property driveways at 12:45 p.m., major inbound roads at 1 p.m. and the full hot track at 1:45 p.m. They don't give a night-by-night hot-track timetable for 2026. They also don't list which I-15 ramps close. The official site says it will keep updating the circuit information as setup continues.

Last year's plan is a useful guide to the general pattern, though it isn't a forecast. For 2025, the Review-Journal reported hot-track periods in the late night and early morning on Wednesday. They then started in the afternoon from Thursday on, with Saturday's running from 3 p.m. into 2 a.m. Sunday. FOX5 reported that the 2025 race week brought intermittent I-15 ramp closures at Spring Mountain, Flamingo and Harmon from midnight to 4 a.m., along with lane reductions on Spring Mountain and Flamingo. The final 2026 ramp list will show whether those same interchanges are affected this year.

Clark County's circuit-impacts page still describes the 2025 race as of this writing. Until it's updated, the official Grand Prix transportation site carries the current maps.

Dinner on the west side of I-15

When crossing the freeway costs more time than the meal is worth, there are newer options on this side of I-15.

At the Rio, at 3700 West Flamingo Road, Tacos Del Rio Cocina & Bar replaced El Burro Borracho after that restaurant closed in mid-March, according to Eater Vegas. FOX5 last reported its hours as Thursday through Sunday, 4 to 10 p.m. It named birria tacos, queso fundido, chile relleno and a two-pound burrito among the dishes. On the calendar above, that schedule covers race Thursday through race Saturday and the Sunday of the Raiders game. Those April hours are the most recent ones published, so confirm them before you go.

High Steaks Vegas, also at the Rio, opened October 14, 2025, in the space VooDoo Steak used to occupy.

For mornings, Giddy Up is now open at 6261 Dean Martin Drive, a short drive south along the same road. The Review-Journal reported in June that Kyle Porterfield of Dark Moon Coffee and Tony Lee of Smash and Slice were behind the coffee, breakfast and lunch concept while it was under construction. Giddy Up's own site lists daily hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. That puts it open during the morning hours before any of the staged afternoon closures on the 2026 maps begin.

When the final race-week maps come out, the ramp list will show how much of Flamingo and Harmon stays open to Panorama Towers residents after dark. If you're weighing a sale or a purchase at Panorama Towers around these weeks, Gene Northup can plan showings and closing dates around the closure calendar. You can start with a free home valuation timed to the season.