Viva Las Vegas and happy birthday Matt Kenseth. During the NASCAR weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway we watched Sprint Cup veteran Matt Kenseth collect some very nice birthday presents, we watched Kasey Kahne’s display of power, we watched evidence that said you can indeed make a competitive pass in the new Generation Six car and, somehow, Danica Patrick got hit in the head with a rock.

HOORAH. Matt Kenseth led the final 40 laps of the Kobalt Tools 400 and scored his 25th NASCAR Sprint Cup win along with his third win at Las Vegas and his first win for new team owner Joe Gibbs in only three starts. Kenseth also presented Toyota with their 50th Sprint Cup win.

HOORAH. Jason Ratcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief, made a very gusty late race call that placed his driver in position for the win. Coming off of a yellow flag, with only 44 laps remaining in the race, the front runners came down pit road for what was perceived to be their final stop of the day. That’s when Kenseth was surprised by a call for a fuel only stop. The team sent their Toyota back down pit road in under four seconds  but with four extremely old tires on the car. It turned out to be the winning move.

HOORAH. Kenseth’s win came on his 41st birthday. His post race celebration raised the question: which produces the most smoke, a tire burn out from a high powered Toyota or 41 candles on a birthday cake? The post race birthday presents were also very nice and included a giant, silver plated, Kobalt Tools wrench and a winner’s check worth $403,466.

HOORAH. Kasey Kahne’s performance, leading to a second place finish, during this race was simply awesome. His Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was a factor from start to finish and he led a race high 114 laps. Had it not been for a traffic related pit road situation, that cost Kahne time and track position, the outcome of the race may have been drastically different. When the Fox broadcast team announces “Kasey Kahne is coming like yesterday’s train,” then you know the driver is having an awesome race.

WAZZUP. The weather offered no cooperation in Las Vegas on Friday and all scheduled activities were completely washed out. The Sprint Cup team did get their practice sessions in on Saturday but they were held under heavy, rain loaded, clouds and chilly temperatures. It was a far cry from Sunday race day’s sunny skies and a hot track temperature that led to issues of no tire grip and a slick race surface. The drastic weather change led to ill handling race cars and frustrated drivers and crew chiefs. A lot of pre race favorites struggled throughout much of the race while making very aggressive handling changes during pit stops.

HOORAH. The weather related handling situations did produce some rather interesting racing terms heard over the driver’s in car radio systems. Greg Biffle said his car was “dirt tracking-super sideways sliding-loose.” Jimmie Johnson told his crew chief that he had “a lazy front end,” while eventual race winner Matt Kenseth said he “lost his nose in turn two.”

HOORAH. There’s been a lot of comments that said NASCAR’s new Generation Six race cars needed a lot of work to improve their ability to be competitive, especially in the area of passing. NASCAR had to be thrilled with what they saw during the Kobalt Tools 400. There was plenty of passing from the front of the field all the way to the back markers. Some of that passing often involved three wide moves and, in one case, even a four wide move down the backstretch. The fact that the Sprint Cup Series has now ran three races that turned up three different winners in three different makes of cars should be viewed as a testament to the competitive nature of the car. Fox broadcaster Larry McReynolds probably put in best when he said “I’m done with any discussion that says you can’t pass with this car.”

HOORAH. Kevin Harvick took time to show the SPEED Channel his sports training watch, the latest development in monitoring a driver’s physical fitness. Following a 20 minute on track period, during Saturday’s practice session, Harvick’s watch indicated that his heart rate was 160 beats per minute and he had burned off 340 calories during the short practice period. When asked what surprised him the most from the information he obtained from the watch, Harvick replied: “how fast the heart rate returns to normal, that’s always a good thing.” By the way, after finishing the race Harvick burned more than 2,000 calories during the Kobalt Tools 400.

WAZZUP. The week in Las Vegas was filled with five days of racing that included two mid week appearances by the fabulous Word Of Outlaws sprint car series held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s one half mile dirt track. Danica Patrick was on hand to watch the second WOO race when, all of a sudden, she fell to the ground. It turned out that the rear tire from one of the powerful sprint cars slung a rock off of its rear tire that struck Patrick in the head. She was checked out and declared to be okay. She later said it was lucky she was wearing a hat otherwise the rock might have drawn blood.

HOORAH. During the Las Vegas weekend it was announced that Patrick has been nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award in the category of Favorite Female Athlete. Other nominees in the category are Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas along with professional tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. The awards ceremony will be aired by Nickelodeon on March 23d at 8pm eastern time.

WAZZUP. Also during the Las Vegas week, the Miller Coors Distributors held a convention in the Marriott Hotel with special guest Brad Keselowski. The Miller Lite Penske Racing Ford was also on display in the conference room. Somewhere during the course of the evening someone decided that it would be a great idea for Keselowski to do a NASCAR style burnout in the race car. The reigning Sprint Cup champion was only happy to oblige and the Miller Coors Distributors loved it. That’s the good news. The bad news is: The power from the Roush Yates engine in Keselowski’s Ford Fusion, combined with the Goodyear racing tires, really did a number on the conference room’s carpeting. This was followed by reports that said the Marriott management was less than thrilled by the presentation.

That raises an interesting question: if NASCAR decided to look into this incident, exactly what official policy would be applied here? Would it be “actions detrimental to the sport of NASCAR racing”, or would it be “have at it boys?”

It took Matt Kenseth just three races to find Victory Lane with his new Joe Gibbs Racing team, but the way he reacted on Sunday one might have thought it was the first time he had won a race in his career.

Kenseth lit up on the radio after taking the checkered flag for the third time in the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas and the 25th time in his career. The win coming by holding off the dominant Kasey Kahne, who had led 114 of the races 267 laps. For Kenseth, it was a matter of putting all the pieces in his new puzzle together as quickly as they could.

“I’m pretty proud to be driving this car. I felt a lot of pressure that I put on myself to come in here and perform,” revealed Kenseth afterwards. “I felt like coming over here and getting to know [crew chief] Jason [Ratcliff], and really everybody in the shop and the organization, it’s just a great feeling about the season.

“We’re only three weeks in, but man, all three races we had a car, if everything would have went right, that could have won, and it feels awesome to have this win here.”

The win wasn’t a surprise for Kenseth and Ratcliff, just how fast they accomplished it was. After starting off Daytona Speedweeks with racecars that were fast enough to win every race they were entered, Kenseth noted that he wasn’t even disappointed to leave Daytona with a DNF because of an engine failure. He was perhaps, or so he guesses, the most enthusiastic person in the organization because he knew that great things were ahead.

Phoenix was more of the same. Kenseth had one of the fastest cars in practice and earned a seventh place finish. Except Ratcliff said in Vegas, they could have won that race had it not been for problems on pit road. So, Sunday, they weren’t about to let it happen again as he called for just fuel only on their final spot and left it to Kenseth to hold off Kahne.

“Three weeks in, I knew this day would come, but to do it just in our third race is really special,” said Ratcliff after the win. “The hard work that these guys have put in over the winter, we’ve just got a great group here and we’ve got Matt and we’re going to win a lot of races, I think.

“He’ll probably get mad at me for saying that because he doesn’t like that. But, I knew that we would get to Victory Lane at some point, and to do it this early in the season is great and I’m looking for to rest of the season.”

Kenseth couldn’t be mad at his crew chief because it was a sentiment that he fully endorsed. After he crossed the finish line for his first win since Kansas last fall with Roush Fenway Racing, he exploded over the radio with happiness. There was the chorus of “yeses!” and “woohoo!” before praising the Lord for putting him in that position.

He even sounded choked up at one point, while telling the team that this win was just the beginning. For a driver that seems to have made a career for being the silent but deadly type, it was quite refreshing to see the raw emotion.

In 2005 he was even featured as a robot in a Nextel commercial because of his lack of emotion and pure business style, though Kenseth has shown more of his humorous side the last few seasons, letting his goofy side come out on camera. Or through social networking sites, specifically Twitter where he has grown a following of over 139,000 and never fails to let the comments fly.

But Sunday night, it was a different kind of emotion. It seemed more honest, open and thankful. There was also a lot of relief, that even though he knew he could win and would, that he did so early. That being the only goal, said Kenseth that he would set for himself entering the season.

“I was pretty comfortable where I was at. We [Roush] had cars that could win races. We had an organization that could win races,” he said about his emotional display after the race.

“Pretty comfortable and although I knew, and I still know it’s not really that much of a risk and I’m one hundred percent sure it was the right thing and all that, there’s still some pressure, there’s some unknowns. I hope to have a lot of wins and hopefully championships in front of me still.

“Before this year I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever been nervous at all inside of a racecar and every week it gets a little bit better. But you’re always a little bit nervous and you want to meet their expectations or exceed them, and you want to go do your job the best of your ability.

“I’m pretty fired up to win with these guys. I hope there’s a lot more in front of us, but just really excited to be part of the organization and part of the family. They’ve made me feel so welcome there and part of that group, and just glad that I was able to do my job today and get the win and hopefully we can keep moving forward.”

Why did I watch?

Well, I wanted to see if Denny Hamlin was going to race or not. I do not much care for Hamlin. Something about him has always rubbed me the wrong way. That may be about to change. After Phoenix, Hamlin made what I thought was a rather respectful critique of the Gen 6 car, and for that NASCAR got its granny panties all in a knot and fined him $25,000. Have at ‘er boys, but Lord help you if you hurt NASCAR’s feelings. Hey, if you got a nice sleek muscle car and you pull out to pass a line of traffic, and I can’t, you would be rather put out, too. You probably would not be near as respectful as Hamlin was. Was. Heading into the weekend, he was not going to pay that fine, they could suspend him in they want. This is a sport spawned from moonshine, oil, grease, and gas. Tell me, when did the governing body of ladies soccer take it over?

The Race

Hamlin is appealing the penalty, he got to race, and we know that in time cooler heads will prevail with the boy eventually paying the cash. We were left watching to see if the car might pay off on the first of the numerous mile-and-a-half tracks it was truly designed for.

It was bumpy on the inside and just plain slick everywhere else. We lost of lot of the boys, and the girl, early as ill-handling cars and a lack of cautions buried them deep. Ryan Newman was no where to be seen, until he blew up, to wind up 38th. Danica Patrick (33rd) did nothing all day. Clint Bowyer (27th) was two down and dead last 20 laps in, but at least he got one of those laps back. Jeff Gordon (25th) slid back quickly.

Where was Matt Kenseth? He was around but not the center of attention until late when all he did was win on his 41st birthday, his first win for Joe Gibbs. He did it by coming out of the pits ahead of the day’s most dominant driver, Kasey Kahne, who stayed on his tail waiting for that mistake that Matt refused to offer up. Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, and Carl Edwards rounded out the Top Five, while Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Kevin Harvick all had Top Tens. Tony Stewart rode around a lap down for most of it, but he managed to get it back with just over seventy laps to go to end up 11th.

Rating the Race — 8/10

I liked it, I quietly sat back and watched it all, but I not once found myself on the edge of my seat. Maybe it was due to a track that offered some idiosyncrasies, with the bumps and the slickness and even a below the line shortcut. Only half the field stayed on the lead lap, though the top two were close right to the end. The announce team enhanced the action and the visuals were appealing, Some races can be downright exciting. This, on the other hand, was just a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

It was more than who was the leader of the pack. We watched Kyle aggressively move up on the starts, we wondered if Tony’s persistence would get him back on the lead lap, and we watched Joe Nemechek park just behind Michael McDowell early…again. This time, however, he returned to the track, to move from 42nd to 40th as Landon Cassill and Scott Speed tossed in the towel. Joe got to within a lap of moving ahead of Travis Kvapil as Nemechek earned his money on this day. It was relaxing and it was interesting to watch. Would I have had the same experience if ESPN had called this one? Probably not. However, the FOX team had me watching and kept me watching. That was good enough.

Sometimes it is hard to describe why you liked something, other than to realize that for some reason you just did. As for Hamlin, he had his issues but still managed to finish 15th. Now as long as he doesn’t try to answer another damn car question.