NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES : Wild Wild West

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

Wild Wild West

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for its first stop on a three-race west coast swing – Sunday’s Kobalt 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX). Following Las Vegas, the series moves on to Phoenix and concludes its Pacific trip at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California before heading back east to Martinsville. Phoenix was formerly the second race on the docket, but is now the fourth. Auto Club still occupies its traditional fifth race slot.

Jackpot For Johnson In Vegas?

By his standards, six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson had a sub-par season in 2014, logging a career-low 11th-place finish in the final points standings (he had never been worse than sixth).

It looks like Johnson has put 2014 in his rearview mirror.

The No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet driver out-dueled defending NSCS champion Kevin Harvick to win the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, one week after a fifth-place showing at Daytona. Johnson now has 71 career wins – five behind Dale Earnhardt for sixth on the all-time list – and owns at least four victories at nine different tracks. He will try to hit the jackpot again in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he holds the track record with four wins.

Bet on Jeff: Gordon Tries To Change His Luck In Las Vegas

Jeff Gordon started the season with a bang by winning the pole at his final Daytona 500. Since, he has struggled to produce strong finishes in the first two races due to tough-luck wrecks at both Daytona and Atlanta. Gordon will attempt to turn around his luck at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Kobalt 400. The 43-year-old has competed in all 17 races at the 1.5-mile track and will move ahead of Jeff Burton as the sole leader in starts there.  Gordon’s lone win at Las Vegas came in 2001 – the same year he won his last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

Keselowski Set To Join 200 Club

One of NASCAR’s ultimate success stories, Brad Keselowski harnessed his talent, working his way up from a family-owned ride in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series all the way to a Team Penske car that he piloted to a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in 2012.  Now one of NASCAR’s most recognizable superstars, Keselowski will make his 200th career start in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 31-year-old Ford driver will try to make his deuce wild, and show up in Victory Lane for the second straight season as Sin City’s defending race winner. Now in his sixth full-time season on the NSCS circuit, Keselowski boasts 16 wins, 50 top fives, 80 tops 10s and eight Coors Light Pole Awards.

Vickers Ready For Fast Finish After Speedy Recovery

Tough. That’s usually one of the first words that comes to mind when describing Brian Vickers.

Just three months after undergoing corrective heart surgery, Vickers will make his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start of the season in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 31-year-old, who has battled issues with his heart, as well as blood clots in the past, has three career NSCS wins and will race full time for the rest of the season in Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 Toyota. Brett Moffitt, a member of the first-ever NASCAR Next class in 2011, posted an eight-place finish as Vickers’ sub at Atlanta.

Truex Leads Furniture Row To Fast Start Out Of The Gates

Martin Truex Jr. didn’t get his second top-10 finish last year until the 13th race of the season, at Dover, in June.

This year, it took the 34-year-old New Jersey native only two races to notch a pair of top 10s.

Truex Jr. has been hot out of the gates with a second-place finish in the Sprint Unlimited, followed by showings of eighth and sixth at Daytona and Atlanta, respectively. The production from the two-time NASCAR XFINITY champion has earned him the fifth-spot in the final standings – the highest his solo-car Furniture Row Racing team has ascended in its 10 years of existence. On NASCAR’s west coast swing, Truex will try to pilot his No. 34 Furniture Row / Denver Mattress Chevrolet to its first win since Regan Smith drove it to Victory Lane at Darlington in 2011. An added incentive for a west coast Truex victory – Denver, Colorado-based FRR is the NSCS’ only team with headquarters outside of the Carolinas.

Fond Vegas Memories for Roush Fenway Racing

The inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway featured a nearly unprecedented ‘five of a kind.’

Jack Roush kicked off an era of Las Vegas dominance by placing all five of his drivers inside the top 10 of the 1998 Las Vegas 400.  The quintet was led by NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Mark Martin, who held off teammate Jeff Burton for the checkered flag.  Johnny Benson (4th), Ted Musgrave (6th) and Chad Little (10th) also earned top-10 finishes for Roush Racing.

Roush became the first team owner in the Modern Era with five top 10s in one race, a feat previously accomplished by Peter DePaolo in the 1950’s.  The team’s Las Vegas success continued with Burton, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards each winning two races at the 1.5-mile track. Roush still holds the record for most Las Vegas wins, with seven.

Mears Gears For Strong Finish At Las Vegas

With two strong performances to start the season, Casey Mears ranks sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings entering Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet driver finished sixth at Daytona, 15th at Atlanta and will try to notch his fourth top 10 in his 12th start in the Entertainment Capital of the World. At Daytona, Mears’ crew chief Robert ‘Bootie’ Barker earned his first career MOOG Problem Solver of the Race Award by guiding his driver to the greatest second-half of the race improvement in average lap time while finishing on the lead lap. The duo picked up 35 positions overall to notch its sixth-place showing.

Gaughan And Back Again

Las Vegas resident Brendan Gaughan returns home for Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile track. Gaughan has never finished higher than 22nd in NSCS action at LMS, but did win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race from the pole there in 2003. He is the grandson of Las Vegas gaming pioneer Jackie Gaughan and the son of Michael Gaughan, a hotel and casino magnate. His family owns South Point Casino Hotel Casino and Spa.