[media-credit name=”lvms.com” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Kobalt Tools 400

Some people just can’t handle Vegas…

We stay out west this week in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and where else to hang out for a week than Sin City…

If you’ve been following some of the drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this week on Twitter, you may have noticed that many of them have chosen to stay west this week, rather than make the trek back to North Carolina. 5-time Sprint Cup Series Champ Jimmie Johnson chose to spend his week in Aspen, Colorado skiing with his family, tweeting on Wednesday; “I was back on skis over the last three days and had a blast. Thanks to @aspensnowmass for the fun today. #NoBrokenBones.” Kyle Busch, wife Samantha, and Greg Biffle all tweeted about spending their week in the western sand dunes. And, Paul Menard took his own off-road ride with Regan Smith on Wednesday near Evergreen, Colorado when Smith lost control of his truck on patch of ice and crashed into a bank of trees. Smith later tweeted “Thank you to everybody for the well wishes, everybody is doing fine, shaken up but healthy. Had somebody looking out for us this morning.”

So just like many college students this week, it seems like many NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers chose to take a bit of a Spring Break this week. I know if it was on me, I would have no trouble showing up a bit early for work this week…

Phoenix Recap

Due to technical difficulties and my lack of success last week in Phoenix, this will be a rather quick recap and pick this week.

My winner pick last week lasted 24 laps before he ended my hopes last week of a strong finish. Kasey Kahne started 10th and quickly moved to the runner-up spot, but couldn’t keep his No.5 Farmers Insurance Chevy under control on lap 24, hitting the wall and putting the kaibash on my hopes of a strong pick. Kahne came come 34th.

As for my Dark Horse pick, he ran more than 250 laps in the top 15 last week but also ran into some misfortune late in the 312 lap stanza. Jeff Burton stared juat behind Kahne in the 11th spot and hung around the 10th spot all day before he radioed in that his engine was about to expire. Burton lasted 3 more laps before retiring to the garage in 33rd place.

Vegas Picks

Because my laptop happens to be about 200 miles away from me right now, the research is rather shotty for this week of Matty’s Picks.

My winner pick this week currently has 12 to 1 odds to win Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 (according to Vegasinsider.com). He had a rather shotty qualifying effort, but is an absolute beast on the intermediate tracks. “Showtime” Carl Edwards is my guy this week, despite Jimmie Johnson being a 4 to 1 favorite to win on Sunday.

Sticking with the Vegas theme, my Dark Horse is a ling shot at 30 to 1 this week. He was fastest in Happy Hour earlier today, and his followers are desperate for a W ASAP. Dale Earnhardt Jr may have been looked past coming into the weekend, but has shown over the course of the past two days that he may have the car to beat on Sunday.

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead tonight, and until next time….You stay classy NASCAR NATION!

[media-credit name=”lvms.com” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Winning at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2009 for Kyle Busch was the feeling of a lifetime.

Busch grew up racing just a stones throw from were the speedways stands and he watched it be built. Dreaming of the day that he and older brother Kurt would get to race in at their home track.

Having done so and then being able to win in Vegas was more than Busch imagined. Sunday he’ll attempt to do it again, starting from the outside of the front row in his No. 18 M&M’s Brown Toyota.

“It’s always great to get back to Las Vegas,” Busch said on Friday. “Just growing up racing outside turn one here at the ‘Bullring’ but to come back to the big track is always an exciting part of our year. For the 18 team we look forward to this race and trying to see how well we can run and of course we always try to put as much emphasis on every race as much as we can, but we certainly like running well here and trying to win this one.”

Busch says he’s expecting good things from his team this weekend. Yet, he’ll be expecting the most from himself. Every year when he drives through the tunnel for race weekend in Las Vegas he does with a lot of pressure on himself.

Pressure to either win or perform very well. It’s a special track, a special place and one that Busch enjoys coming to. His 2009 win at the time was one of the biggest in his career, joined now by the “triple” he pulled off in 2010 at Bristol and winning last year’s inaugural Kentucky race.

There’s only one hometown track though. And for Busch nothing can beat its atmosphere or knowing his way around town better than any other he’ll visit on the Sprint Cup circuit. It’s always a cool race, says Busch and that’s where his focus is this weekend.

Coming off a sixth place finish a week ago in Phoenix, where he led laps and was in contention until a late race pit stop miscue, Busch sits ninth in points. Vegas as always been a decent track for him but last year he finished 38^th following a blown engine.

His win though, has been Busch’s only top five finish since the track was reconfigured prior to the 2007 season. In the five races on its new surface Busch has been all across the finishing board: 9, 11, won, 15 and 38^th.

A new surface brings new racing, which drivers are still trying to figure out. Busch expects more of the same on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s very different from what it was with the flat surface,” Busch said. “I always enjoyed running on the flat surface. When we brought these new cars out, that’s kind of when they changed the track over too and were looking to make it a multi-grooved racetrack and you can run two, three-wide around the place.

“Which you can do, just the first time here the tires were so hard, the track was so slick and now that we’ve kind of seasoned the asphalt a little bit the tires are able to get a little bit better and we’re able to make those last. The racing’s been getting a little bit better. It’s kind of a crapshoot race if you will.”

From Busch’s seat it seemed that drivers who were good on the old track had a harder time getting accustomed to the new one. Although Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards have remained a constant and Busch feels he’s been right there too.

“It’s certainly made for an interesting racetrack once it was all said and done,” said Busch. “For me I was used to the old surface, so I come out here thinking, ‘Okay, we’re going to Vegas.’ Well, it’s not Vegas anymore. It’s essentially somewhere different, so you’ve just got to get used to all that.”

Busch and JGR shouldn’t be fazed. The company is off to a hot start with all three drivers sitting in the top 10 in points and already visiting victory lane. Hamlin won last weekend in Phoenix and Busch took home the season’s first exhibition race in Daytona, the Budweiser Shootout.

Following his win Hamlin said the company was beginning to get back to being the JGR of old. Dominating races, having drivers in victory lane on a regular basis, just putting together the whole package on raceweekend and stealing the headlines. So far, Busch said he has not been surprised by the organizations early season success.

“I thought that there would be big things that could come out of JGR this year and we’re already seeing some of the fruits from that with Denny’s win at Phoenix last week,” he said.

“That was pretty cool. We ran strong and actually all the Joe Gibbs Racing cars finished in the top 10, including two [Michael Waltrip Racing] cars, which made five Toyotas in the top 10, so we were proud of that effort.”

Busch looks forward to the continued success this year and with he and crew chief Dave Rogers working with the new crew chiefs of their teammates, Jason Ratcliff for Joey Logano and Darian Grubb with Denny Hamlin. A key, he says, will be having all three working closely together in order to benefit all.

Appears so far so good and the fruits of their labor will most likely be shown the next few weeks as the season starts to roll forward with teams getting ready to grade themselves against the competition. For Busch and his JGR team the hope that a little home cooking will send them in a championship direction.