Kurt Busch is gunning for his fifth Winston Cup victory. Credit: Autostock
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
March 1, 2003
5:03 PM EST (2203 GMT)
LAS VEGAS - Winston Cup Series points leader Kurt Busch continued to please the hometown crowd Saturday during Happy Hour practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, posting the fastest lap in America's fastest city.
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Busch, who on Friday qualified fifth for Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, rounded the 1.5-mile track in 32.131-seconds at 168.062 mph, besting Jimmie Johnson's Chevrolet by just more than a tenth-of-a-second.
Johnson, meanwhile, posted the day's fastest lap in the Lowe's Chevrolet during the morning's first practice, at 168.387 mph in 32.069 seconds.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who qualified fourth for Sunday's event, posted the third fastest time during Happy Hour, up from sixth in the day's first practice. Ryan Newman was fourth in Happy Hour and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five.
After qualifying second Friday and posting the second-quickest time in the first practice, Jeff Gordon slipped to sixth in Happy Hour.
Pole-sitter Bobby Labonte and teammate Tony Stewart both fell off considerably from the first to second practices. Labonte ranked fifth in the morning, but dropped 15th in the weekend's final practice.
Stewart, who was laser-quick in race trim here during testing, fell from fourth in the morning to 26th in Happy Hour.
Last year's Vegas winner, Sterling Marlin, ranked 20th, while Jeff Burton, the only driver to have achieved multiple victories here, was 17th. There were no accidents in either practice.
The UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 gets underway Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET (FOX TV, PRN Radio).
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