On Track - Saturday Feb. 28th

Nationwide Series qualifying took place bright and early Las Vegas time. The first car hit the track for time trials at a little after 9 am.

Harry How/Getty Images
Scott Speed won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Sam's Town 300. His first Nationwide Series #1 start and in his 1st race @ Vegas with a lap of 29.597 seconds, 182.451 mph. Speed is the ninth driver to win a pole in his first Nationwide start. The last was Patrick Carpentier Aug. 4, 2007 at Circuit Gilles Villenueve in Montreal, Canada. Speed won a Camping World Truck Series pole last August at Bristol Motor Speedway. The top three qualifiers broke Brian Vickers’ existing one-lap record of 181.708 mph, 29.718 seconds set a year ago. Kevin Harvick (second) posted his third top-10 start of 2009 and his fifth in nine races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Greg Biffle (third) posted his fifth top-10 start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is his third in three races this season. Justin Allgaier (11th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

According to the vegasinsider.com, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch have the best odds @ Vegas. 5/1

Jimmie Johnson was fastest in Happy Hour with a lap of 29.575 at 182.587. Jeff Gordon posted the 2nd fastest lap followed by Sam Hornish Jr., Kurt Busch and Mark Martin.

Jamie McMurray had the fastest Ford in the field. After practice, he filled everybody in on a little secret. He has the flu. McMurray went directly to the infield care center for different medication after practice had ended.

NNS - Sam's Town 300

Greg Biffle says Viva Las Vegas! Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.

Greg Biffle ended a 76 winless streak Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas. It wasn't an easy for him. On the way to the checkered flag, Biffle was caught speeding on pit road, had another bad pit stop, ran out of gas while leading and had to hold off a charge from his teammate 'Cuzin' Carl on a green white checkered finish. Edwards congratulated Biffle personally after the race in victory lane.
Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

It's Biffle's 19th career win and first since Feb. 25, 2006 at Auto Club Speedway.

Edwards finished 2nd followed by Brian Vickers, Jason Leffler and Dale Jr.

There were 17 lead changes among 12 drivers:

S. Speed 1-2; K. Harvick 3-30; K. Bires 31; M. Bliss 32-47; K. Harvick 48-55; C. Edwards 56-70; K. Harvick 71; C. Edwards 72-74; K. Harvick 75-78; C. Edwards 79-95; J. Allgaier # 96-100; G. Biffle 101-146; D. Hamlin 147-153; B. Vickers 154-164; B. Gaughan # 165-167; J. Burton 168; D. Ragan 169; G. Biffle 170-209.

Biffle led twice for the race high 86 laps.

There were 12 cautions for a record 60 laps. Denny Hamlin was involved in a fiery wreck 3 laps from the finish. He brushed the wall which led to a blown tire. Mike Bliss had no where to go but underneath Hamlin's car. Thankfully, both drivers are fine.

Carl Edwards leads the point standings by 48 over Brian Vickers.

If this race is any indication for tomorrow's, buckle yourself in! It's going to be good long ride!

On track - Friday Feb. 27th

Kyle Busch won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Shelby 427 with a lap of 29.033 seconds, a new Las Vegas Motor Speedway track qualifying record. It's Kyle's 5th pole in 153 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. His first pole and 3rd top 10 start in as many races this season. And his 2nd pole @ Vegas. He won the pole for last year's race. Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

12 drivers broke the track qualifying record (previously set by Kasey Kahne on March 9, 2007*) during Sprint Cup Series qualifying earlier tonight.

Kyle's brother Kurt qualified 2nd. It's Kurt's 2nd top 10 start this season and his 9th in 9 races @ Vegas.

It marks the 1st time in their cup history together that the Busch brothers... could have started 1-2. It's their hometown track. We can understand their desire to win a Cup race @ Vegas in front of all of their family and friends. Unfortunately for Kyle, he blew an engine during practice right before qualifying. Per NASCAR rules, Kyle will have to go to the back of the field for the start of the race. Kurt will take over leading the field to the green.

The last time (in NASCAR's top series) brothers started on the front row - dates back to April 9, 2000 when Rusty & Kenny Wallace were 1-2 for the Martinsville race and before that Bobby & Terry Labonte started the '98 Daytona 500 1-2.

Kyle had this to say: "Unfortunately for myself, I won't be in the cool photo next to my brother at the drop of the green flag". He did crash a race fan's wedding ceremony in Victory Lane and stood in as best man. Hey, that's "totally Vegas" and totally cool. Harry How/Getty Images


Jimmie Johnson qualified 3rd followed by David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose**, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne*. Matt Kenseth qualified 40th. I don't really want to add that I've heard... Matt wasn't liking the set-up to his ride. I texted back: make 'um go back to the garage and work it out!

* Kasey Kahne's previous track qualifying record - 184.856 mph, 29.212 seconds

**5 Toyota drivers changed engines prior to qualifying: Kyle Busch, David Reutimann, Brian Vickers, Scott Speed and Marcos Ambrose. They will have to go to the back to start Sunday's race.

Those that failed to qualify: Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney, Mike Garvey, Jeremy Mayfield, Sterling Marlin, Scott Riggs and Tony Raines.

Mark Martin posted the fastest speed on the practice chart before qualifying with David Reutimann, David Stremme, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick right behind him in the top 5.

To turn our attention to the Nationwide Series, Brendan Gaughan was fastest during the 1st NNS practice session followed by Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Mike Bliss.

For the final NNS practice, Mike Bliss posted the top speed followed by Scott Speed, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Justin Allgaier and Kevin Harvick.

Qualifying for the Nationwide Series race is early Saturday morning at 9, although that's Noon our time.

Need For Speed Las Vegas Preview

Thursday, race fans lined up on the Vegas Strip to watch the hauler parade.
Bryan Haraway/Getty Images for NASCAR

Momentum can mean everything in this sport!

Matt Kenseth is on a roll - winning the first 2 races of the new season.

No driver in series history has won the 1st 3 races in a season/the next 2 races after winning the Daytona 500.

It's no secret Las Vegas is one of Matt Kenseth's best tracks. In 9 races, Kenseth has collected 2 wins, 4 top 5's and 5 top 10 finishes and has led 438 laps - more than any other driver. Rewind to the Vegas race last year, Kenseth led 70 laps before getting wrecked on the final lap and finishing 20th. Jack Roush also has more wins @ Vegas than any other team owner. Between Roush drivers and Jimmie Johnson, they've won the last 6 Las Vegas races.

Just 3 drivers have multiple wins @ Vegas: Matt Kenseth & Jeff Burton each have 2 and Jimmie Johnson has won 3 times.

Something else that may be of interest this weekend: Vegas is the Busch brothers home track. They'd definitely like to win there. Kurt has posted 2 top 10 finishes in 8 races while brother Kyle has 2 top 5's in his 5 races. He started from the pole in last year's race and finished 11th.

Qualifying starts Friday evening at 6:40 our time. In 11 races @ Vegas, no driver has won yet from the pole and just 2 of those wins have come from a top 5 starting spot.

The Shelby 427 starts at 3:30 on Sunday. The Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 is on at 4pm Saturday afternoon.

The Need For Speed: Las Vegas Race Preview is now posted at:http://www.q106fm.com/podcasts.asp

NSCS - Auto Club 500 Feb. 22nd

Matt Kenseth made it back to victory lane - 2 in a row!

"You need everything to go right to be able to win these races. Our car handled really good all day. We had excellent pit stops. Fourth one from the end, we were a little bit off. I started complaining. All of a sudden they got me three or four spots every stop. The pit stops were really important to our outcome. Their adjustments were really important.It wasn't easy, but it was just good enough to hold them off." - Matt Kenseth
Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

It's the 3rd win for Kenseth at the California track and the 5th straight February win for Jack Roush. Kenseth led 3 times for the race high 84 laps.

Matt Kenseth becomes the 1st driver to win the first 2 races of the season, since Jeff Gordon won 2 in a row in 1997. It was Gordon who gave Kenseth a late race challenge for the lead. Gordon led 5 times throughout the race for a combined total of 64 laps. Gordon finished 2nd. Jeff Gordon:

I'm so excited about this race team right now. I just think we're head and shoulders above where we were. I know it's just a couple races in and this is one race. I love the way the car was driving. To be able to battle and go to the front like that, have solid pit stops, I'm just really, really excited and also really bummed out we didn't win the race tonight.

Felt like we had the car. Matt was awful good in the pits as well as on the track. That last run, we made one little adjustment. I didn't mind if he got out there on us, but when I started running him down, I was like, We got him, we got him. Then my car started getting tighter and tighter and tighter.

As I got to him, I moved around, went to every groove I could possibly find, and the car just wouldn't turn. I kind of knew with about 20 to go that we probably, unless he made a mistake, weren't going to get him. You know, ran as hard as I could and had a great race. Really proud of this team. It's a great start to the season.

Kyle Busch didn't lead any laps, but finished a respectable 3rd place and short on his goal to become the 1st driver to win 3 different series races in NASCAR's top 3 in one weekend. Kyle Busch:

"It's never been done before, so it's definitely a challenge. We know that. I've won two in one weekend a few times. In Atlanta last year was probably my best shot to do the three. We won Friday, Saturday we led the most laps and were leading with 20 to go, and we had a shock break, put us in the wall, then we won on Sunday. The last one's always the hardest to get. They leave it the hardest to get because it's on Sunday and it's the biggest show. You know, I don't know. It's not easy in this sport. But never is. But maybe one day."

There were 5 cautions for 43 laps; 4 of which were for rain. There were 19 lead changes among 11 drivers.

The Big One

It's still the talk in the garage this weekend @ Auto Club Speedway.



“I definitely could have used better judgment coming back up on the racetrack, but it’s hard to tell. I mean, there was rain coming, I was a lap down (and) I had to get my lap back to even have a shot at winning the race. It all happened pretty fast and it was unfortunate how it went down. (But) my statistics at the plate tracks speak for themselves and I don’t really have to defend myself at how good a plate racer I am and what kind of moves I make out on the racetrack. I got just as much right to be on that racetrack and do whatever the hell I want to do on it as anybody else out there. And I race just as hard as I choose to race and want to race, and I race people how I want to be raced. I’ve always raced with a lot of respect and I’ll continue to do so in the future.” What Dale Earnhardt Jr said on Friday from Auto Club Speedway.

Brain Vickers: “Junior did call me this week, which was much appreciated. Without giving too much detail of the conversation, he called to say that he apologized and didn’t mean to do it. I told him then, `I don’t know what to say.’ We ended up finishing almost last because of what happened. Of course, I’m upset about it. I mean I’m not happy unless I won the race, much less wreck. But I told him I do appreciate the call.”

What's your take?