Viewer's Guide: Vegas

If you've been checking in on our site over the past few days, you're well aware of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s recent ride with the Navy's Blue Angels, a flight demonstration crew.

	Inside the Numbers Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Cup career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Year Start Finish 2000 3 10 2001 32 23 2002 35 16 2003 4 2 2004 26 35 2005 34 42 Average 22.3 21.3

FOX will give you another look at it as part of its pre-race show from Las Vegas on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET. Jeff Hammond went along on the trip with Junior and Earnhardt's Busch Series driver, Mark McFarland.

"That is the roller coaster that they can't build," Earnhardt Jr. said of the ride. "I thought we pulled a lot of G's at places like Bristol and Atlanta, but riding with these guys gives you a new perspective."

One thing Earnhardt Jr. would like a new perspective on is Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Junior has one top-five finish in seven starts there. What's more, he hasn't gotten above 35th in either of his past two starts there.

"It used to be a pretty decent track for us," Earnhardt said. "I know you're only as good as your last race, but man, it wasn't too long ago that we were knocking on the door to some wins there.

"Every time we ran there in the Busch Series, we were a solid top-five team," he said. "We went in as Nextel Cup rookies in 2000, led a bunch of laps and finished 10th. Then, a few years ago we finished second to Matt [Kenseth]. I was pretty happy. But the last two or three years we struggled quite a bit.

Earnhardt is confident his run of bad luck will change this weekend.

"I think we're on our way to getting back in the game. [Crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. has been working real hard, and I'm working real hard to give him the best feedback I can possibly give. I know if we can get through this race, we'll be looking pretty good [in the point standings]. We've won at eight of the next nine tracks on the schedule after Vegas."

Kurt Busch, Robby Gordon and actor/singer John Schneider (the original Bo Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard TV show are the scheduled guests for this week's live edition of Trackside from Vegas (8:30 p.m. ET). This week, the SPEED stage will be outside the Main Grandstand behind the Petty Grandstands

Speaking of SPEED, the network has extended its order with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his newly formed production company, Hammerhead Entertainment, for eight more episodes of the new series Back in the Day, a modern adaptation of the vintage race program Car and Track.

"This is the right show on the right network at the right time," said Robert Ecker, SPEED VP of Programming. "The decision to place the full-season order was a virtual no-brainer. Dale Jr's obvious affection for the material and his clever approach to presenting it instantly and understandably struck a responsive chord with the audience. We are eager to respond to the demand for additional episodes as quickly as we possibly can."

Back in the Day made its debut during Daytona Speedweeks on Feb. 13 and drew an average Nielsen rating of .59 (387,000 households).

The show, now contracted for 13 episodes, settles into its regular time slot on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.

The early ratings news has not been good for FOX. It's debut race from Fontana drew a 7.4 final rating with roughly 12.5 million viewers. The rating is down from 7.6 last year.

Last weekend's Busch Series race at Mexico City drew a 3.0 overnight rating, down from 3.7 a year ago.

In this week's "Ask the Producer" question, Shawn Davis from Parts Unknown has a suggestion for the FOX guys.

	NASCAR on FOX producer Neil Goldberg
	E-MAIL •   Send Mark your take or an "Ask The Producer" question

The last 10-15 laps of a race are usually really hectic and involve lots of position changes throughout the field and particularly the top 10. I know you must stay with the leaders during this time and I don't blame you. However, do you think it would be possible to put a leaderboard on the screen like the scoring pylon instead of scrolling names for the last 10-15 laps.

NASCAR on FOX producer Neil Goldberg responded by saying that the network has considered the idea.

"Thanks for the kind words and the suggestion," Goldberg said. "What we have discovered is that a scoring pylon as large as a top 5-10 really covers up important screen space. It covers up on board camera shots, the low robotic cameras mounted on the walls and make every cameraman frame their camera shot as to not cover up the cars themselves.

"It would really alter how Director Artie Kempner would have to cut the race coverage. It is for all these reasons we went to the crawl across the top of the screen.

"We hope that our coverage along with a crawl that cycles through regularly can meet all our viewers needs."

Now on to this weekend's schedule.

Nextel Cup Series: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• 1.5-mile oval
• 12-degree banking in turns
• 9-degree banking on frontstretch
• 3-degree banking on backstretch
• Length of frontstretch: 2,275 feet
• Length of backstretch: 1,572 feet

TV schedule (All times ET)

2005 FlashbackCheck out all the highlights from last year's Vegas race Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

• NASCAR Live: 6 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Bud Pole Qualifying: 6:30 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Trackside: 8:30 p.m. Fri, SPEED
• NASCAR Live: 12:30, 1:30, 2:30 p.m. Sat., SPEED
• Final Practice: 5 p.m. Sat., FX (tape delayed)
• NASCAR Raceday: 11 a.m. Sun., SPEED
• Pre-race: 4 p.m. Sun., FOX
• Race: 4:30 p.m. Sun., FOX

One year ago, Jimmie Johnson ended the Roush Racing stranglehold at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, spoiling what could have been a banner day for hometown boys Kurt and Kyle Busch by beating them both to win.

The most recent checkered flag went to Matt Kenseth, who completed the weekend trifecta for Roush Racing at California by winning the Auto Club 500. Four Roush drivers finished in the top nine Sunday, and Greg Biffle was dominating before his engine gave out with 21 laps remaining.

Keep an eye on Roush Racing. The Roushkateers have won five of the eight Cup races at Las Vegas, and the organization's dean, Mark Martin, leads all drivers with six top-10 finishes there.

Martin won the first Las Vegas event in 1998. Then-Roush driver Jeff Burton won back-to-back events in 1999 and 2000. Former series champion Matt Kenseth also won back-to-back races in 2003 and 2004.

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• 1.5-mile oval
• 12-degree banking in turns
• 9-degree banking on frontstretch
• 3-degree banking on backstretch
• Length of frontstretch: 2,275 feet
• Length of backstretch: 1,572 feet

Race length: 200 laps/300 miles

2005 FlashbackGet another look at yet another NBS win for Mark Martin Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

TV schedule (All times ET)

• Busch Pole Qualifying: 4:30 p.m. Sat., SPEED (tape)
• Race: 6 p.m. Sat., FX

One year ago, Mark Martin passed David Stremme just after the final restart and hung on to win.

The most recent checkered flag went to Denny Hamlin, who held off a hard-charging Boris Said on a restart with two laps to go to win Sunday's Telcel-Motorola 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course.

Keep an eye on Kevin Harvick. The 2001 Busch Series champion has one win and two second-place finishes in his last three series races at Las Vegas.

The Domino's Viewer's Guide appears each Thursday during race weeks.