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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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Quote of the day: "And I thought learning how to make Frosted Flakes was pretty cool."- Terry Labonte after riding in a US Coast Guard helicopter 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Junior on Junior Sponsor's 'product' thrilling Kenseth's new store to feature racing memorabilia Washington State lawmakers hope to snag NASCAR racetrack Robby Gordon competing in San Felipe 250 Long says he is touched by fans' outpouring of support James Ince ready to get back down to the business of racing Man On The Spot Fast friends Junior's visit fulfills child's dream NASCAR Top 10: Las Vegas So Some Seats Were Empty! What's the Big Deal? Cup Scene readers speak out about the new point system
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Happy Birthday: Teddy McClure,Jeff Almond,Mario Andretti Nextel Cup teams don't get much time off these days. But, thanks to the leap year, the drivers, teams and officials are getting an extra weekend off in 2004, with no race between the Subway 400 last weekend at Rockingham and next Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas.
Last season, with 36 races and two weekends of special events, the Cup teams went from the first week February through the third week of November with only three free weekends. They will still get Easter weekend off in April, as well as the weekends of May 8-9 and July 17-18. After that, it's 18 consecutive weeks of racing until the season ends with the Ford 400 on Nov. 21 at Homestead Miami Speedway. "It's a grind," said four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon. "Everybody has learned how to deal with it. The teams have hired more people and everybody tries to give their employees as much time off as possible. But it's still a grind." After this rare weekend off the teams head west and unlike at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, there appears to be no shortage of entrants for the March 7 UAW/DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Preliminary entries for the 400 stand at 48 -- the 38 full-time teams and 10 part-time teams. The part-time drivers who will attempt to qualify for the race are Las Vegas native Kyle Busch, Johnny Benson, Bill Elliott, Kirk Shelmerdine, Larry Gunselman, Andy Hillenburg, Morgan Shepherd, Carl Long, John Andretti and Larry Foyt. Benson and Elliott both have started each of the previous six Nextel Cup races at LVMS and both drivers have posted three top-10 finishes here. Benson finished fourth in the 1998 and 2001 race and Elliott best finish at LVMS was fourth in 2000. Andretti also has competed in all six Cup races here; his best finish was 12th in 1999. Foyt made his Las Vegas Cup debut last season and finished 35th. Gunselman (1998) and Shepherd (1999) failed to qualify for the race in their only attempts while Hillenburg, Shelmerdine, Long and Busch will be making their first Nextel Cup visits at Las Vegas. The top 38 drivers in Friday's qualifying session will earn spots in the 43-car field for Sunday's race. The remaining five spots will be filled via provisionals based on the 2003 car owners points standings and, if applicable, a past Nextel Cup champion who did not qualify on time. Entries for next Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series Sam's Town 300 have reached 52, including nine "Busch-whackers." The full-time Nextel Cup drivers who will attempt to qualify for the Sam's Town 300 are Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Johnny Sauter, Jamie McMurray, Robby Gordon, Michael Waltrip, Joe Nemechek, Greg Biffle and Kasey Kahne. Biffle and Kahne also are running full Busch Series schedules this season. FitzBradshaw Racing, which is owned by Armando Fitz and Terry Bradshaw, will field three cars in Saturday's race. In addition to the No. 12 (Tim Fedewa) and No. 14 (Casey Atwood), the team is fielding the No. 82 Chevrolet for Busch Series veteran Randy LaJoie. The NASCAR events at Vegas are Nevada's largest single sporting event with about 97,000 attendees generating more than $81.4 million in non-gaming revenue last year according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. As the only official local and gaming sponsor, casino operator Boyd Gaming has been heavily marketing Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series Sam's Town 300, named after the casino's east side property, reaching as far as Southern California to capitalize on the popularity of the sport. "We're not sponsors that just put up money and our name and say, show us the love," says Dan Stark, Boyd's marketing director. "It's about being good promotional partners ... Boyd is willing to put its money where its mouth is." Although sponsoring only the Busch Cup Series race on Saturday, Boyd has been making the most of the opportunity. Partnering with the 36 outlets of fast food chain Baker's Burgers, Boyd has been saturating the airwaves in the Riverside and San Bernardino area as well as San Diego, pushing promotional items, including all-expense paid getaways to Las Vegas. Simultaneously, Boyd's has been looking to break into the local NASCAR fan base, advertising on local television affiliates KWNR and KQOL, with two more stations likely to see the ads. "NASCAR has a huge economic impact," Stark says. "A few years ago, we had a hard time to get people just to look at it. But it is an event you have to build ... But by the weekend, it will seem like everyone is sponsoring it (as other properties put out signage)." Boyd has used its marketing muscle to promote the lesser-known Busch Cup Series race. The company is working numerous appearances by driver's at the company properties and will once again host the NASCAR Driver's Auction at Sam's Town Live! "The Busch Series race has worked great for us," Stark says. "It's a symbiotic relationship. It works for them and works for us. For Sam's Town, it's great exposure. It's an opportunity to bring our best customers to Sam's Town as well as new and local customer. The challenge is to leverage that beyond one weekend."
Meanwhile, the Busch family, Las Vegas natives, are getting ready for a milestone. If things go as planned, Tom Busch will get to watch Kyle and Kurt go head-to-head March 7 in the Nextel Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Tom Busch is living a dream, watching his boys make a career out of driving race cars. "I knew they loved it as much as I did, but to make it their life's work, no, that wasn't what I expected," said Busch, who used most of the proceeds from 20 years as a tool distributor to race. Now the elder Busch is working for Hendrick Motorsports in its research and development department, and, more important, acting as a spotter for Kyle, now 18 and in his first full season in NASCAR's Busch Series. The last time the brothers drove against each was in 1999 in Dwarf and Legends cars on the 3/8-mile paved Bullring oval outside the Las Vegas track. "At that level we had our Legend cars pretty well scienced out and we could run 1-2 most every week, so we had to challenge one another for wins," Kurt said. "Now, within the Nextel Cup ranks, it's going to be another 41 other drivers plus us two, so there are many more variables. "It will be fun. Maybe we'll have a chance to run side-by-side for a little bit and get some pictures out of it. I think it would be nice to say we raced each other in his first race, but anything can happen." Kurt is already an established star in NASCAR's top stock car series at the age of 25, but Kyle is just getting started. "I didn't expect to be racing against Kurt so soon, but I'm excited to do it, especially at home," Kyle said. "That is going to be a special weekend for me and my entire family." Kyle would have been in NASCAR sooner if not for a ruling late in 2001 that a driver had to be 18 to compete in its top three series. He turned 18 last May and spent the rest of the year running part-time schedules in ARCA and Busch. Kyle finished second twice and had five top 10 finishes in seven Busch starts in 2003, as well as winning two of seven ARCA starts. So far this year, he won the ARCA race in Daytona, was in the top 10 in the Busch race in Daytona before an overheating problem relegated him to 24th, and finished a solid seventh in the Busch race last weekend in Rockingham. Now, Kyle is looking forward to taking a shot at the big boys on the familiar Las Vegas oval, just a few miles from his old high school. Asked if he is feeling any pressure starting his Cup career on his home track, Kyle grinned and said, "What pressure? "It's just another race and another racetrack," he added. "It's to gain experience. We're not going to necessarily race for the checkered flag. We're going to go out and try to gain what we can. We'll have seven Cup races this year and that will be experience for the future." Kyle will also drive in the Busch race Saturday at Las Vegas. His comfort level in the No. 5 Busch car, the same entry 20-year-old Brian Vickers drove to the series title last year, is helped considerably by having his father as his spotter. "The comfort of having your father's voice in your ear, letting you know what's going on the racetrack, is really nice," Kyle said. "I've had that voice in my ear ever since we were able to run radios in our modifieds and late model cars."
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