2005 Busch Series rookie of the year Carl Edwards finished third in points. Credit: Autostock

Busch Series heads to Vegas for final preps

Former champs, double-duty stars among those scheduled to test

The final test session of the preseason for the Busch Series runs Monday through Wednesday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Las Vegas is one of five tracks that Busch Series teams can utilize for tests this season.

DRIVER TESTING DATES •   Feb. 6: Spencer Clark  •   Feb. 6-7: Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Stacy Compton, Carl Edwards, David Green, Mark Green, Kevin Harvick, Ron Hornaday, Kasey Kahne, Jason Keller, Matt Kenseth, Todd Kluever, Burney Lamar, Jason Leffler, Stephen Leicht, Kevin Lepage, Ashton Lewis Jr., Mark McFarland, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Joe Nemechek, Danny O'Quinn, Jay Sauter, Johnny Sauter, Tim Sauter, Ken Schrader, Regan Smith, Reed Sorenson, Paul Tracy, Jon Wood, J.J. Yeley  •   Feb. 7-8: John Andretti, David Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Steve Park, Kenny Wallace, Michael Waltrip, Chris Wimmer  •   Feb. 8: Steve Wallace

"Teams were surveyed on the tracks where they wanted to test, and Las Vegas was a very important facility because a lot of the information can be transferred to the other 1.5-mile tracks in the series," Busch Series director Joe Balash said. "This is the first preview for all the downforce cars and for the teams to test the new body styles."

More than 40 teams are scheduled to participate in the three-day session where teams select two of the three available days to test.

Many of the drivers scheduled to attend the test had tremendous success at intermediate tracks last season. Carl Edwards (No. 60 Ford) captured two victories and three Busch Poles -- one at Las Vegas -- in addition to posting four other top-five finishes among his Busch Series at 1.5-mile tracks. The 2005 series rookie of the year finished third in the championship standings.

Reed Sorenson (No. 41 Dodge), who finished fourth in the final point standings in 2005, registered four top-fives at tracks of that distance; Clint Bowyer (No. 2 Chevrolet), last year's series runner-up, had six top-10 finishes while Jon Wood (No. 47 Ford) counted four top-fives among his finishes at 1.5-mile tracks. Wood finished 15th in the point standings last year.

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Other drivers scheduled to attend the session include six who also finished in the top 10 of the championship standings in 2005: Denny Hamlin (No. 20 Chevrolet), Paul Menard (No. 11 Chevrolet), Kenny Wallace (No. 22 Ford), David Green (No. 27 Ford), Jason Keller (No. 1 Dodge), who will drive for Phoenix Racing this season and Greg Biffle (No. 16 Ford), the 2002 Busch Series champion.

Other top 2006 title contenders scheduled to test are John Andretti (No. 10 Ford), who makes his full-time series debut this season, Ashton Lewis Jr. (No. 25 Ford) and his new Team Rensi Motorsports running mate Regan Smith (No. 35 Ford), Jason Leffler (No. 32 Chevrolet) and Johnny Sauter (No. 00 Chevrolet).

In addition to Biffle, three other former Busch Series champions are scheduled to test: Joe Nemechek (No. 87 Chevrolet), who won in 1991, Green, who captured the 1994 crown and Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Chevrolet), the 2001 series champion. Nemechek and Harvick are also Busch team owners. Harvick's KHI organization has two teams; one will test at Las Vegas, that of rookie of the year candidate Burney Lamar (No. 77 Chevrolet).

Other rookie hopefuls are scheduled to make their series testing debuts at Las Vegas, including Danny O'Quinn (No. 50 Ford) and Todd Kluever (No. 06 Ford) of Roush Racing, Mark McFarland (No. 88 Chevrolet), who drives for two-time series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports team and Chris Wimmer (No. 23 Chevrolet). Wimmer is the younger brother of Cup Series driver Scott Wimmer.

Although not a rookie, another first-year driver of interest will be Paul Tracy (No. 34 Chevrolet). The veteran open-wheel star plans to make his NASCAR debut this season in the Busch Series with a five-race schedule.

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A pair of teenagers, 19-year-old Stephen Leicht (No. 90 Ford) -- who along with Matt McCall will share time with Elliott Sadler in the Robert Yates Racing entry -- and 18-year-old Steve Wallace (No. 64 Dodge), son of recently retired NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace, are also scheduled to attend the test session.

Along with Bowyer, Edwards, Hamlin, Sorenson and Harvick, Kyle Busch (No. 5 Chevrolet), a native of Las Vegas, and J.J. Yeley (No. 18 Chevrolet) are scheduled to test. That group plans to run a full season this year in both the Busch and Cup series.

Edwards, who tested in Las Vegas with his Cup team last week, continues his busy schedule. He will depart from Las Vegas following his test session Feb. 7 to participate in day-long media appearances in Mexico City on Feb. 8 in preparation for the March 5 road-course race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

All sessions begin at noon and end at 8 p.m. ET, weather permitting.

The next stop for series teams will be the season-opening Hershey's Kissables 300 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 18, which kicks off the 25th anniversary season of series sponsor Busch.