It’s Showtime Las Vegas! The greatest annual Vegas show gets started this Friday as the NASCAR Nation roars into town for the ninth time. Of all the race tracks on the circuit, it’s hard to make a case for any other of them as being a better NASCAR vacation weekend. While the track surface and configuration is relatively ordinary by itself, the atmosphere more than makes up for it.
The Las Vegas monstrous presence as a premiere race vacation destination never flexed its muscles more than it did two weeks ago when the entire Southern California region told California Speedway what race they’d prefer to go to. In what has now become a trend, California Speedway failed to sell-out again, a trend that is very sad because the track only has 85,000 seats. It’s not that there aren’t any race fans in Southern California, it’s just that the fans there have Vegas in one hand for a March date and Fontana in the other hand for a late February date. Fontana or Las Vegas??? That’s a tough decision for anyone to make. It's also not fair for the fans to have to choose one over the other because they all want to go, but the dates should definitely be spread out a bit more.
So from all of us in the Las Vegas community, we would like to thank you for choosing us as your NASCAR vacation destination. We would also like to thank you for filling up 150,000 seats year after year which will likely lead the city into “Lady Luck” and get another date for the fall. Because you all have been so loyal and faithful, the parent company of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Speedway Motor Sports Inc., is spending over $300 million into developing the Speedway into a NASCAR fan fest with some of the most innovative things ever imagined by anyone involved with NASCAR.
NASCAR and Las Vegas have really changed with each other over the last nine years. So many facets of each operation have progressed to successful heights that most thought could never happen. Whether it was Wall Street saying stay away from gaming stocks or reporters saying NASCAR will only be a Southern thing, both overachieved over that time span and gained mutual respect from all parts of the world. Not coincidentally, there also is a tie-in between the two operations. Ralph Engelstad and Bill Bennett built the Speedway with no guarantee of any race. Engelstad was owner of the Imperial Palace and Bennett was owner of Circus Circus Enterprises and what became the Mandalay Resort Group. Both have passed but as Las Vegans we should continue to give them thanks each time we see the two operations beautifully collide like they will once again this weekend. $100 million in non-gaming revenue could be reached this weekend and the amount of actual gaming win will far exceed that.
The story of this year’s Las Vegas NASCAR Nextel Cup race is the same story it’s been every year, “Is there Anyone who can stop Roush racing in Las Vegas?” After eight questions like that, the scoreboard reads YES 3, NO 5.
As we roll in for the ninth version of the question, it gets scarier because Roush racing has never been a better more complete team than it is now. The addition of Jamie McMurray(12/1) and emergence of second year driver Carl Edwards(12/1) gives Roush five of the top 10 teams in NASCAR today. They were already loaded prior with Greg Biffle(10/1), Matt Kenseth(11/1), and Mark Martin(12/1). They were so good last season that all five of the Roush drivers made the chase for the championship, a ten race chase where only the top 10 drivers are invited to compete in.
When Jack Roush came up with idea of focusing on the type of down force tracks is a mystery, but it’s probable that it came right about the time that California, Texas, and Las Vegas came onto the Cup scene. Prior to that era, it was much more difficult to channel all your resources into one area. There was no Chicagoland, Kansas, and Homestead cookie cutter style, it was two races a year at places like Rockingham and Darlington and there also weren’t as many races. Concentrating on one area of racing wasn’t smart unless it was Daytona which has the biggest purse of the season.
Roush saw the writing on the wall and made the most of it. Five years later after winning the inaugural Las Vegas race with Mark Martin, Roush finally won a championship with his philosophy and then he won another the year after. He still has never won the Daytona 500 and hasn’t won a road course race since 1997, but what Roush does have is a lot of wins on the cookie cutters. He is the master of the down force chassis. His combination of exact weight placement, precision shock absorber pressure, and adapting with tire pressure accordingly make Roush the best there ever was on these tracks.
Two weeks ago in Fontana, another Roush driver rolled to victory and it’s likely that most of the teams will run similar this week to the way they did then. Last season’s Vegas winner, Jimmie Johnson, finished second the race prior at California. The California winner, Greg Biffle, finished sixth the following race at Vegas. Kurt Busch finished third in both races, Ryan Newman finished ninth in both races, and Kevin Harvick finished fifth and sixth respectively. You get the idea?
When looking at the California race from two weeks ago, two names stick out as dominant figures. Tony Stewart (12/1) and Greg Biffle dominated that race, at least for 458 miles. Stewart had engine problems after running so high on RPM’s for 428 miles while Biffle blew a cylinder a bit later. Both were stout and both equally had the best car with Stewart getting the nod. The major difference this week is 100 less miles around the track.
Despite the poor start for Stewart after two races, he’s very optimistic about how things have gone so far. “Compared to last year, we feel like we're starting this year off a lot better. Las Vegas may be a different situation, but if The Home Depot Chevrolet drives anywhere like it did at California, I'm going to be real excited about the year."
Stewart is bringing the same chassis with him that dominated at California and he should be in prime position to get him self back on track with a Las Vegas win. He’s never won in Las Vegas, if you don’t count a doubleheader USAC sweep in 2002 at the BullRing, but he’s pressed a few times. He’s got four top 5 finishes in his seven Vegas Cup career starts and has the longest active streak going at the track with four consecutive top 10 finishes. His best Las Vegas finish is second, the rain shortened event of 2000
It’s hard to go against Roush racing and it’s likely that all five cars will end up in the top 10. In the pre-season Las Vegas testing prior to the Super Bowl, Carl Edwards led the way with the fastest overall times for the three days of testing. Close behind in times were Mark Martin, Jamie McMurray, and Greg Biffle. Kasey Kahne (17/1) had the second overall fastest test time in his Dodge Charger, a car that part of his teammates Jeremy Mayfield’s stable last year. Other than Biffle, all the drivers above who did well at Vegas testing did well at California.
I’ll go against the grain and trends and take Stewart and Johnson to finish 1-2 with Kasey Kahne close behind followed by five Roush drivers. A long shot to take a look at is rookie Reed Sorenson. We’d be remised if we didn’t give a mention to our favorite Las Vegas NASCAR brothers, Kurt and Kyle Busch, both of whom finished in the top 3 in last years Vegas race. Kurt’s new team looks solid and they’ll be in the 2004 Dodge Intrepid just to prove a point to NASCAR that the new Charger is slower on the down force tracks. Kyle won the California fall race last year and should be primed as the second best team in the Hendrick organization.
The Las Vegas monstrous presence as a premiere race vacation destination never flexed its muscles more than it did two weeks ago when the entire Southern California region told California Speedway what race they’d prefer to go to. In what has now become a trend, California Speedway failed to sell-out again, a trend that is very sad because the track only has 85,000 seats. It’s not that there aren’t any race fans in Southern California, it’s just that the fans there have Vegas in one hand for a March date and Fontana in the other hand for a late February date. Fontana or Las Vegas??? That’s a tough decision for anyone to make. It's also not fair for the fans to have to choose one over the other because they all want to go, but the dates should definitely be spread out a bit more.
So from all of us in the Las Vegas community, we would like to thank you for choosing us as your NASCAR vacation destination. We would also like to thank you for filling up 150,000 seats year after year which will likely lead the city into “Lady Luck” and get another date for the fall. Because you all have been so loyal and faithful, the parent company of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Speedway Motor Sports Inc., is spending over $300 million into developing the Speedway into a NASCAR fan fest with some of the most innovative things ever imagined by anyone involved with NASCAR.
NASCAR and Las Vegas have really changed with each other over the last nine years. So many facets of each operation have progressed to successful heights that most thought could never happen. Whether it was Wall Street saying stay away from gaming stocks or reporters saying NASCAR will only be a Southern thing, both overachieved over that time span and gained mutual respect from all parts of the world. Not coincidentally, there also is a tie-in between the two operations. Ralph Engelstad and Bill Bennett built the Speedway with no guarantee of any race. Engelstad was owner of the Imperial Palace and Bennett was owner of Circus Circus Enterprises and what became the Mandalay Resort Group. Both have passed but as Las Vegans we should continue to give them thanks each time we see the two operations beautifully collide like they will once again this weekend. $100 million in non-gaming revenue could be reached this weekend and the amount of actual gaming win will far exceed that.
The story of this year’s Las Vegas NASCAR Nextel Cup race is the same story it’s been every year, “Is there Anyone who can stop Roush racing in Las Vegas?” After eight questions like that, the scoreboard reads YES 3, NO 5.
As we roll in for the ninth version of the question, it gets scarier because Roush racing has never been a better more complete team than it is now. The addition of Jamie McMurray(12/1) and emergence of second year driver Carl Edwards(12/1) gives Roush five of the top 10 teams in NASCAR today. They were already loaded prior with Greg Biffle(10/1), Matt Kenseth(11/1), and Mark Martin(12/1). They were so good last season that all five of the Roush drivers made the chase for the championship, a ten race chase where only the top 10 drivers are invited to compete in.
When Jack Roush came up with idea of focusing on the type of down force tracks is a mystery, but it’s probable that it came right about the time that California, Texas, and Las Vegas came onto the Cup scene. Prior to that era, it was much more difficult to channel all your resources into one area. There was no Chicagoland, Kansas, and Homestead cookie cutter style, it was two races a year at places like Rockingham and Darlington and there also weren’t as many races. Concentrating on one area of racing wasn’t smart unless it was Daytona which has the biggest purse of the season.
Roush saw the writing on the wall and made the most of it. Five years later after winning the inaugural Las Vegas race with Mark Martin, Roush finally won a championship with his philosophy and then he won another the year after. He still has never won the Daytona 500 and hasn’t won a road course race since 1997, but what Roush does have is a lot of wins on the cookie cutters. He is the master of the down force chassis. His combination of exact weight placement, precision shock absorber pressure, and adapting with tire pressure accordingly make Roush the best there ever was on these tracks.
Two weeks ago in Fontana, another Roush driver rolled to victory and it’s likely that most of the teams will run similar this week to the way they did then. Last season’s Vegas winner, Jimmie Johnson, finished second the race prior at California. The California winner, Greg Biffle, finished sixth the following race at Vegas. Kurt Busch finished third in both races, Ryan Newman finished ninth in both races, and Kevin Harvick finished fifth and sixth respectively. You get the idea?
When looking at the California race from two weeks ago, two names stick out as dominant figures. Tony Stewart (12/1) and Greg Biffle dominated that race, at least for 458 miles. Stewart had engine problems after running so high on RPM’s for 428 miles while Biffle blew a cylinder a bit later. Both were stout and both equally had the best car with Stewart getting the nod. The major difference this week is 100 less miles around the track.
Despite the poor start for Stewart after two races, he’s very optimistic about how things have gone so far. “Compared to last year, we feel like we're starting this year off a lot better. Las Vegas may be a different situation, but if The Home Depot Chevrolet drives anywhere like it did at California, I'm going to be real excited about the year."
Stewart is bringing the same chassis with him that dominated at California and he should be in prime position to get him self back on track with a Las Vegas win. He’s never won in Las Vegas, if you don’t count a doubleheader USAC sweep in 2002 at the BullRing, but he’s pressed a few times. He’s got four top 5 finishes in his seven Vegas Cup career starts and has the longest active streak going at the track with four consecutive top 10 finishes. His best Las Vegas finish is second, the rain shortened event of 2000
It’s hard to go against Roush racing and it’s likely that all five cars will end up in the top 10. In the pre-season Las Vegas testing prior to the Super Bowl, Carl Edwards led the way with the fastest overall times for the three days of testing. Close behind in times were Mark Martin, Jamie McMurray, and Greg Biffle. Kasey Kahne (17/1) had the second overall fastest test time in his Dodge Charger, a car that part of his teammates Jeremy Mayfield’s stable last year. Other than Biffle, all the drivers above who did well at Vegas testing did well at California.
I’ll go against the grain and trends and take Stewart and Johnson to finish 1-2 with Kasey Kahne close behind followed by five Roush drivers. A long shot to take a look at is rookie Reed Sorenson. We’d be remised if we didn’t give a mention to our favorite Las Vegas NASCAR brothers, Kurt and Kyle Busch, both of whom finished in the top 3 in last years Vegas race. Kurt’s new team looks solid and they’ll be in the 2004 Dodge Intrepid just to prove a point to NASCAR that the new Charger is slower on the down force tracks. Kyle won the California fall race last year and should be primed as the second best team in the Hendrick organization.