UAW-Dodge 400 Race Preview

Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- 03/02/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Tuesday Feb 26 2008 10:38pm

First things first -- the weather forecast for Las Vegas this weekend: Highs in the mid-70s, lows near 50, mostly sunny with light breezes and, most importantly, no rain. Yippee! Like Fontana, Las Vegas in one of the newer tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit. The series first visited the 1.5-mile D-shaped oval in 1993 and it remains one of the tracks that we visit just once a year - making a total of 10 previous races for the Cup series here.

Those ten races have been won by a mix of manufacturers, though prior results here may not be the best indicator of future outcomes, as the track was completely reconfigured in 2006 with a new racing surface and progressive banking installed. The track now offers 20 degrees of banking in the curves and nine degrees on the straightaways.

The first race here, on March 1, 1998, was won by Mark Martin (+3500) in a Roush Ford. Ford drivers have a total of five Vegas victories, all by Roush drivers, including two by Jeff Burton (+3000) when he was in the No. 99 car, and back-to-back wins by Matt Kenseth (+1100) in 2003 and 2004, along with Martin's inaugural win. GM has four wins on the Vegas speedway, the first by Jeff Gordon (+525) in 2001. Jimmie Johnson (+325) has won the past three straight races at Las Vegas, though he only had the dominant car in terms of laps led in 2005, when he led 107 of 267 laps.

Three-time winner Johnson is bringing a new chassis to Las Vegas this year, but based on the late January test session, Johnson feels the racing will be competitive across the board: "At the Vegas test, you could really attack with the car. It seemed like the track was getting a middle lane, if not an outside lane, so as we get into that weekend and all that activity on track, I hope that the track really widens out. I think it’s going to be a better show for us to put on because we can really be aggressive with the cars. At California Speedway, there’s not a lot of banking to tiptoe around, but at Vegas you can really charge."

Only one Dodge driver has made it to Victory Lane at Las Vegas - Sterling Marlin in 2002 in the No. 40 Coors Light car for Chip Ganassi. Meanwhile, Toyota's only race on this track was in 2007, where Dale Jarrett placed 33rd and Dave Blaney 42nd. Of course, that was before Joe Gibbs Racing made the jump to Toyota this season.

Among drivers with at least two starts at LVMS, only three currently are in single digits in the average finish category, with Jimmie Johnson leading the way at a 6.0. In six starts here, Johnson's worst finish was 16th in 2004, which he followed with his three straight wins.

Denny Hamlin (+1500) has had just two starts here, but both resulted in top-10 finishes, producing an average finish of 6.5. Matt Kenseth has eight Vegas starts with his worst finish 17th in 2001. After three top-15 finishes in his first three races here, Kenseth has notched five straight top 10s, four of which were top 5s, including his two victories.

Among the Cup series stars who've never won at Las Vegas are Tony Stewart (+1100), Ryan Newman (+2500), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (+1200), Kevin Harvick (+2500), and Las Vegas native Kurt Busch (+1750).

Matt Kenseth leads all drivers in points scored over the last five races at Vegas, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Jeff Burton. Kenseth's 368 career laps led here is 110 more laps than any other driver. "I’ve always enjoyed racing at Las Vegas," said Kenseth. "It’s a cool place to visit and the track is a top-notch facility. I thought it was fine before they reconfigured it and we ran pretty good out there on the old configuration. Now the track has a ton of grip with the new surface and the high-banked corners make it extremely fast."

Kyle Busch (+1000), current Cup series points leader, had a rough start at his home track in 2004, crashing out early and finishing 41st, though he was only running a partial schedule that year as a 19-year-old. Since then, he's had three straight top-10 finishes including a second-place run in 2005.

Sprint Cup teams had a chance to test the COT at LVMS during Preseason Thunder last January. There were four test sessions in all and the individual session leaders were Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards (+900), and Juan Pablo Montoya (+5000). JPM turned the single fastest lap of the two-day test at 186.761 miles per hour.