Checkout the Downtown hotels, they can be pretty reasonable. The Gold Spike is not too bad if you're basically looking for a place to sleep. Downtown Grand, The D, 4 Queens and El Cortez sometimes have deals also.
My cousin who lives in the suburbs of Vegas said I could crash with her for the weekend. She said she was about 45 mins from the track. I still need to see if it will go together with my school schedule and how the car will perform this weekend autocrossing and all of Spring Fling.