By the Numbers: Las Vegas

Last year, when the Nationwide Series made its annual stop in Sin City, no one quite new what to expect. Las Vegas Motor Speedway had just been repaved and increased its banking in the turns from 12 to 20 degrees. Those changes, along with hard tires from Goodyear, led the Sam's Town 300 to a record 12 cautions for 58 laps.

But what fans remember most about the race isn't the tires or the track conditions -- it's the dramatic finish that saw Kyle Busch spin as he and Jeff Burton approached the checkered flag for the win, keeping Busch from victory at his home track (watch video).

As Burton looks back at the victory, part of him is still surprised he pulled out the win.

"We had a late caution and Kyle [Busch] got by me," Burton said. "I thought that I had messed this thing up. With two laps to go, I didn't think that I had much of a chance to get the win but I just kept fighting and kept trying.

"With one-and-a-half laps left we had made a dent in his lead and on the last lap I made another dent. I made my mind up that Turn 4 was going to get interesting because I knew that I wasn't going to lift and he wasn't going to lift either. I got on the outside and that was cool and it worked out for us. The finish made great television and it was exciting for me to be part of that win. I think that it was one of the best races of the year."

Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Tony Stewart, are red-hot right now with two consecutive 1-2 finishes and Burton will need another stellar performance in Saturday's running of the Sam's Town 300 (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2) if he is to end Toyota's winning streak.

He should have a pretty good chance because Burton didn't just win last season's Vegas race -- he dominated it.

Those numbers just add to the dominance Burton already had in Nationwide Series races at Vegas. He has an average finish of 7.3 in seven races at the track and he's finished outside the top 10 once, a 35th-place finish in 2003 when he had an oil leak.

With all his success in the city that never sleeps, Burton knows a fourth win isn't going to come easy. Skill and a little bit of old-fashioned Vegas luck will keep his No. 29 Chevrolet from rolling snake eyes.

"The racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is pretty exciting," Burton said. "The racing surface is still fairly new and the banking in the corners are a lot steeper than what they used to be.

"It's quite a challenge for the drivers, to be quite honest, but we typically run well at that track so that's always exciting."

Just the facts ma'am