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Viva Las Vegas!

By
SM Staff
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Viva Las Vegas! Sunday was a strong showing by the Sprint Cup boys. It wasn’t spectacular. It wasn’t boring. It was steady and strong racing. There were surprises. There were finishes that were expected. But the biggest surprise was probably the strong and dominating performance by two time series champion, Tony Stewart.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Going into the day, the odds on favorite was Matt Kenseth whose record setting qualifying lap was followed up by blistering fast practice speeds. Virtually all of the odds makers chose drivers of blue ovals to dominate and win the race.

When the green flag dropped nothing could have been further from the truth. A Chevy bowtie lead the way for 163 laps with Tony Stewart showing the prowess he is known for in the cockpit of about anything with wheels. But a pit stop mistake, when an air hose curled, causing him to remove equipment from the pit box and then a late race 4 tire change would relegate the champ to a 2nd place finish.

Carl Edwards was lurking. All day long he was lurking. He showed strength and speed at times but never quite showed his hand. He stayed just close enough to stay in touch with the leader. He could see him. He could watch him. He was at times faster than him. But he was bidding his time. When the final stop came, it was a two tire change and one can of fuel that would put Carl out in the lead by almost 2 seconds over the then 3rd place Stewart.

Stewart would close but ultimately finish 1.24 seconds behind Edwards and his Scotts Ford Fusion. “The key to winning today was my team,” Edwards said. “These guys are unbelievable. It means a lot coming off Phoenix. I went home last week and didn’t know how things were going to go. You don’t get a good race car like that often. We had another one today.”

A very disappointed Tony Stewart said, “We just gave it away,” he said. “We shot ourselves in the foot two weeks in a row.”

Other surprises included a fiery explosion of an engine by Kyle Busch taking him out of contention on lap 108. A blown right front tire that ended last weeks winner Jeff Gordon’s day at lap 193. Neither driver was injured.

Notable performances belonged to Marcos Ambrose who finished 4th in his Richard Petty Motorsports Stanley Tools Ford; a strong finish and the first top 5 for the Australian born driver on an oval race track.

In 10th was possibly the feel good story of the day, Brian Vickers. After having to lay off most of last year with blood clots and heart surgery, Vickers finished a strong 10th.

Once again, the National Guard Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned in a very strong and promising performance. After starting the race in the 30th position, Earnhardt Jr. rallied to an 8th place finish and showed signs of breaking out of the slump that has claimed him since June of 2008. Earnhardt Jr., who hadn’t posted back to back top 10 finishes since July of 2010, stated his run was the first time in a long time in which he felt he could “beat the guys I was around.” It boosted his confidence – an often discussed subject for Earnhardt Jr. – and he admitted thinking that his relationship with Letarte was somewhat of a last chance.

“Failure at this point is completely unacceptable,” he said. “I’ve got to put it all out on the line to make this work, because if it don’t work with him, I’ve got nowhere else to go. I’ve got no other options, really – other than to race myself into oblivion with my own team and Tony Jr and them guys.”

“I want this to work. I want to race Cup. I want to be in the COT the rest of my career, and I want to be successful.”

The glitz and glamor of Vegas gives way to a week off for the Sprint Cup teams. And maybe it’s a good thing for some to get their tempers under control before they enter the grand coliseum of racing at Bristol. I am of course referring to the altercation between Robby Gordon and Kevin Conway. The altercation it is believed came about as a result of tensions caused by financial lawsuits on both coasts involving Gordon, Conway and Conway’s sponsor Extenze. Witness’ say the tension came to ahead Friday afternoon in the garage when Robby and Kevin came to blows physically. Although the stories vary in what actually occurred, the one thing for certain is that Conway filed a criminal complaint following the altercation and went to NASCAR. NASCAR immediately took action putting Robby Gordon on probation. It has still to be announced how long that probation will be for.

This week was not the most exciting racing we have seen. It was however steady old school racing. There were adjustments and strategies playing out all over the track. The fastest and best car didn’t win the race. But the car that did win the race wasn’t a fluke win. He was there all day. He earned it. He raced for it. And for those that worship in the tabernacle of the blue oval, it was too long coming.

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Congratulations to Carl Edwards and the Scotts Fusion team of Roush Fenway Racing. Congratulations also to Mark Martin and his Turner Racing team on their NNS victory on Saturday. Also Congratulations to Danica Patrick, and her Go Daddy Chevrolet JR. Motorsports team for making history as the highest placing woman ever in a NASCAR race.

That said, to all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you have to give, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.

Danica Patrick’s Best Career Finish of Fourth Shows Improvement in Learning Curve

By
SM Staff
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When Danica Patrick crossed the line fourth at the end of the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, it marked here best career finish in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition.

[media-credit id=41 align=”alignright” width=”295″][/media-credit]“We just worked so hard on the car this weekend,” Patrick said after the race. “Went from loose to tight to loose to tight with the same set-up at times. We had a lot of practice time, which was good, but kind of confused us along the way. Missed those lucky dogs and finally got one. I asked Tony (Eury ) Jr to take a big swing at it to make it tight, not a small one but a swing at it, and it wasn’t good at the beginning, but it was good at the end.”

A lot of people say she lucked into it, which is partly true. The fuel strategy that played out at the end of the race allowed her to take a top 10 car to the top five. She didn’t luck into being into position though, as she had to fight for the lucky dog and was running inside the top 10 before the strategy broke out.

“Qualifying wasn’t perfect, practice was up and down,” she said. “I was like, okay, we got a new car. Hopefully we can learn something so that way me and Aric (Almirola) can run up front at the next mile and a half.”

Crew Chief Tony Eury Jr. had predicted before the race that she would finish in the top 10, considering how they’ve ran lately.

“I mean, we’ve been really consistent – the finishes haven’t shown it,” Eury Jr. said. “It’s really easy for her to run in the top 15. If we can get everything right, we can run in the top 10 with this girl. Luckily we got luck with fuel mileage and got a top five out of this.”

Last year at Las Vegas, she finished 36th following a crash, so this year was a marked improvement.

The previous weekend at Phoenix, she finished 17th, which was to Eury’s expectations. He felt it was a good finish for her first start on the short track.

“I mean, we were struggling in practice – I’m not going to beat around that bush,” Patrick said. “I qualified 20th and Tony Jr really just looked at the setup and made some good adjustments for today. We made a change there at the beginning the wrong way, but then the next stop Tony Jr made a change the right way and we kept adding a little bit of that. We got the Go Daddy car running good at the end. I think Tony was saying those were 11th and 12th place cars. I know a top 15 would be better, but realistically, a 17th place finish is a good for me considering how I was last year on these short tracks last year.”

Even the week before that she showed growth as she finished 14th and led a lap after qualifying third; this is improvement from her 35th place finish last year.

“I mean, I led a lap,” she said. “It was really cool that Clint pushed me. I would have loved to try and work with him, I just didn’t really know what to do, you know? I really ran up front most of the day. … I’m probably not to the point where if I pull out, people are going, ‘OK, she’s going, I’m going.’ That takes awhile to earn the trust and respect of the other drivers. I’m not mad at that, it’s just going to take time. It was a good experience. There was a lot to learn, and I did learn a lot. It was cool to finish all the laps.”

“She did a good job today,” Bowyer said of how she ran. “She was fast enough to be up there. When you’re racing in that atmosphere, you’ve got to find a fast car.”

Some say that things would have gone better had her spotter worked better with other drivers, which had Bowyer frustrated and unwilling to work with her again.

When Patrick came into this deal, her number one goal was to learn about driving stock cars and everything she needed to know about it.

Statistics prove that she has gone about doing that correctly as last year she had an average finish of 28th, while this year her average finish is 11.7.

Near the end of last year, you could see improvement happening as she was working on learning the cars as she wanted to do. Clear evidence was shown in the season finale at Homestead-Miami when she took key lessons from her spotter TJ Majors, teammate Aric Almirola and crew chief Eury Jr.

During that race, Almirola gave her tips on where to run which she took in carefully, though she also found herself questioning under a caution where to run to pick up the most speed. An example of her learning is shown through the following conversation with Almirola.

Aric Almirola: Danica, you got to enter higher into three as there’s more grip there. At about where the caution lights are, you should try to enter the middle from there on.

Danica Patrick: 10-4. Thanks a lot for the help

Almirola: You can run wherever you want in one or two, you can run wherever you want on older tires. Just move up in three and four….(next caution)……You come in on the gray, which is fine. You then turn down away from it. You should try to stay along this black seam, unless you’re tight off.

Patrick: I’ve been tight in the center. If I try to stay up there, it just pushes further up.

Almirola: 10-4 See right here on this spot, I ease off the brakes and then here I drive off.

Patrick: Thanks for showing me, Aric. I really appreciate it. I’m just trying to learn out here.

 

At the end of the day through all of her learning, she finished 19th.

Another thing that has helped Patrick is having Johnny Benson as her driver coach this year.

This reflects back to last October where she said that she would like to have someone there to give her tips.

“It would be nice if somebody could help me, whoever it is — I would take any help,” Patrick said on ESPN.com. “Like he [Mark Martin] said, you need somebody to get in the car and say this is the setup, go drive it after they’ve driven it. It’s one thing to say drive this line, do this or that, but when you don’t have maybe the car that can do that, it’s just words, so it would be nice for someone to throw me in a car after they’ve driven it so I get a real feel for it.”

Patrick had spoken to Martin on two separate occasions as they spoke for about an hour when they first met at Phoenix Raceway in 2006 and then again following her wreck at Dover International Speedway. Now with Benson taking a full-time role there, it has certainly helped her.

This year marks a big year for Danica Patrick as both her Nationwide Series and IZOD IndyCar Series contracts are up, which leaves her the choice to continue down this path of doing part-time Nationwide/full-time IndyCar, or go full-time Nationwide.

Martinsville Speedway Grub-N-Rub Includes Great Food, Great Racing And Great Drivers

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SM Archive
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HOORAHS AND WAZZUPS: WHO CASHED IN AND WHO CRAPPED OUT IN LAS VEGAS

By
SM Staff
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During the previous weekend at Las Vegas we witnessed the continuation of Roush inspired horsepower, we loved the sight of a well loved driver’s return to a Nationwide Series victory lane, we watched a huge improvement in an Indy car driver’s transition to stock cars and two drivers who weren’t getting along late last year really aren’t getting along now. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin with:

HOORAH to Carl Edwards for winning Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 marking his 19th NASCAR Sprint Cup career win and his second win at Las Vegas. Edwards and his Roush Fenway Racing team has now won three of their last five races after winning the final two events of the 2010 season.

Edwards gets another HOORAH for his decision to donate his winner’s trophy to the Air Force’s Thunderbirds flying team headquartered at nearby Nellis Air Force Base. Edwards went on a high flying ride along with the Thunderbirds last Thursday and said “they taught me a lot about self discipline and about believing in what you can do. I can’t thank them enough.”

**************

WAZZUP with Tony Stewart’s pit road woes that cost the best car on the track a win at Las Vegas? During the course of a lap 155 pit stop, an air hose hung up on the back of the car and Stewart drug the impact wrench attached to it when he left his pit stall. The result was a return to pit road to serve a penalty and a huge loss in track position. The ensuing stop forced the team to only put on two tires in an effort to improve track position. Unfortunately that decision forced the team to take on four tires during their final stop, with 32 laps to go, due to extremely worn left side rubber. Edwards, on the other hand, had to option of only putting on two tires during his final stop and that turned out to be his winning edge.

Stewart put on a hard charge to catch the new race leader but time simply ran out. After the race he came on the radio and said “somebody please tell me how we lost this race today.” The consolation here is the fact that Stewart left Las Vegas tied for the lead in the points standings with Kurt Busch.

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On the subject of frustrating pit stops, WAZZUP with the fuel issues that plagued driver Greg Biffle? His Roush Fenway Ford was considered a pre race favorite but a pit road miscue involving the new vented gas can turned his day in Las Vegas into an afternoon loaded with anger and frustration. There appeared to be a hang up in the gas can’s air vent tube which caused a long stop and a loss of track position. It also turned out that the tank wasn’t quite full. When Biffle returned to pit road for his next stop on lap 148, he literally coasted to his pit stall completely out of gas. There was yet another miscue with the gas can leaving the team to wonder if, again, the tank was completely full.

An understandably angry Biffle, who was regulated to a 28th place finish three laps down, came over the radio and said “I hope all of you are feeling my pain, this is ridiculous.”

***************

WAZZUP with the Las Vegas luck suffered by pre race, and home town, favorite Kyle Busch last Sunday. The “Rowdy” one found himself having to dig out of an early race hole after a blown right front tire forced an unscheduled pit stop.

That turned out to be the least of his problems. It’s very rare for Joe Gibbs Racing to suffer a blown engine. But Busch’s engine blew big time on lap 107 while belching smoke inside of the car. A despondent driver came over the radio and said “there’s flames in my face, load it up let’s go to the house.” Busch started the race leading the Sprint Cup points standings. His 38th place finish on Sunday caused a free fall to 14th in the points.

**************

HOORAH to NASCAR for their special effort towards honoring the late, and legendary, Wendell Scott during the Las Vegas weekend. Now regarded as a true pioneer in the history of NASCAR, Scott was the first African-American to officially enter a NASCAR Sprint Cup event, in Spartanburg-South Carolina, back on March 4, 1961. Scott advanced his legacy a giant step further on December 1, 1963 when he became the first African-American to win a NASCAR race in Jacksonville-Florida. NASCAR celebrated the 50th anniversary of Scott’s entry into the sport by issuing a special decal that was displayed on their Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series cars last weekend. His daughter, Deborah Scott, was at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway to participate in this special remembrance.

**************

HOORAH to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a well planned fan promotion that led to Sunday’s Sprint Cup race being a sellout. The fan base for Saturday’s Nationwide Series was also quite good. This lends additional credence to the popular theory that says Las Vegas deserves a second NASCAR weekend on the schedule. During the Fox Sports broadcast Darrell Waltrip said he would like to see a second Cup event in Las Vegas as the final race of the season which would lead right into champion’s week. I find myself agreeing with that.

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HOORAH to Mark Martin for his triumphant return to a Nationwide Series victory lane after winning Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 in Las Vegas. Granted, he had some help when Brad Keselowski crashed on the final lap, but Martin put himself in position for the win by doing an outstanding job of conserving fuel during the latter stages of the race. Martin scored his 49th career win in the series.

A HOORAH also goes to Turner Motorsports for scoring their first ever series win and backing that play with a one-two finish after Justin Allgaier finished second. Their other teams, driven by Jason Leffler and Reed Sorenson, also had strong finishes of ninth and 11th. Turner Motorsports also left Las Vegas with Sorenson leading the series’ championship points standings with team mates Leffler and Allgaier ranked third and fifth.

**************

WAZZUP with the horrible racing luck experienced by Brad Keselowski, and Roger Penske Racing, so far in the Nationwide Series? The trend started with the season opener at Daytona where Keselowski finished 30th following a crash. The news wasn’t any better a week later in Phoenix where the team finished 34th also due to a crash.

But the absolute crushing blow came last weekend at Las Vegas. First off a practice crash forced the team to roll out their back up car. During the race Keselowski had to make up ground due to a pit road speeding penalty and then later just missed being caught up in someone else’s wreck by a matter of inches. Keselowski took command of the Sam’s Town 300 on lap 144. It appeared that he had removed the monkey on his back and was on the way to a win. That’s when the right front tire blew and sent his Penske Dodge hard into wall on the white flag lap. However the driver does deserve a HOORAH for limping his way under the checkers for a third place finish.

Doing a little bit of math, that’s four wrecked race cars since February 19th. This is not a reflection on driver and team performance levels. This is just plain bad luck.

**************

WAZZUP with “Rowdy” Busch’s bonsai restart with 70 laps left in the race? During the course of a double file restart, Busch was lined up on the outside and then dived low all the way to the bottom of the apron in an effort to charge to the front. All of a sudden he moved up on the track and came perilously close to Brad Keselowski who barely had time to react to give him some racing room. Busch wound up sliding his Toyota across the infield grass and parked his car nose first into the inside turn one wall. After leading 81 laps of the race, a sure fire favorite to win had to take the car behind the wall and settle for a 30th place finish.

However, Busch does deserve a HOORAH for taking full responsibility for the incident by saying “I screwed up, that’s why I run these, (Nationwide Series), races so I can learn something for tomorrow.”

WAZZUP with Josh Wise and his wild ride through the infield grass? The Kobalt Tools 400 was barely underway when Wise’s Ford went sailing through the infield with such force all four wheels left the ground. It was a good thing Wise wasn’t playing golf. It would have taken forever to replace all of those divots.

WAZZUP with the grass being there in the first place? I’ll agree that the finely manicured lawn makes for some nice looking landscaping and it really brings out the color of those custom painted corporate logos. But when a race car slides into that grass it’s like driving on ice and frequently a recipe for a major wreck. Perhaps it’s time, in the name of safety, for all tracks on the NASCAR schedule to place a layer of asphalt over the pretty grass.

***************

HOORAH to Danica Patrick for a job well done in the Sam’s Town 300. After going two laps down early in the event, she drove her way to a fourth place, lead lap, finish. The effort made her the first ever female driver to score a top five finish in a NASCAR Nationwide Series race. She’s also the highest finishing female driver in a NASCAR national touring series race. The previous record dates back to October 2, 1949 and was set by Sara Christian who finished fifth in a Sprint Cup event in Heidlberg-Pennsylvania.

**************

WAZZUP with that altercation between drivers Robby Gordon and Kevin Conway? On Saturday morning NASCAR announced that Gordon had been placed on immediate probation for an unspecified period and the decision was based on what they termed an “emergency action.” Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice President of Competition, said the precise term of Gordon’s probation would be announced on Tuesday. Conway was not placed on probation, but Pemberton did say that “Conway may not get a free pass either.” He also noted that no NASCAR official actually witnessed the incident and that it was Conway himself who notified them of the situation.

There has been no real comments from anyone regarding this alleged altercation but it is known that Conway has filed an official complaint with the Las Vegas Police who are reported to be interviewing possible witnesses to determine if the investigation will be turned over to the Clark County District Attorney’s office who will decide if official charges will be filed.

The hard feelings between these two drivers stems from last year when Robby Gordon Motorsports provided Conway, and his sponsor Extenze, with a car to drive for seven races. Gordon has since filed a California based lawsuit against Extenze citing non payment of their sponsor bill. Meanwhile Conway has filed a North Carolina based suit claiming Gordon owes him $27,000 in bonus money for winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year title. It’s believed that the presence of these dual lawsuits has made both drivers hesitate to officially comment on what happened last Friday in the Las Vegas garage. However, Gordon did reportedly state that he would pay Conway the $27,000 when he receives his $690,000 from Extenze. Gordon did acknowledge that there was a heated confrontation with Conway but said it was verbal.

This incident has already launched a debate that raised the question why isn’t this incident covered by the “have at it boys” policy implemented by NASCAR early last year? There also seems to be a question regarding why wasn’t Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton punished for their nationally televised fight last year during the Texas race? The answers to those questions may come when we finally learn exactly what happened between Robby Gordon and Kevin Conway.

**************

Here’s some HOORAHS for this week’s NASCAR notable quoteables. The first two goes to the always fun Kyle Petty and some clever “Twitter” messages. A fan sent Petty a “Tweet” asking him if he thought there was a way for NASCAR to sanction a 24 hour endurance race. Petty replied “yes, it’s called Pocono.”

In a second “Tweet” Petty wrote “if I were a driver still, in every interview I would try to work in a Charlie Sheen quote, just saying.”

Carrying that line of humor one step further was Fox Sports’ NASCAR host Chris Meyers. Part of the network’s pre race show is the popular “gas and go” segment with Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond. Making it a point to let us know that they had not seen the questions in advance, Meyers said “these questions were locked up, much like Charlie Sheen’s sanity.”

The absolute final WAZZUP of the week goes to ESPN NASCAR analyst Brad Daugherty for his efforts to sing Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas.” It was so bad that I’m amazed one of those famous Las Vegas Elvis impersonators didn’t charge into the ESPN booth to make him stop.

Sadler Moves Up in the Point Standings after 12th-Place Finish at Las Vegas

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SM Archive
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Bayne, Wood Brothers Pleased With Their Performance at Las Vegas

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SM Archive
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Ford Las Vegas Post-Race (Edwards Presser)

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SM Archive
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CHEVY NSCS AT LAS VEGAS: Stewart and Montoya Post Race Press Conf Transcript

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SM Archive
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Ford Beats the Odds in Las Vegas; Carl Edwards Gives FR9 Second Win in Three Races

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SM Archive
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Surprising and Not Surprising: Las Vegas Kobalt Tools 400

By
SM Staff
-

In the land of Elvis, craps tables, and show girls, the third NASCAR race of the season had more ups and downs than the roller coaster in the casino New York, New York. Here is what was surprising and not surprising from this weekend’s 14th annual Sprint Cup Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”290″][/media-credit]Surprising:  After jumping off the Stratosphere and flying with the Thunderbirds, Carl Edwards was back flipping his way into Victory Lane. This was Edward’s first win of the young 2011 season, as well as his 19th career win. He now sits third in the point standings.

“I thought how cool would it be to go to Vegas, fly a bunch of women there in your private plane, race cars, and I did,” Edwards said. “I brought my mom, my mother-in-law, my daughter and Kate here and I’m having a blast.”

“It’s just a joy to drive these race cars right now,” Edwards said.

Edwards, however, has no intention of keeping his Kobalt Tools wrench trophy. He will be dropping it off at Nellis Air Force Base for his new friends from the Thunderbirds.

“I’ve got to thank the Air Force, the Thunderbirds,” Edwards said. “They let me fly with them on Thursday and this trophy is going over there in their hangar.”

“They taught me a lot about discipline and about believing in what you do,” Edwards said. “I can’t thank them and all our service men and women enough.”

Not Surprising:  In contrast to the joy in Victory Lane and in spite of being the new Sprint Cup point’s leader, Tony Stewart was absolutely despondent over his second place finish.  Stewart was devastated to have led the most laps yet still not bring home the trophy.

“Yeah, I’m real disappointed,” Stewart said. “I honestly think we had the car to beat today and we just gave it away.”

As did many other drivers, Stewart and his team made a major mistake on pit road. Stewart’s taking the air gun out of the pit box cost him a drive through penalty and a restart at the back of the back.

“I don’t know what happened on the pit stop there, but we had a miscue and a penalty and had to go to the back,” Stewart said. “Unfortunately it kind of dealt our cards for us. Just shot ourselves in the foot two weeks in a row now.”

Surprising: The struggles of the Busch brothers, who had been headlining the point standings as they came home to Las Vegas, were most surprising. Early in the race, both Kyle and Kurt Busch went for spins.

Kyle Busch had the worst brotherly luck, not only spinning but also wrecking and catching on fire.

“I’ve been blowing tires, mowing grass, knocking walls down and setting balls of fire down the backstretch,” Busch said. “It’s really unfortunate. We had a great race car.”

On the other hand, Kurt Busch who also took a spin, managed to rebound, finishing ninth. While brother Kyle plummeted to 14th in points, Kurt Busch maintained his second place standing.

“We gave it all we had,” Busch said. “I came up just a little bit short in my hometown.”

Not Surprising:  Juan Pablo Montoya, who has been quietly finishing races and creeping forward in the points, had another good race. JPM brought his unusually blue colored No. 42 Clorox Chevrolet in for a third place finish at Vegas.

“Our car was very good all day,” Montoya said. “You know, we really needed a good result after last week and it was nice to get it here.”

Surprising: There were some surprising drivers in the top ten, having good luck at Vegas. Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford, finished fourth. Martin Truex, out of the Michael Waltrip Racing stable, had a solid top-10s, bringing his No. 56 NAPA Toyota to the finish line in sixth place.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., having qualified deep in the field, continued to show his strength and the strength of the partnership with his new crew chief Steve Letarte. Much to the delight of Junior nation, the driver and team continued to work on their car throughout the race, finishing in eighth and maintaining the tenth spot in the point standings.

“We made some great adjustments and the car just drove better and better,” Earnhardt, Jr. said. “I’m happy. It’s a fun team and I hope we keep doing well.”

Another surprise was the finish of Brian Vickers in the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota. After a season away due to his battle with blood clots, Vickers finished top ten at Vegas.

“Today was finally the good start to our season we needed,” Vickers said. “We made the most of everything today and got every drop we could out of the car. That’s all you can ask for.”

Not Surprising: From the high of breaking his 66 race winless streak, the driver of the No. 24, this weekend in the traditional Dupont colors, experienced the low of crashing out of the race. Jeff Gordon seemed to have a fast car, running towards the front of the pack, until he hit the wall hard late in the race. Gordon finished 36th and fell to 19th in the point standings.

“There was no sign whatsoever,” Gordon said of his on-track problem. “I just drove into turn three and hit the wall. I’m glad for the safer barrier here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.”

As the NASCAR drivers, teams and fans bid farewell to Sin City, all will have an off weekend next week. The Cup Series will be back in action at Bristol Motor Speedway, racing on Sunday, March 20th. The Jeff Byrd 500 will run at Bristol and will be broadcast at 1:00 PM ET on FOX.

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