Close finishes a sure thing when series hits Vegas

By Jarrod Breeze, NASCAR.COM
February 27, 2009
05:47 PM EST

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Las Vegas is billed as the Entertainment Capital of the World, and in recent years the Nationwide Series has made sure the city lives up to its exciting reputation.

In four of the past five series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the margin of victory has hovered around a half a second or less.

.101In 2007, in one of the wildest finishes in recent series memory, Kyle Busch spun across the finish line second to Jeff Burton after the two made contact coming down the frontstretch.

.119In 2004, Kevin Harvick withstood Kasey Kahne's final charge. The two combined to lead just 25 of the race's 200 laps.

.316In 2006, in a race that went six laps beyond the scheduled distance, Kahne beat out Harvick and Matt Kenseth on a green-white-checkered restart.

.586In 2008, contenders Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards were taken out when Martin Martin nudged Edwards. Martin held off Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer in a green-white-checkered finish.

With those kind of close finishes, don't expect big odds -- a little gambling goes on at Vegas, too, I've heard -- when the series returns for the Sam's Town 300 (4 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN2). Entry List | Tickets

2Starts for Dale Earnhardt Jr. He finished second in 1998 and sixth in 1999 during his two championship years. Junior has made only 35 series starts since but made nine in 2008, the most since '99. Vegas will mark his second start in 2009. He'll drive the car Mark Martin won in last year.

3Wins by Jeff Burton and Mark Martin, most among all drivers. Burton, who most recently won this race in 2007, has finished sixth or better in six of eight starts. The other two resulted in DNFs. Martin, who has an average finish of 2.2 in five starts, is the defending winner.

6Consecutive top-10s for Kevin Harvick, the longest streak of any driver. Harvick's worse finish during that span was seventh in 2007. He's never finished worse than 13th in eight starts. Joe Nemechek is the only driver with more top-10s, with seven.

6Top-10s for Greg Biffle, most of any driver without a victory. Biffle crashed out in 2007, the only time he has failed to post a top-10 in his seven starts. He has four top-fives including last year's runner-up finish.

7Drivers who finished in the top 10 in 2008 not entered in this year's race: Mark Martin (first); Clint Bowyer (third); David Stremme (fifth); Dario Franchitti (sixth); Mike Wallace (seventh); Patrick Carpentier (eighth); Brad Coleman (ninth). Only Greg Biffe (second), Kevin Harvick (fourth) and David Ragan (10th) are back.

13Cautions in last year's race, a track-high. After never having more than eight cautions in any one of the first 10 races, there have been 25 the past two years. Crashes have taken out 21 cars the past two races including nine of the 17 cars that failed to finish in 2008 (all 12 of the DNFs in '07 were crash-related). The first 10 races averaged just 3.8 crash DNFs.

19.0Average place of finish for Kyle Busch in four of his five starts including 31st last year (crash). He finished second in 2007, leading a race-high 81 laps.

The Wow Factor

8Years Kevin and DeLana Harvick will have been married come race day. The couple exchanged vows on Feb. 28, 2001 in a Las Vegas ceremony. It will be the first time Harvick has raced on his anniversary.

The Super Looper

8Loop Data statistics led by Carl Edwards, more than any other driver. Avg. Mid-Race: 5.8. Fewest Green Times Passed: 89. Quality Passes: 107. Number of Fastest Laps: 78. Laps in Top 15: 765. Percentage of Laps in Top 15: 94.7. Laps Led: 132. Percentage of Laps Led: 16.3. Edwards is one of five drivers to compete in all four Loop Data races.

Driver Rating at Las Vegas (since 2005)

Pos.	Driver	Rating	Starts	Wins	Top-5s	Top-10s	Led

1.	Jeff Burton	114.3	2	1	1	1	43
2.	Kevin Harvick	114.0	4	0	3	4	126
3.	Carl Edwards	111.6	4	0	1	3	132
4.	Greg Biffle	104.0	4	0	3	3	11
5.	Tony Stewart	103.7	3	0	1	1	65
6.	Kyle Busch	99.7	4	0	1	1	101
7.	Joe Nemechek	92.7	2	0	1	1	1
8.	Denny Hamlin	90.4	3	0	0	1	1
9.	Clint Bowyer	88.1	4	0	1	3	0
10.	Matt Kenseth	86.8	2	0	1	1	60

• Loop Data Statistics: Season-to-Date Box Score

Blast from the Past

16Career wins for Jeff Green, the first of which came in the inaugural race at Vegas in 1997. Green started on the pole and led 71 laps. He scored five consecutive top-10s at Vegas from 1997-2002. He's made one start there since, finishing 23rd in '07. Green won the series title in 2000.

Series winners at Las Vegas

Year	Winner	Make	Year	Winner	Make

1997	Jeff Green	Chevrolet	2003	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet
1998	Jimmy Spencer	Chevrolet	2004	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
1999	Mark Martin	Ford	2005	Mark Martin	Ford
2000	Jeff Burton	Ford	2006	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
2001	Todd Bodine	Chevrolet	2007	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
2002	Jeff Burton	Ford	2008	Mark Martin	Chevrolet

Also

Travel Log: Las Vegas

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Driver Standings

Pos.	+/-	Driver	Points	Behind

1.	+3	Kyle Busch	360	--
2.	--	Carl Edwards	340	-20
3.	+8	Kevin Harvick	305	-55
4.	+5	David Ragan	297	-63
5.	+1	Brian Vickers	297	-63
6.	+6	David Reutimann	273	-87
7.	+13	Joey Logano	268	-92
8.	+8	Brendan Gaughan	256	-104
9.	-1	Jason Keller	255	-105
10.	-5	Greg Biffle	221	-139