Initial reviews say fast Vegas a hit, for some

LAS VEGAS -- Almost every driver in the garage area was using a particular four-letter word to describe the new configuration of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"Fast."

The more than 50 teams who unloaded in the auxiliary garage area Monday morning faced a track that has undergone major renovations since last March. The 12-degree banking was increased to 20 degrees and the pit road was moved closer to the front grandstand, dramatically changing the track's characteristics.

"The straightaways drop into the corners so the car has a real tendency to get loose [turning in]," Kasey Kahne said. "It still has a few characteristics that it used to have. I liked the old Vegas a lot but this track will be good, too."

Kenny Wallace said speeds at the new Las Vegas may not diminish over time, unlike other tracks which share similar characteristics.

"Turn 1 is got a little bit of that Kansas feel, where you go down into a little bit of a hole," Wallace said. "I really like it. It's probably going to be the fastest racetrack we race on.

"I think this track will hold more speed for a longer amount of time. Atlanta ends up slowing up, but it looks to me as if this track is going to stay fast for a long time."

The track qualifying record is a tick under 175 mph, set by Kahne in 2004. For comparison, the fastest time of the morning session was by Scott Riggs at 183.511 mph, almost 8 mph faster than Kahne's pole-winning speed. In fact, 91 of the 93 cars with times beat the existing track record.

Many drivers think they can go faster still in qualifying trim.

"The Goodyear tire that we're on is pretty hard so we can go a lot faster on this racetrack with a different tire," Ryan Newman said.

But how fast is too fast? And at what point does it begin to mess with another four-letter word: the race?

It took Tony Stewart less than three hours to decide that he had already gotten past that point.

"It's just so fast around the bottom. I mean we're running ridiculously fast speeds," Stewart said. "It's stupid to be running this fast in a Cup car, I think. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me why we're running mid-to-low 29-second laps in a 3,400-pound stock car around here."

There can be an inverse relationship between speed and competition. The faster cars go, the harder it is to run side-by-side.

Like most new surfaces, there's the fast way around Las Vegas at this point, and not much of a groove anywhere else.

Clint Bowyer nearly found that out the hard way when he blew an engine while passing Jeremy Mayfield. He was able to avoid creating a multi-car incident but offered his opinion of what might happen when the series returns in March.

"It's going to be hard to race on," Bowyer said. "It's pretty fast."

Dale Jarrett thinks the raciness of the new surface will come in time.

"If we can get a couple more grooves worked in it, it'd be nice," Jarrett said.