UAW-Dodge 400 Race Review

Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- 03/02/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Mar 3 2008 12:52am

There are some races when the world of NASCAR seems to be turned topsy-turvy, and the results of Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway indicate that this was just one of those races.

Case in point: David Ragan and Travis Kvapil had top-10 finishes, while Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, and Tony Stewart all finished in the bottom 10. Not only did the three past Cup champions crash in separate incidents, but each sustained vicious hits in which they were visibly shaken to varying degrees.

Meanwhile, Carl Edwards almost went pole to pole Sunday, starting on the outside of row one and leading a race high 86 laps to score his second straight Cup victory, giving him wins in two out of the season's first three races.

Tony Stewart's crash occurred on Lap 108, when he cut a tire and slammed hard into the Turn 2 wall. Stewart, who also took a hard lick in Saturday's Nationwide series race, had to be helped out of his car after he complained of back pain and tingling in his legs. "It kind of worried me because my legs, from my hips on down, were just tingling and I had pain in my lower back," said Stewart after emerging from the infield care center. "That kind of scared me for a minute."

Busch had a tire issue which occurred on Lap 267, sending him hard into the outside wall as well. Though he appeared shaken, Busch did walk to the ambulance under his own power and was reported to have been released after getting checked out at the care center.

Jeff Gordon's wicked hit came in the most dramatic moment of the race, a Lap 262 restart that had all the earmarks of a late-race shootout between the top five contenders at that point - Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Gordon, and Greg Biffle. While Edwards got off cleanly, Earnhardt Jr. spun his tires, forcing Kenseth to go high and Gordon low to get around him. As the two cleared Earnhardt, Gordon slid up the track just enough to make contact with Kenseth, sending them both spinning.

Kenseth kept his car off the wall and sustained minimal damage, but Gordon pounded the inside wall with an explosive force that demolished his racecar. Describing the impact as the hardest he'd ever experienced, Gordon was literally thankful to be alive after emerging from the wreckage in one piece: "I'll tell you what - a few years ago, those types hits, you wouldn't be standing here."

It was Gordon's second poor finish in the season's first three races, though he has run strongly in all of them. He finished 39th at Daytona after breaking a suspension part and 35th Sunday, leaving him 22nd in points.

The biggest mover in the point standings after Vegas was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who, despite the mistake late in the race, held on to finish second behind Carl Edwards. Junior moved up 13 spots in the points to 10th. Other big winners were David Ragan and Denny Hamlin, each gaining eight spots. They finished the race 7th and 9th respectively. Kyle Busch started on the pole and looked stout early on, but his car seemed to fall off as the race progressed. Despite leading 56 laps, Busch finished 11th overall. Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson, who won the last three races here, never had his car dialed in and finished 29th from a 33rd-place starting spot. Johnson fell six spots in the points to 14th.

Overall there were three Roush-Fenway Fords in the top 10, including race winner Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, 3rd, and David Ragan, 7th. Teammate Matt Kenseth was running up front until the Gordon mishap and crossed the finish line 20th. Richard Childress also had two top-10 finishers - Kevin Harvick, 4th, and Jeff Burton, 5th.

Kasey Kahne, who was under the weather all weekend and sat out the Nationwide race Saturday, had a replacement driver on standby in case he needed to get out of the car. But he ran the entire race, finishing 6th for his third straight top-10 of the year, including a 7th at Daytona and a 9th at Fontana. Kahne currently sits 4th in points.

Travis Kvapil, racing in the No. 28 car for Yates Racing, scored his first top-10 of the season after two straight 30th-or-worse finishes. Kvapil, who did not have a Cup ride last year, hadn't finished higher than 10th since 2005.

This week the circuit heads to Atlanta, where Jimmie Johnson again is coming off back-to-back Cup race wins, though past success didn't end up accounting for much this weekend at LVMS.