The races this weekend in Las Vegas were both extremely exciting and fun to watch! Here are the recaps from Las Vegas:
NASCAR Nationwide Series: Sam’s Town 300
This weekend the NASCAR Nationwide Series headed to Las Vegas. Every driver was hoping that luck would be on their side in the spirit of Las Vegas. Qualifying was rained out putting #12 Sam Hornish Jr. and #6 Trevor Bayne on the front row. From the start, two cars stood out as the dominant ones: The #12 Wurth Ford of Sam Hornish Jr. and the #54 Monster Energy Toyota of Kyle Busch. Sam was fast all day. At one point Kyle came over the radio and said, “You won’t believe how fast that 12 car is.” A late race wreck by #32 Kyle Larson set up an intense final restart putting Sam Hornish Jr. and Kyle Busch on the front row. When the green was waved for the restart, Sam took off and never looked back to win the Sam’s Town 300 and maintain his points lead. Kyle Busch finished second.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Kobalt Tools 400
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolled into Vegas after two exciting races at Daytona and Phoenix. Qualifying was also rained out. The field was set by last season’s owners points. This put #2 Brad Keselowski on the pole followed by #15 Clint Bowyer in second, #48 Jimmie Johnson in third, and #5 Kasey Kahne in 4th. Early into the race the #5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne showed just how dominant it could be. Another big contender in this race was the #18 M&Ms Toyota of Kyle Busch. Kasey and Kyle swapped the lead multiple times and battled hard all throughout the race. However, a late caution caused pit strategy to mix up the look of this race. The #20 Dollar General Toyota of Matt Kenseth took a gamble on the pit stop taking no tires and coming out in the lead while eventual challenger Kasey Kahne took tires and lined up behind him. An epic late race shootout ensued. Kasey was charging hard knowing he had the dominant car all day and he could challenge for the win. Matt Kenseth somehow managed to hold off the hard charging Kahne to win his first race of the season and the first win with his new team at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Winner of the Kobalt Tools 400: Matt Kenseth
(sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
Opinion:
Overall I think the racing this weekend was pretty good. There were questions coming into this weekends races about how the cars would handle at a track like Las Vegas but I think they did pretty well as we had some good battles and lots of passing going on. I believe that if there had been a few more laps in the race Kasey Kahne was the faster car and would have won the race. It says a lot about the talent that Matt Kenseth has that he had the ability to hold off the fastest car in the race and he did it on older tires. Next week, NASCAR heads to one of it’s most famed and exciting tracks on the circuit: Bristol Motor Speedway. Make sure to read my Bristol preview on Friday and like my Facebook page: Below The Yellow Line: NASCAR News.
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