Race Facts: 

The Sprint Cup Series heads to back west this weekend to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the UAW-Dodge 400 on Sunday afternoon. After last weeks rain force NASCAR to run the California race on Monday, making it back to North Carolina and then back to Las Vegas by Friday, will be a real problem for some of the Spring Cup teams. Anyway, the Las Vegas track is a 1.5 mile tri oval track that was reconfigured after the 2006 race and now has 20 degree banking in the corners and 10 & 3 degrees of banking on the straight a ways.  Average qualifying speeds have been in the 182 to 184 range, with the track record being set by Kasey Kahne last year at 184.856mph. That record could fall once again in a big way on Friday afternoon as testing speeds have been very high there. The race speed record is 146.544 which may or may not be broken after the race on Sunday. During this race you will probably see a lot of long green flag runs as there generally are not a lot of cautions in this race and the new track surface will do little to change that. Those long green flag runs will separate the contenders from the pretenders. Qualifying will be held Friday afternoon at 3:30pm with 48 drivers competing for the 43 starting spots, 5 cars will go home. There are some big names that have to make this race on speed and do not have owners points to fall back on and they include Joe Nemechek, Jeremy Mayfield, Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip. ( UAW-Dodge 400 Entry List ). Qualifying will be covered live on SPEED. Qualifying in the Top 10 here means nothing as only three race winners in the history of this track have started in the Top 10. On the other hand starting in the Top 25 has produced all the race winners. Jimmie Johnson won this race last year after starting 23rd. This event will be 267 laps or 400 miles.

   The Ones to watch: 

Jeff Gordon - Past race winner...Las Vegas is not his best track but finished 2nd last year

Tony Stewart - Hasn't won here but has one of the best overall records here

Mark Martin - Past race winner and anxious to make some noise for DEI

Matt Kenseth - Tough here, owns one of the best records, has won 2 out of last 5 races here

Jeff Burton - Has won two races here in the past and is starting the season pretty good

Jimmie Johnson - Won last three races here and is a perennial Top 10 finisher

Kyle Busch - This is his home track and he has finished 2nd and 3rd here

Carl Edwards - Getting started out well in the 2008, winning last week at California

Kasey Kahne - Evernham cars and Kahne have done very well at Las Vegas

Casey Mears - Two bad races so far, look for a big rebound this week at Vegas

Track Specifications

Grandstand View of Las Vegas Motor Speedway

LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY WEBSITE

Just For Thought

Does qualifying really matter at Las Vegas?

Qualifying in the past did not seem to be a major concern at this track and even with the surface reconstruction, we did not see any evidence that qualifying to be a major factor in winning this race. In fact last year, Jimmie Johnson won this race after starting 23rd and the Top 13 finishers in the race did not start anywhere in the Top 10. The race has only been won by a car qualifying in the Top 10 three times in the ten races that have been run at this track; the inaugural race was won from the 7th starting slot while Jimmie Johnson won two races from the 9th and 3rd starting spots. The furthest back this race has been won from has been from the 25th spot by Matt Kenseth in 2004. As I mentioned, Jimmie Johnson has won the last three races here starting from 23rd last year and from top 10 starting spots in the other two. The previous four race winners have started 17th, 24th twice and 25th.  The average starting spot of the race winner has been a whopping 16.10. On the other side, the pole winners here have finished in the Top ten in six of the ten races. They have finished as the runner-up twice, 4th, 5th, 9th and Greg Biffle finished 8th last year. The other pole winners have finished 12th, 29th, 40th and Kasey Kahne finished 35th last year. The average finishing position of the pole winner is just a so-so 14.60 finishing average. Normally the Top 10 finishers here come from all over the starting grid. So qualifying here is not such a big deal as the race winners have come from everywhere in the Top 25. 

Is horsepower the key to victory?

The answer to this question this week is Yes!  Of course, horsepower is important at every racetrack, but it will is particularly important and is part of the key to victory on Sunday. Like California, there is a lot of full-throttle racing here and the engines will once again be tested because the rpms stay high for much of the race. Last year, only three cars had engine problems but they all took place earlier in the race so it looks like if you can keep the engine in the early stages of the race, it will hold up for the 400 miles. Once again the engine guys will have to balance power with good fuel mileage using unleaded fuel. In pre-season testing at Vegas, no drivers really had any engine problems. This weekend, the drivers will hit the straight-aways at speeds in the 180-190 mph range. They will want the car well balanced so that they can go into the corners without drifting up and come out of the corners with enough control to get up to speed quickly. There must be good balance -- front and rear down force.  The track hasn't been particularly hard on tires so near the end you might see fuel mileage strategy, teams just changing two tires instead of four or they may not pit at all.  Like California, this race will be won by the team with the best pit strategy because if you look at the history data of races held at Las Vegas, usually the car that leads the most laps here wins this race. Getting out in front after pit stops is critical to victory.

Will there be a familiar or unexpected face in Victory Lane?

In the ten races that have been held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, three drivers have won this race more then once. Jimmie Johnson has won the last three races, while Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth both have won this race twice. Both drivers were in Roush cars at the time they won those races and yet another Roush driver, Mark Martin has won a race here also. In addition to Jimmie Johnson's wins, another Hendrick driver, Jeff Gordon also has won a race here. Sterling Marlin was the only non-Hendrick-Roush driver to have won a race here. All these drivers would have to be given more then even odds to win this race on Sunday even if some of them are driving for other teams this year. Kasey Kahne runs these types of tracks exceptionally while your normal culprits like Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin all have had good runs at this track. This race is pretty much up in the air as far as who has the best chance but we could have a first time winner Sunday but odds favor the the Roush and Hendrick crowd.

TOP 10 DRIVERS AT LAS VEGAS - LAST 10 RACES

Friday, Feb. 29 (Gates open at 9 a.m.)
9:30 a.m. – Nationwide Series rookie and spotter meetings, drawing for qualifying order.
10:30-11:50 a.m. – Nationwide Series practice.
11 a.m. – Sprint Cup Series rookie and spotter meetings, drawing for qualifying order.
Noon-1:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup Series practice.
1:45-3:30 p.m. – Nationwide Series final practice.
3:40 p.m. – Sprint Cup Series qualifying (two laps, all positions).

Saturday, March 1 (Gates open at 8 a.m.)
9:05 a.m. – Nationwide Series qualifying (all positions).
10:30-11:15 a.m. – Sprint Cup Series practice.
11:30 a.m. – Nationwide Series driver and crew chief meeting (media center).
11:50 a.m.-12:50 p.m. – Sprint Cup Series final practice.
1 p.m. – Nationwide Series driver introductions (Security to clear pit road).
1:30 p.m. – NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam’s Town 300 (200 laps, 300 miles).

Sunday, March 2 (Gates open at 7 a.m.)
1 p.m. – Sprint Cup Series driver introductions (Security to clear pit road).
1:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup Series UAW-Dodge 400 (267 laps, 400 miles).

*Schedule is tentative, subject to change. Issued: Jan. 9, 2008.

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