Posts Tagged ‘Las Vegas Motor Speedway’

Jimmie Johnson has done it again. He played possum most of the day and then turned on the afterburner to pass teammate Jeff Gordon with just 16 laps to go and win the Shelby American NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Gordon led more than 210 laps of the 267-lap event before losing the lead to Johnson, who seems hellbent to win his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship before Gordon does.

Johnson won last week at Auto Club Speedway and told members of the media leading up to Sunday’s race he could care less about the people who think he’s tainting NASCAR racing with his dominance. “You compete to win. I’m not gonna apologize for winning,” he said.

  

While Johnson drove away for Sunday’s victory, Kevin Harvick also passed Gordon for the runnerup spot. Gordon finished third ahead of fourth-place Mark Martin. And Matt Kenseth edged Joey Logano for fifth. Logano was sixth, a very impressive finish for the young driver. Tony Stewart was seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, Kasey Kahne ninth and Greg Biffle 10th.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., continued his struggle to compete with the frontrunners by finishing 16th.

Speed TV contributed to this report

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Kevin Harvick came back from two bad pit stops to win Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Harvick had fast car all day dominating the race in the beginning, winding up in the middle of the pack because of to bad pit stops. After the second pit stop, Harvick told his crew over the radio they “looked like a bunch of idiots.”

After the race, he called his car “really fast. We definitely have some work to do on pit road. I get mad. They know how I am and know what I expect of them.”

Harvick made his way through the field to return to the lead and beat Denny Hamlin to the finish by 1.3 seconds. Following in the top five were Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers.

Kyle Busch was contending for the lead towards the end of the race until he pushed a little to hard coming out of turn four slapping the wall, dropping him to 16th.

  

Danica Patrick’s third Nationwide race ended near the halfway point of the event when she and Michael McDowell got together going into turn one, and both cars slammed into the outside wall.

Patrick, who will take a four-month break from stock car racing while she concentrates on her IndyCar ride, finished 36th.

Danica pointed the blame at McDowell for turning down the track and causing the crash. “We had a good car, we really did,” Patrick said. “Unfortunately, we got caught in a bad situation with a driver who wasn’t looking and a spotter who wasn’t calling.”

Later in a interview McDowell to the blame for the wreck. “100 percent my fault. She was coming up on new tires and the closing rate was so fast. I closed the door.”

The beginning of the race was delayed for about an hour and a half due to rain, and the rain returned to put the race under caution just after half way. At that point, Busch had a 3.2-second lead over Vickers.

Several more cautions bunched the field, but the finally came down to  on whether Harvick’s car was strong enough to get him out front after the two bad pitstops. With 25 laps to go, he passed Hamlin for the lead and wasn’t challenged the rest of the way.

Results Sam’s Town 300

Speed TV contributed to this report

Kurt Busch captured the pole for Sunday’s Shelby American NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, knocking off Jeff Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Busch, a native of Las Vegas, had things going his way on Friday afternoon, as his No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge Charger raced for the pole with a track record lap of 188.719 miles per hour. Auto Club Speedway in 2007 was the last pole Kurt Busch had.

Kurt Busch said that the team only made one mock-qualifying run during the practice session, where he failed to make the top 20. Steve Addington and Kurts put their heads together and made the right adjustments to put the Penske Dodge on the pole.

“It was really rough over the bumps, and that was all we focused on,” said Busch. “And I felt like that made the difference in the end. We didn’t really tighten the car up or loosen the car up, we just focused on those bumps.”

“I was getting up on the wheel, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I love Vegas, I love this atmosphere. I just need to get it together for the full 400 miles on Sunday.”

Up until Kurt’s qualifying run it was Henrick’s Motorsports up front.

Dale Earnhardt qualified second in his Hendrick No. 88 Chevy, and beat the track record by more than three-tenths of a second, stunning the field with a lap of 188.173 mph.

  

“It was a good lap,” Earnhardt said. “We worked really hard to get the National Guard Chevy as good as we could.”

It was looking as though Earnhardt’s speed might hold up and maybe give him his first pole since Texas in April 2008. Jeff Gordon came up later in the day and bumped Earnhardt off the pole with a blistering lap of 188.646 mph.

“I’m a little speechless, so ‘wow’ might be the only word I have,” said Gordon after his pole-winning lap. “That was
a really fun lap. Man, these guys have just done an awesome job. … I got both of ends of it pretty good, but it was on the edge.”

But Gordon’s didn’t stay on the pole for long, as Busch knocked Gordon off the pole putting him on outside of Row 1 with a lap that was .011 seconds quicker than Gordon.

There was a short interruption in qualifying  by a minor generator explosion in the infield. Nobody was reported injuried.

After it was all said and done, Kurt Busch had the pole, followed by Gordon, Ryan Newman, Earnhardt and Kyle Busch, the defending race winner.

The second five consisted of Joey Logano, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Results: Shelby American Qualifying

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With the Sprint Cup Series being so competitive it will humble even the best divers out there.

With a commanding victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway to end the 2009 season, Denny Hamlin is at the top of the list as the man most likely to compete with Jimmie Johnson for the top position of the Sprint Cup world.

So far, though, 2010 hasn’t exactly worked out the way Hamlin and crew chief Mike Ford had it planned. Through the first two races of the year, Hamlin has led just seven laps, finishing 17th in the Daytona 500 and 29th in the Auto Club 500. That was most assuredly not what Hamlin and Ford had in mind to start the year off for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry.

Hamlin and his team will have a chance to get back on track this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s third Cup race of the season, the Shelby American.

It could be a challenge, in four previous Cup starts at the 1.5-mile LVMS oval, Hamlin has yet to lead a single lap. His best finish came in 2007, with a third-place run. Last year, he finished 22nd after being involved in two on-track incidents. Needless to say, he
will be looking for a strong run after starting this season behind where he envisioned being at the end of last year.

“Vegas is a place where we have actually run really well in the past and even though last season wasn’t as good, we still feel like we can go there and really challenge for a win,” said Hamlin. “That’s our mentality despite what happened in Daytona and California and it will be for the rest of the season. We know from past experience that it is a very long season and we have some time to work with.”

  

Hamlin said he’s not too worried about his early season struggles, as they’ve sort of become par for the course for the team. “I guess that’s the way it works for us — usually in a bit of a hole coming out of Daytona and then forced to chip away at the points,” said Hamlin. “The result at California didn’t help but we are focused on getting our performance right and we feel like things will fall into place. Hopefully we are getting some our bad luck out of the way early in the season when it can only hurt you so bad. We need that all out of the way by the end of the season.”

Crew chief Ford, who has been with Hamlin for his entire Sprint Cup career is optimistic based on the growth and maturity Hamlin showed in the second half of last season.

“When you first get together, everything seems to go really well,” said Ford. “Then you go through some though times and you’re tested a bit. And we feel like those tough times are behind us and we’re on the same page. Over the last few years, we’ve really grown closer together. I understand him more each year, he understands me. Through last year, it seemed like continuity really is what propelled our car.”

Team President J.D. Gibbs saw it, too.

“The future is exciting for us,” said Gibbs. “So I think really, both those guys work well together. They’re quiet, they’re not going to talk a lot about stuff, they just kind of get it done.”

They’ll definitely try to get it done this week in Las Vegas.

“Vegas is a great location for a race — there is always something to do,” said Hamlin. “The city is welcoming of the sport, we saw that when the banquet moved there last year, and the track is always working hard to bring in fans and improve the racing. They have done a great job with the garage and the infield in making it accessible to the fans. From a racing standpoint, the softer tire has made a big difference. We have more grip and the speeds are up but the racing was as good as it has ever been there. I am excited to get back there and see what they have in store for us this year.”

Speed Tv Contributed to this article.