Shelby 427 Race Review

Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- 03/1/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Mar 2 2009 12:29am

I wanted to avoid using the old “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” reference in regard to Sunday’s Sprint Cup race, but it is applicable in at least one sense: Snowstorms in the southeast prompted many race teams to cancel post-race travel plans, forcing most of NASCAR to literally stay in Vegas longer than anticipated.

Rather than being snowed in, teams are actually snowed out. Not that they mind - particularly race winner Kyle Busch. “The plane can't go home tonight, so it's going to be one heck of a party in Las Vegas,` said an exuberant Busch in Victory Lane.

Busch pulled off an unlikely win in front of his hometown crowd Sunday in a race marred by a record 14 cautions that accounted for 66 of 285 laps.

Though he captured the pole in qualifying Friday, Busch was one of five Toyota teams to change engines before the race and start at the rear of the field. But even a 39th-place starting spot was not enough to keep Busch from scoring his first win of the season after an impressive pass to get around then-leader Clint Bowyer with 15 laps to go – though Bowyer seemed to downplay the move in his post-race comments: “He just passed us. He didn't make some magic move. I mean, you know, he just drove under us. We did what we needed to do to put ourselves in position to win the race. Their cars are really fast on new tires. That's where they got us … But that's their strength, as it is with a bunch of teams - they can go hard for 20 laps. It didn't surprise me he was coming, didn't surprise me he was coming hard. But again, they had the fastest car there at the end. They deserved to win.”

For his part, Busch also credited fresher tires for the pass, as Bowyer’s team chose not to pit on the previous stop. “He had a good strategy there to stay out on his old tires,” Busch said. “He knew what to expect with his car. He wasn’t the fastest car because of those tires - not having any. We were able to have just a little bit better grip than he did and pass him.”
Though Busch’s engine and those of the other Toyota teams were the focus of concern on Friday, it was Ford and Chevy that experienced a slew of engine failures during Sunday’s race. At least two Roush drivers - Matt Kenseth and David Ragan - suffered engine failures, while Roush teammate Carl Edwards fell off the pace with an undiagnosed malfunction on the final lap. Hendrick Motorsports’ Mark Martin lost his engine as well.

Jimmie Johnson, who inherited the pole as a result of Busch’s earlier engine change, led 92 of the first 148 laps of the race and was the overall lap leader. Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon were also double-digit lap leaders, but it was Jeff Burton who took control of the latter part of the race, using pit strategy to get out front on lap 167, where he stayed for a total of 61 laps. Busch passed Burton cleanly on lap 227, but fell to fourth after a two-tire pit stop on lap 259 when Bowyer staying out. Busch then passed third-place Jeff Gordon, along with Burton and Bowyer, to take the lead on lap 269 and ride it to victory.

Following Busch, Burton and Bowyer across the finish line were David Reutimann and Bobby Labonte, both with strong runs for their respective teams. Rounding out the top 10 was Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kasey Kahne was the highest-finishing Dodge in 11th and rookie Joey Logano had his career best Cup finish at 13th.

Now three races into the season, Jeff Gordon leads the point standings, supplanting Matt Kenseth who fell two spots to 3rd. Clint Bowyer is in 2nd, Greg Biffle 4th, and David Reutimann, 5th. Kyle Busch moved up 12 spots to 6th.

Jimmie Johnson is currently 19th in points (same as last week), Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in 29th, and Mark Martin is 34th.

Jeff Gordon surpassed the 20,000 laps-led mark during Sunday’s race, passing Rusty Wallace for 7th on the list of all-time lap leaders. David Pearson is next on the list, 3125 laps ahead of Gordon.

Next Sunday the Cup Series will be in Atlanta – where it hopefully won’t be snowing.

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User	Comment
Nascar Groupie	Kurt seems like a nice guy. I`ve met him at the track before and he acts like your average Nascar fan does. Some of the drivers have a lot of drama associated with them but Kurt is just a good ol` country boy in my book.
FastTrack	I bet none of you expected to see Kurt Busch win a couple weeks later either. Hehe. Unlike last year the winner of the winner of the championship is not that clear and I really have no idea at the moment who I would pick to win
brix12	What do you think if it snowed in Las Vegas track, wouldn`t it be safer to race there rather than racing on the wet track due to rain? I`m bothered, aside from the reason of having worn out engines, what are other possible causes of engine failures?
ryder_29	It`s all about the new engine issue that made Busch win the race. I thought Toyota teams are having engine problems, and that one of their drivers won`t make it in the finish lane.
jade06	Joey Logano is indeed a rookie of the year in Nascar. He`s got a long way to go and has plenty of time to master the strategy of winning future races someday.
Karlee	Yeah, I lost my bets, too. Not a big loss though. I can`t believe Busch pulled out like that, great moment, overall a great race. Wish I`d been at the Vegas party afterwards.
brownlee59	I like Kyle but I don`t like to see the same driver win every week. Gordon turned me off big time when he did that a few years ago. I`d love to see Kasey Kahne win some this year. He`s my man since Terry Labonte retired.
junkyard	I was glad to see Logano in the top 20. I think his career will be great if he can work the track just right. It was a great race and I look forward to Atlanta this coming weekend. Wonder if Busch can pull through again?
Elgar	You know it would have been amazing to be there and watch all of this first hand. Instead I was visiting family and I got snowed in myself, we lost power, no net, no TV....I was about to lose my mind.
Cal	Who would have any issues besides money issues with staying there longer? The east coast was slammed with power outages and freezing upset people. I would not want to go home to that.
Tetchie	Maybe Jimmie Johnson is slowing down for a while. Toyota teams must be proud of their drivers` new tires, I thought they could lose the race because of engine issues.
OGr8ty8	It was awesome to watch Kyle Busch win the pole, get sent to the back of the pack, and then come back and win the whole thing. I gave him no chance at all and there he was. I`m sure he deserved the party afterwards. There`s probably nothing like winning one of these races in front of your hometown crowd.
jamming	Man, was that a race or what? I can`t believe that Kyle Busch came through all the rest to take the lead. I`m sure hometown pride helped motivate him to try extra hard.
Cheryl Simmons	None of my bets won this weekend :( Oh well I`ll try again next weekend. Gotta try and earn the bacon somehow or another this month. Here is hopping that Jimmie Johnson fins his Nascar legs soon.
Daniel Wallace	I`m looking forward to the race next Sunday and for those who might be concerned the weather around there should be wonderful next weekend. Maybe Matt Kenseth will do better then.
2nd Place	Guess I`ll be helping some others eat those shoes because my guys didn`t win either. lol Right now its looking like Greg Biffle might have a chance to come out on top in points at the end of the season.
Daniel Wallace	This was a great race but nothing happened unexpectedly or out of the norm so I can`t say it was a fantastic race. We are seeing the usual suspects rise to the top of the points scale and things are shaping up to look like they did for the past few years.
Ben Smith	Jeff Gordon passed Matt Kenseth this weekend showing that Matt was a meteor that has burned and crashed and will probably continue dropping for the rest of the season back into obscurity.
TeslaHopeful	It was a good race and yes Jimmie Johnson seems to be following the same path he usually does throughout the year so far. It remains to be seen if history will repeat itself.
MasterModder	I figured this was going to be the first good race of the season and I was not disappointed in the least. I`m a little disappointed that my drivers did not win but its all good. The season is still young and the drivers are still establishing a pecking order for the year.
goJJgo	I see Jimmie is following his usual pattern of being well down on the list of point winners at the start of the season. By midway, he`ll back back to the top.
littlebit	Wow, I didn`t realize three of the Roush engines had malfunctioned. For three to go in the same race, I would say someone did something wrong or they`re using the wrong engines.
RaceFan88	Although not a Busch fan, I congratulate him on the fact that with having been sent to the back after having won the pole, he came back to win it all. I thought Jimmie Johnson looked strong and had a great chance but it wasn`t meant to be his race. I`m glad Dale had a top-10. He may not be winning, but he`s hanging in there. His time will come.