Last weekend, McMurray had a solid weekend at Phoenix International Raceway as he qualified third and raced to a 10th place finish.

“Yeah it’s been a really good start to the season,” McMurray commented. “I’m happy with our car today.  I think coming to the first mile and a half that is such a critical size track to be able to run well at that I thought our testing went well yesterday and then we were really good in qualifying trim today in practice.  

“It’s been a good start to the season and happy with the performance of the car.”

This week marks a test for many teams as they are weighing their package against their competitors with the new rules that NASCAR has implemented. However, McMurray doesn’t feel that the racing will be dramatically different.

“It’s really hard to evaluate it right now because in the testing that we did yesterday and the little bit of practice we had this morning everyone is on good tires,” McMurray added. “If your car doesn’t handle good you just pull in and work on it.  You never really get a chance to catch anyone.  I was a little shocked that in testing yesterday that really the bottom of the race track was the preferred line.  Normally it’s that way here until it rubbers up a little bit and then you see guys starting to move up.  Especially in (turns) one and two to get around the bumps, but yesterday we didn’t see that.  It seemed like all the guys that were quick could stay right on the bottom and you could do that for 15 or 20 laps in a row, which was somewhat unique.”

McMurray feels that we will have a better idea of what Sunday’s race will be like after tomorrow’s practice when we see what the cars are like on older tires.

Obviously, the big goal for any team – this weekend included – is to win so therefore they can punch their ticket for the Chase. McMurray likes the format and feels that it’s good for the fans.

“From a general fans perspective I think that if you win you should be in the Chase.  I like it,” he commented. “It’s going to be interesting when they start knocking people out after three races.  Especially if you have somebody that dominated the first part of the season and then they don’t make it through.”

McMurray says what he is more interested in is the idea of everything coming down to the last race.

“It’s different and when we went from running every single week to having a 10 race playoff format no one liked that and I think it turned out to be really good,” he continued. “I think it’s tough to give an opinion until you see how it plays out.”

The idea of the format is to increase the urgency to win, but McMurray says that all depends on where you are in the point standings. If you’re in a spot to qualify without a win, you may not push as hard. However, those outside the window, are going to do whatever it takes. With that said, the driver of the No. 1 McDonald Chevrolet says business will probably pick up the last couple weeks before the race.

For Jimmie Johnson, Las Vegas is one of the track that he likes to go to each year as he spent a lot of times as a young kid racing dirt bikes in the area.

“A lot of years the mini nationals were placed over (in the Hampton area) for the amateur dirt bike racers,” Johnson commented. “Literally across the street is where the start/finish and the main pit area for The Mint 400 was which I changed a lot of tires and worked in a pit for many years.  Also competed in a few of The Mint 400’s myself, Vegas has been great to me in racing.  Really kind of growing up on the West Coast a racing hub, so when this track was built here hoped to race on it and certainly had my success on this track and enjoy it out here.”

In 12 career starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Johnson has four wins and seven top 10s.

“It’s always an interesting race because it’s so early in the season and usually one of our first big tracks that we compete on,” he commented. “You find out how you stack up and where you are at.”

Johnson is coming off a solid finish at Phoenix International Raceway, where he finished sixth. He admitted that he would’ve liked to have run better, but was pleased about what he learnt throughout the weekend about the car and the qualifying format.

Coming off of that subpar run, the No. 48 Kobalt team was looking to get some test laps down as part of yesterday’s test session. Johnson said that they had a solid test session with some highlighted points in speed. The main right now, though, is learning how to adjust according to the new rules as NASCAR has opened up the book of possible adjustments with the no minimum ride height rule.

“It is very easy to make an adjustment on your car that affects four or five other areas and takes the car right out of the race track and slows you down,” Johnson commented. “We are learning and we are enjoying the process.  There are a bunch of new challenges right now with the new car.”

Johnson added that it makes communication between driver and crew chief even more important to make sure that the adjustments are right and figuring out what works and doesn’t work.

“There are more steps involved with making a decision now,” he continued. “I feel like communication still is key, but the thought process on the pit box is more important than it’s ever been because a simple change affects more things now.”

While a lot of teams have tested a lot, Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t done as much testing to date. Johnson says that they want to see how they stack up against everybody and see what they need to do moving forward.

“If we don’t have the speed or feel like directionally we are going down the right road it would be useful to test on a bigger track soon,” he commented. “A lot of people have been to Nashville and Nashville is great to get out and run on, but it’s not a mile and a half.  It’s tough to really take specifics from that race track to other race tracks.  It’s a concrete track, different shape and different size than a lot of places we run on.  This weekend is important for sure.  Yesterday was very helpful and useful.  I’m glad that NASCAR allowed us to come out for a few hours.”

While Johnson may enjoy attending Las Vegas, he says that he can’t left out this area too long as he ends up going to the casino too much.

“The banquet week is three days too long because livers hate me by the end of it,” he commented.

With the season opener Daytona and one-mile anomaly Phoenix under his belt, Brian Vickers heads into Sunday’s race in Las Vegas needing to establish speed on the first of 17 intermediate track races this season.

In seven career starts at Las Vegas, Vickers has only notched two top-10s and led one lap.  His best intermediate track finish last season was an eighth at Texas, followed by a tenth at Atlanta.  Other 1.5-mile tracks produced less favorable results.  To improve on this season’s rough start, the driver of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota will have to replicate what he did in his two races at Texas and Atlanta last year.

Thirtieth and 25^th place finishes at Daytona and Phoenix have left Vickers sitting 25^th in the standings. While points position two races into the season may not be indicative of what’s to come, it’s enough to raise questions regarding his on-track performance.

Health (he missed the last four races last season due to blood clots) may be the biggest question mark regarding Vickers’ short-term future as a full-time driver, but avoiding contact with other drivers and the wall should top his list of somewhat controllable priorities.

He was effectively taken out of the Daytona 500 when he got caught on the wrong side of a wreck initiated by rookies Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson. One week later in Phoenix, a blown right-front tire sent Vickers hard into the wall early in the race. While the sometimes overly aggressive driver Vickers may have fallen to the destructive power of outside forces, it is still worth noting that the historically accident-prone driver has managed to bang up his car in both races thus far in 2014.

Of the 17 races he ran last season, he logged five DNFs, four coming as results of wrecks. Considering he is slated to run more than twice that amount of races this year, he cannot afford to match that race-to-DNF ratio, which would project upwards of ten DNFs this season.

A high percentage of DNFs can be the make-or-break statistic when team owners are considering signing a driver to an upcoming season. One way for a part-time driver to cover up such an ugly statistic is to win a race, and so Vickers did. His victory at New Hampshire was the first win at a non-restrictor plate track by a part-time driver since Jamie McMurray’s win at Charlotte in 2002.

But now the part-time underdog of last year is a full-time driver on a competitive team. At Michael Waltrip Racing, finishing consistently is a goal both within reach and expected.

The new points system, however, emphasizes winning over finishing consistently. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick have essentially grabbed themselves Chase spots with their wins at the first two races this season, and Vickers, too, can benefit from this system by exhibiting his proven ability to win.

Regardless, in order to win, a driver must avoid trouble, and with a rookie class of eight drivers this year, chances are there will be plenty of trouble to go around in the rear of the pack each week.

At Daytona and Phoenix, Vickers ran several laps in the top-10. If he and crew chief Billy Scott can avoid slipping back into the crash-prone part of the field, then Vickers will be fortunate enough to watch the majority of the on-track melees in his rear-view mirror.

But to be fortunate is to be lucky, and 43 drivers will be hoping for a stroke of luck this weekend in Vegas.

Unfortunately for some, the laws of probability say that not everyone can come away a winner.