This Week in Auto Racing February 27 - March 1

This Week in Auto Racing February 27 - March 1

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - NASCAR heads to "The Entertainment Capital of the World" as Matt Kenseth attempts the trifecta in Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Sprint Cup Series

Shelby 427 - Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

With victories in the Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500 at California, Kenseth became just the fifth driver to start the Sprint Cup Series season two-for- two. Kenseth has an opportunity to make NASCAR history this weekend, as no driver has ever won the first three races of the year.

Kenseth's win last Sunday at California marked Roush Fenway Racing's fifth consecutive victory in the February race at the two-mile oval.

Roush Fenway has been dominant at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as well, with the team's six victories tops compared to Hendrick Motorsports' four wins since the series started racing there in 1998.

Kenseth heads to Las Vegas with an already comfortable 81-point lead over Jeff Gordon in the championship standings. He won back-to-back races at the 1.5- mile oval from 2003-04.

Gordon, who is coming off a second-place finish at California, is eager to snap his winless streak, which now stretches to 43 races.

"I can't wait to get to Las Vegas," Gordon said.

Last year, Gordon was running fourth on a restart when he lost control of his car exiting turn two at Las Vegas. He slid into the inside retaining wall and made hard impact in an area that had no Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) wall. Gordon ended up finishing 35th after his horrifying crash.

"I heard the track installed a SAFER barrier there," he said. "To be honest, I never noticed that area of the track before last year. The first time I noticed it was when I was about to slam into it. But I'm not so concerned about it going back."

Gordon won at Las Vegas in 2001, the same year he captured his fourth Cup championship.

Carl Edwards is the defending race winner. Edwards overcame a pit-road penalty during the mid-stages and then held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. on two late-race restarts to score his second consecutive victory last year. The Roush Fenway Racing driver won at California a week prior to Las Vegas.

Edwards has moved up to ninth in points after his seventh-place finish at California.

Two other drivers from Roush Fenway currently hold a top-10 spot in points, with Greg Biffle in fifth place and David Ragan in eighth. Jamie McMurray sits in the 28th position.

Even though its early in the season, Gordon is the only Hendrick driver in the top-10 right now.

Three-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson moved up 12 spots after a ninth-place run at California. Johnson won three races in a row at Las Vegas from 2005-07, but finished a disappointing 29th there last year .

"I think that where we need a little bit of work and help on is the high- banked 1.5-mile tracks, and Vegas is kind of in that middle stage," Johnson said. "If I look at Chicago, we got beat there on the last lap, but it was on a restart, and I went up and took the lead from (Kyle Busch), so I feel really good about the Vegas, Kansas, Chicago-style tracks. It's just the ones with more banking that we need a little bit more work."

Meanwhile, Mark Martin and Earnhardt Jr. hope to put their engine woes from California behind them. Both drivers suffered engine failure in the late- stages of the Auto Club 500, with Earnhardt Jr. finishing 39th and Martin 40th.

Projected as title contenders in 2009, Earnhardt Jr. is currently 35th in points, while Martin occupies the 27th spot.

The odds of Martin rebounding at Las Vegas are good since he has scored one victory (1998) and nine top-10 finishes in 12 starts there.

Earnhardt Jr. has two second-place finishes at Las Vegas (2003 and '08).

Nationwide Series

Sam's Town 300 - Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

After a dominating performance in last weekend's Nationwide race at California, which he led 143 of 150 laps, Kyle Busch returns to his home track looking for another win in the series.

Unfortunately, the Camping World Truck Series is not competing at Las Vegas this weekend, so Busch will not have a "warm-up" event before the Nationwide race on Saturday, like he did at California. The Las Vegas-native led 95 of 100 laps in the first of his two record-setting victories that day.

Busch's bid for a weekend-sweep at California came up short on Sunday with a third-place finish in the Auto Club 500.

Las Vegas, however, has not been much of a home-court advantage for Busch during his Nationwide career. Two years ago, he led a race-high 81 laps, but finished a close second to Jeff Burton after a thrilling last-lap battle. His four other races there have seen an average finish of 19th.

Busch currently holds a 20-point lead over fellow Sprint Cup competitor Carl Edwards, who finished fourth at California. Both drivers are figured to be the top two contender for the series title this year.

Brad Keselowski should likely be in the championship battle throughout the season. Last year at Las Vegas, Keselowski was on the verge of winning his first Nationwide race. He was leading with four laps to go when his JR Motorsports teammate, Mark Martin, triggered an incident involving Keselowski and Edwards. Even though he finished 23rd, Las Vegas would be a turning point in Keselowski's Nationwide career.

"The race last year at Las Vegas was a good morale booster for the team, despite the wreck," Keselowski said. "I felt like that race we all got on the same page and were able to believe in each other from there on. Even though the day didn't end how we had hoped, everyone was still happy with the effort because it was the first time we were running up front and were considered a contender."

Keselowski scored two victories and finished third in the series championship standings in 2008. He is currently 17th in points.

"These first two races have been frustrating and encouraging at the same time," he said. "Encouraging because we've been competitive and had a shot at the win, but frustrating because we don't have the finishes to back that up. It's just a good thing that the season is 35 races long because we have 33 races to get past the disappointment of these past two weeks, and I feel like Las Vegas is a good place to do that."