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We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
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We apologize. We are having technical issues with our comment sections and fan community and it is temporarily unavailable. We are actively working on these issues and hope to have it up and running soon. We are also working on enhancements to provide a better forum for our fans. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
Driver has had success at Vegas, but still searching for a win
Although Justin Allgaier has never won a NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he certainly has a winning combination at the 1.5-mile track in Sin City.
When the NASCAR Nationwide starting field hits the track for Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 (4:15 p.m. ET, ESPN2), Allgaier is sure to be among the front-runners contending for the win.
In four starts at the track, he has never finished outside the top eight or qualified outside the top 13. His best finish was a runner-up performance in 2011. He also boasts the highest average driver rating (106.3) among drivers with four starts at the track.
His success belies the fact that racing at Vegas can be a bit challenging for drivers, especially for those with the wrong race strategy.
"The track is pretty line-sensitive so you have to time your passes well, but it also usually comes down to fuel mileage," said Allgaier. "It’s going to be a great race and Las Vegas always puts on a good show, and I don’t think this weekend is going to be any different."
If it sounds like he’s excited about the upcoming race, he has a good reason for that. After the first two races of the season, Allgaier heads to Phoenix tied for the points lead with Sam Hornish Jr. Hornish holds the tiebreaker due to his second-place finish in the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway.
With seventh-place and third-place finishes at Daytona and Phoenix International Raceway, respectively, Allgaier looks to continue his hot streak at Las Vegas and break away from Hornish and the rest of the Nationwide drivers in the standings.
Whether or not Allgaier wins on Saturday, it’s a safe bet he’ll be near the front of the pack, barring any accidents.
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Trip home might be just what driver needs
Kyle Busch is treading in unfamiliar territory.
Granted, there have only been two points-paying races run out of a 36-race schedule, so there is plenty of season left for a driver to change his fortune. However, after two races, Busch finds himself situated in 33rd place.
That’s not a place he’s familiar with, or comfortable with.
Therefore, when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to his hometown of Las Vegas for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 (3 p.m. ET, FOX) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Busch is looking for a little home-field magic to rub off on him and his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota.
In eight full seasons of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing heading into 2013, Busch has never been this far back of the lead after just two races. In 2005, his first full-time season, he was 32nd after the second race. However, it’s been all uphill ever since, never placing lower the 18th (2009) after the first two races.
In 2008 and 2011, Busch was actually perched atop the points standings heading into the third race weekend.
For Busch, being this far back this early on creates some pressure for him to get back into contention, especially when he’s more accustomed to running near the front and celebrating in Victory Lane. Couple that with the pressure to achieve in front of family and friends. It’s pretty daunting.
"Vegas always means a little bit more pressure — more pressure on myself — just because it’s the hometown and you want to win there," said Busch. "Thankfully, I have won there and I’ve knocked that one off the last, but certainly you want to win there every year."
A win for Busch this Sunday would help ease those pressures, both in the points standings and among his hometown fans. It would also go a long way in putting his 34th- and 23rd-place finishes in the first two races behind him.
He’s visited Victory Lane once before at the 1.5-mile track, when he won from the pole in 2009. The win propelled him from 18th in the standings heading into the weekend to sixth. He’s hoping for more of the same magic this weekend.
"To go out there and to run a smooth race and to have a shot at winning at the end of the race, that’s what it’s all about," said Busch. "It was awesome in 2009 … just the feeling of a lifetime. I told everyone it would be just like another race, but it really meant a lot more than that when I got to Victory Lane."
Perhaps a visit to the "Diamond in the Desert" is just what Busch needs to start his ascension to more familiar grounds.
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Speeds stay up during first practice at intermediate track
Related: Second practice recap | First practice recap | Entry list
LAS VEGAS — There were no track-record speeds turned during Thursday’s test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But you’d have a difficult time convincing Clint Bowyer of that.
“Man, they seem fast,” the Michael Waltrip Racing driver said. “The cars really, really rolled through the center of the corner extremely fast …. The hardest thing is, we’ve been to Phoenix, and we’ve been to Daytona, and then you come here, and it’s so much faster. Initially, your thought is, ‘Holy cow, these things are fast.’ And then you come in here, and they’re not record speeds yet.”
Key word — yet. On a day when clouds hovered over the 1.5-mile tri-oval, speeds gradually increased over the course of the test session to the point where the track record certainly appears vulnerable. Greg Biffle posted Thursday’s best speed with an afternoon lap of 189.427 mph, just shy of Kasey Kahne’s record mark of 190.456 mph set in qualifying prior to the event in 2011.
Las Vegas marks the first race for the redesigned, more brand-identifiable Sprint Cup car on an intermediate track similar to those that comprise the bulk of the series schedule, and NASCAR opened the venue a day early to allow teams to fine-tune. Thanks to its lighter weight and increased rear mechanical grip, the Generation-6 car has proven lightning fast in testing, and a threat to break track records almost every week.
That hasn’t happened — that word again — yet. But Danica Patrick’s pole speed of 196.434 mph for the Daytona 500 was the fastest in 23 years and the fourth-fastest of the restrictor-plate era at that venue, and Mark Martin’s pole speed of 138.074 mph last week at Phoenix International Raceway was seven-tenths off Kyle Busch’s track record. On a cold test day at Charlotte Motor Speedway in December, Kahne posted a speed that unofficially was faster than that track’s record, and drivers at a February tire test at Darlington Raceway were turning laps off the truck as quick as qualifying the season before.
So a first track record for the Generation-6 car seems only a matter of time. “With the new rules for qualifying to where we don’t have to qualify full of fuel, I think you will see track records broken at most race tracks we go to,” said Aric Almirola of Richard Petty Motorsports.
Thursday’s speeds gradually picked up, with Biffle eclipsing the best lap of the morning session, 187.396 mph by Matt Kenseth. Temperatures for qualifying on Friday are expected to be in the 50s, though there is also a chance of rain.
“They’re getting faster and faster,” Bowyer said of the speeds at Las Vegas. “It’s pretty cool outside, and it keeps getting cooler and cooler, so who knows. If it doesn’t rain, I think with the cloud cover and stuff, you might see a new track record.”
Friday’s test — in which teams were allowed to use data acquisition, unlike a standard practice — was an opportunity for teams to “push the limits of their equipment,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition. For the Gen-6, it was another step in the process of acclimating the vehicle on all kinds of layouts. And Pemberton cautioned about drawing conclusions about the vehicle’s performance at all intermediate tracks based a single event weekend.
“We’re so early into it, you’re making a mistake if you comment on the worst or the greatest racing ever,” he said. “The first part of the season we run on so many different race tracks, and we’re so busy, the teams are so busy over the wintertime building all these cars, so when they get to that Easter break, they’ll get a chance to settle in and to look at the information they have at hand, then they’ll start to make those improvements on the car. That’s just the way our schedule goes. But positive or negative, you cannot read too much into any of this stuff. This is a long‑term deal here, years and years and years for this car. You may have the best race, but the teams will just continue to make it better.”
Bowyer agreed. “Anytime you make something, completely start over from scratch … it’s going to take time,” he said. “It’s a work in progress. … the best days with this car are yet to come.”
In the meantime, there’s little question about the vehicle’s speed. Bowyer said the sensation of speed at Las Vegas was greater than even at Daytona — Friday, he could feel the G-forces pressing him to one side as his No. 15 car traversed the corners. What did he top out at? “Wide open,” Bowyer said. No wonder the track record seems in danger of falling if the conditions remain the same.
“It’s an opportunity, yeah,” Jeff Burton said. “… It will most likely be cloudy. I think typically, the race engines are better than a test engine. Everybody has a little bit less (power in testing). So I think it’s a fair shot the track record will fall.”
And what might the new track record be?
“I’m thinking somewhere in the 300s,” Bowyer deadpanned. “Probably not.”
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Driver docked $25,000 for post-Phoenix comments, pledges to appeal
LAS VEGAS — Comments made by Denny Hamlin last weekend about the performance of the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car brought a reaction from NASCAR on Thursday, and one the driver felt right in the wallet.
NASCAR fined Hamlin $25,000 on Thursday for remarks he made following last Sunday’s event at Phoenix International Raceway. The sanctioning body determined that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver violated Section 12-1 of the NASCAR rule book, which forbids actions detrimental to stock-car racing.
“While NASCAR gives its competitors ample leeway in voicing their opinions when it comes to a wide range of aspects about the sport,” NASCAR said in a statement accompanying the penalty release, “the sanctioning body will not tolerate publicly made comments by its drivers that denigrate the racing product.”
"Denigrating the racing is an area that we’re going to have a reaction to."
— NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp
Hamlin spoke to reporters in the garage area at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the lunch break in Thursday’s test session at the track, and was clearly upset with the penalty.
“This is the most upset and angry I’ve been in a really, really long time about anything. Anything that relates to NASCAR,” he said. “You have strong opinions about a lot of things … and a lot of people hold their tongue, and some people don’t, like Brad (Keselowski). But the truth is what the truth is, and I don’t believe in this. Never going to believe in it. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to pay the fine. If they suspend me, they suspend me. I don’t care at this point.”
The NASCAR rule book stipulates that fines must be paid promptly, and that the sanctioning body has the power to garnish purse winnings. But “we’re not in any of those windows yet where it seems to be a problem,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition. Pemberton added that Hamlin can appeal — which Hamlin said he intended to do in a post on his personal Twitter account later Thursday — and the process would be the same as for a technical violation.
He also reinforced that critical remarks have their limits. “We give (drivers) quite a bit of latitude, but you can’t slam your racing, you can’t slam your product,” Pemberton said. “That’s where it crosses a line.”
Asked which comment upset NASCAR, Hamlin said it was remarks he made comparing the redesigned, more brand-identifiable Generation-6 car to its more polarizing predecessor. The new vehicles are intended to reinforce the connection between the showroom and the race track, though teams continue to fine-tune performance — one reason for Thursday’s test at Las Vegas.
At Phoenix, Hamlin was frustrated that he found it difficult to pass on the narrow 1-mile oval. Sunday’s race at Las Vegas will mark the debut of the Generation-6 car on a 1.5-mile intermediate track, like those that comprise much of the Sprint Cup schedule. Although the NASCAR release did not specify which comment the sanctioning body took exception to, Hamlin’s strongest remarks came on pit road immediately following the race.
“I don’t want to be the pessimist, but it did not race as good as our Generation-5 cars,” Hamlin said. “This is more like what the Generation-5 was at the beginning. The teams hadn’t figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you.”
NASCAR’s fifth-generation vehicle — better known as the Car of Tomorrow — struggled to gain acceptance among fans and drivers for reasons related to performance as well as aesthetics. To NASCAR, Hamlin’s comments about the racing crossed a line.
“We communicated to teams about three years ago, I think it was in 2010 in January, that you can voice your opinion about a lot of things in this sport,” said NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp. “And we feel like we give our competitors a great deal of leeway when it comes to that. However, denigrating the racing is an area that we’re going to have a reaction to.”
Tharp added that Hamlin and JGR had both been notified of the penalty. Hamlin was on the track testing Thursday morning and not immediately available for comment.
In 2010, Hamlin was among a few drivers who received unpublicized fines from NASCAR for criticizing the sport. The sanctioning body has since ended that practice. And while NASCAR wants its drivers to remain outspoken, Tharp said there are still limits.
“I do believe we give our drivers a lot of flexibility when it comes to that, whether it be about officiating, whether it be about how a race is called, a lot of different areas that go on in this sport,” he said. “I think the main area of focus here that we take exception to is the product. The racing. That’s our brand, that’s the drivers’ brand, that’s the sport’s brand. That’s an area we feel very strongly about.”
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