This weekend the Sprint Cup Series visits the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Kobalt Tools 400. Matt Kenseth will start from the pole, an extreme rarity for the driver who usually qualifies towards the middle or back of the pack eventually making his way to the front. Kenseth also was fastest during the first practice session of the weekend. Lining up behind him is his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, David Ragan, then Juan Montoya, and teammates Carl Edwards, and Greg Biffle.

[media-credit id=41 align=”alignright” width=”293″][/media-credit]What do you  see here? All Roush Fenway Racing drivers were in the Top 5 in the first session of practice. The entire team will be tough to beat on Sunday. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon seem to be the favorites to win the race and they were were 12th and 19th quickest in the morning session, but don’t be fooled by the practice numbers. Gordon was 20th and 28th quickest during the practice sessions in Phoenix and yet he led the most laps and won the race to end the 66 race winless streak. Last year, Gordon led the most laps, but a bad call in the pits to go for two-tires on the last pit stop backfired when Johnson took four and he went on to win the race. Gordon faded to third as Kevin Harvick took second. Look out for Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing.

So, you know the practice results, so we shall compare that with how the drivers qualified for the race. Marcos Ambrose improved from being sixth quickest during practice to earn a front row seat with Kenseth for the pole. Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, and Kyle Busch rounded out the Top 5. One person missing from this is David Ragan. Well, what happened? Ragan choked yet again and spun on his qualifying lap. He managed to keep it off the wall, but never completed the lap and will start from the rear. Great. When is this kid going to just calm down and focus? If he doesn’t get it together, I can say good-bye to Ragan at the end of the season.

Now, to the drivers who really need a good finish…one of those is Jeff Burton. He qualified for the Chase last season and has had 2 DNF’s to start the new season with the new points system. Not good, but wait! He may have just lucked out. NASCAR began racing here in 1998 and the first 3 finishes for Burton here were 2nd, 1st, 1st. Burton has won here before and this may be the track where he can have a good finish. Depending on how many drivers drop out, Burton can gain a significant amount of points. Burton’s teammate Kevin Harvick, as stated earlier, was runner-up here last year.

Who are you guys picking for the race? I have Jeff Gordon. He is back in the DuPont Chevrolet for this race and he gained me a lot of fantasy points last week. In fact, I was last coming into Phoenix and left as the points leader after having a 1, 2, 3 weekend. I don’t expect to do it again this weekend, but I do want the lead to stay in tact. I want to hear from you guys. Leave your comments and picks in the box below and have an amazing weekend.

Email me at therhino.ryan@gmail.com, Facebook, or Twitter http://www.twitter.com/RyanOHaraNASCAR

Thank you guys!

When Kyle and Kurt Busch had their media availability scheduled back-to-back on Friday afternoon it became family hour.

[media-credit id=41 align=”alignright” width=”290″][/media-credit]The two tell their tales well. From growing up and going into different racing directions to competing against each other when they could, both have come a long way. And depending on whom you ask, you’ll get different versions of whose better and who won the most races.

Kurt will even tell you that their father told him he had to let Kyle win every once in a while. Being the older brother though, that was hard to do. Good thing that was then and this is now, there’s no way either one would lift for the other.

Reaching the highest level in NASCAR, the Sprint Cup Series, there’s no one they’d rather beat than each other. Family members competing against each other in NASCAR is nothing new, the Busch brothers are the latest to do so and come to Las Vegas with a little more than bragging rights on the line.

In 2009 Kyle won the Daytona 500 of the family, capturing the win in their hometown at their home track.  Kurt hasn’t been a slouch here either, making it no surprised that the two are favorites heading into Sunday. It’s also not surprising that it’s a race that’s looked forward to.

“Coming out here to the hometown is always exciting,” said Busch. “There’s a lot of friends and family, the exciting part just being in the hometown.”

While the Kobalt Tools 400 will only be the third race of the season, the two sit atop the Cup Series point standings and ready for a family battle for the championship. While Kurt sits behind his brother an argument can be made that he’s one of the drivers that is off to the best start of the 2011 season.

After going two-for-three in Daytona, a fifth in Daytona and an eighth place last weekend in Phoenix, Busch heads into Vegas with one thing on mind: even the score with his brother.

“The fact that he’s won here, yeah it stings a little bit,” said Busch about little brother Kyle.

“I’ve been on pole, he’s been on pole here. It’s Vegas. It’s one of the top five marquee events of the year. For Daytona, Indy, Charlotte, I think Vegas ranks up there with a lot of guys. With him winning here it was great for our family and all the friends that have supported us over the years. I just want to be able to do it as well.”

Being a past champion, something Kyle has yet to accomplish, there comes a time when it seems there’s not a lot left for the driver to accomplish. Not for Busch, he’s never won the Daytona 500 or the Brickyard 400 and he does want to, but winning at Las Vegas would just mean more. If he is to do so on Sunday it’ll have to come after saying working on what he says is a No. 22 Shell / Pennzoil Dodge that was “off” in practice.

“You’ve got to get through the bumps that we’ve been struggling with in Turn 1 and 2,” said Busch

“You also have to have a car that doesn’t burn off the front tires which we might struggle with on Sunday. We’ve definitely got our work cut out for us on what we can do to improve our car.”

The hope is that their finish on Sunday will propel the team into a season in which they’ll be championship contenders.

“Hopefully, we leave here with a solid finish knowing that we’ve accomplished something special. It’s only three races in. There’s still a long way to go. I always look at the season as the first seven to nine races on where you rank; after that point in the season is how you’re going to settle in for the long summer runs.”

While that sounds great on paper, this is a race he badly wants to win. In order to do so, Busch said his team will be making sure they do and use everything they learned from this race last year over the course of this weekend. He won the pole with a new track record but finished a disappointing 35th last year.

This Sunday Kurt will start behind Kyle on the starting grid. It will make for a long and interesting day as he tries to not only get his Vegas win but keep Kyle from getting another. It shouldn’t be too hard because as Kurt says, whenever it comes to a battle with Kyle, big brother always wins because he know more.