 |
|
 ABOUT CSD
Race
Shop
Tickets
Fantasy
Garage Opinions
Contact |
|
|
Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII RACE DAY EDITION
|
Quote of the day: “Someone informed me the other day that Las Vegas will be start number 599 for my Cup career. Someone else told me long ago that once you get about 600 races under your belt, then you should have this thing figured out. So it looks like I’ve got one more chance to learn.”- Ken Schrader 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Sadler fastest in final practice 42nd and not happy Johnson strong in first practices Harvick Wins Wild Busch Series Race Elliott has no regrets In the right direction Dodge pondering a post-Intrepid entry Soft walls welcomed, except at Darlington Tire specialists crucial to NASCAR success Riggs swimming against the NASCAR current Zoom Lens: NASCAR Everything I Need to Know About NASCAR I Learned From Judge Judy (and other media ramblings) Cup Scene readers speak out about the new point system
SEARCH THIS SITE: The Cup Scene Daily T-Shirt Shop
KEEP THE CUP SCENE DAILY COMING!
New Raceshop Stuff!
|
Happy Birthday: Janet Guthrie, Katelyn Benson Bobby and Donnie Allison have a business together. Geoff and Brett Bodine openly feuded. Terry and Bobby Labonte are so close they park their motor coaches beside each other. Darrell and Michael Waltrip make funny commercials together. Rusty, Kenny and Mike Wallace pretty much dance to their own beat.
Enter Kurt and Kyle Busch, temperamental firebrands who figure to be racing each other for years to come. The Las Vegas brothers will race against each other at NASCAR's top level for the first time today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch is already an established star, of course, and he'll start on the outside pole in the DaimlerChrysler 400. Kyle, who met NASCAR's minimum age of 18 in May, will make his Nextel Cup debut. ``It will be fun,'' Kurt Busch said. ``Maybe we'll have the 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.'' Kyle, who'll start 18th, has an ambitious goal for his first start. ``Hopefully, we can run up front where he's going to be,'' he said. ``We'll definitely be wanting to run against him.'' The Busches haven't raced against each other since 1999, when they drove Dwarf and Legends cars at the one-third- mile ``Bull Ring'' adjacent to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That was fairly uneventful. But growing up, the brothers had fierce battles with their go- karts, sometimes in a Las Vegas bank parking lot. Kurt recalled one race Kyle won: ``He knocked the carburetor off my go-kart, so I never had any power coming off Turn 4, and he beat me back to the line. He said he beat me fair and square, but he was still under power. I didn't even have a carburetor on mine.'' Because of their age difference, the Busches haven't raced each other in stock cars. Kurt, now 25, was already a rookie in Winston Cup when Kyle won his first Late Model race in 2001.
But Kyle has been catching up quickly. In fact, he got a shot in the Craftsman Truck series with Roush Racing, Kurt's employer, at age 16 and nearly won his second race. But NASCAR kicked him out after a few starts, imposing the 18-year-old minimum age requirement to comply with laws on cigarette advertising. ``At the time, I was very devastated, and I figured, what else could go wrong?'' Kyle said. ``But to have to go home and re-evaluate things and go run ASA was definitely a big learning experience.'' After spending 2002 on the hard-knuckles American Speed Association circuit, Kyle took a sharp turn and left Roush Racing to sign with rival Hendrick Motorsports. He debuted at Hendrick with an ARCA victory at Nashville Superspeedway, then finished second at Charlotte in his Busch debut, less than a month after turning 18. Few drivers in history have begun their stock car racing careers so auspiciously. This year, Kyle is competing full time in Busch, driving Hendrick's No. 5 Chevy, which carried Brian Vickers to the championship last year. His aim is a quick ascension to Nextel Cup. ``When I was really young, like in sixth grade, I was probably wanting to be a baseball player, because that's what I was doing at the time,'' Kyle said. ``As I got a little older and saw what Kurt was doing in the racing scene and saw how much fun he was having and how well he was doing, it definitely set in that, hey, maybe I can be doing exactly what he's doing and be just as good as he is.'' It's a virtual certainty the Busches will race each other on a week-to-week basis soon. This year, Hendrick plans to run Kyle in seven Cup races - the maximum number allowed without giving up his rookie status for a future season. As talented drivers racing for premier teams, the Busches are positioned to stage one of racing's best sibling rivalries. ``I'd have to say that we're great racers, and we're great people,'' Kyle said. ``But there's quite a few people that don't know us that would say differently.''
That is unless Ford's Matt Kenseth is still hot over the furor over his disputed victory at Rockingham two weeks ago. Kenseth and crew chief Robbie Reiser have an extra 40 horsepower this season and apparently a big chip on their shoulders after the criticism of their 2003 cruise to the championship with only a single tour victory. They won here last year and they look strong again. Chevy teams? To hear them talk, they'll just have to wait till the tour reaches Talladega. Jimmie Johnson had the fastest Chevy in final practice yesterday. "We have a definite top-five car, but this is a long, tricky race," crew chief Chad Knaus said. "A lot of weird things can happen here, like spinning out coming to pit road, or crazy accidents. "I think the Chevrolets are a little disadvantage aerodynamically right now and in horsepower, but we'll get it figured out." Goodyear's new, softer tires should play roles, but teams don't know just how. Fresh tires tend to mask handling problems. "I don't know what to expect," said Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for Tony Stewart. "But tires do seem to be a big deal, if your car is off. Here and Atlanta will be interesting. Some of us will miss it." Probably not the Dodges, though. "Whatever they have is working," Zip-adelli said. "Their cars look really strong. And if you've got a good-handling car, you can complement it with horsepower. But if you have an ill-handling car, horsepower isn't going to make it better, because you have to slow down so much in the corners now. When we were off, you could visually see us almost stopping." Chevy team owner Richard Childress agrees. "I'm not going to complain yet, but it's something to address," he said. "The Dodges are fast here and they tested fast at Atlanta. It's something we'll have to watch." As tight as these turns are, camber is important, and thus right-front blowouts are a distinct possibility. "Some guys might have to ease up," said Michael McSwain, crew chief for Bobby Labonte. "Got to take care of these tires. Can't pop 'em." "We're pretty happy with our tire wear," Knaus said. "We haven't seen a big issue. These tires are reacting similar to what we had last year. I still prefer harder tires. I think they're safer, better and more predictable. The softer tires tend to fall off more, and when the handling goes away you don't know if you've got a problem or not. So I don't really like them. But I'll learn to work with them, I can promise you that." Rockingham's scoring problems, Knaus said, shouldn't be repeated here, because this track is much larger. "That deal wouldn't really happen here," Knaus said. "It's not an issue here." But during yesterday afternoon's Busch race, just such an incident occurred, and NASCAR officials, after several attempts at trying to sort it out, conceded the situation had become too confusing to sort out so they would simply let the race continue without trying to sort it out any further. And moments later there was yet another incident similar to the Rockingham scoring problem. That doesn't bode well for today's 400. The driver who is due is Jamie McMurray, the disputed runner-up at Rockingham. "This is the same car we ran at Rockingham," McMurray said. "We made the commitment that if we found a car we liked we were going to run it until we either crash it or it's not made for that track. We've been pretty good since we unloaded. "Our program is pretty strong all around right now, so I'm pretty pumped." One driver who's not pumped is Jeff Gordon, who "killed the wall" Friday Damage the right side of his DuPont Chevrolet was so bad that his crew was forced to stay late and arrive early. Gordon's weekend only worsened Saturday, as he suffered a blown engine in the first of the day's two practice sessions. The crew made changes throughout the session to progressively improve the car. Then, with some 10 minutes remaining in practice, the motor let go. Once again, the crew rushed to repair the machine. A back-up motor was rolled in, and some 12 to 15 crewmen, engineers and engine experts went to work to properly tune and install it. Gordon posted the 33rd-fastest time in Happy Hour practice and will move to the rear of the field Sunday after changing engines, but remains confident he can race to the front in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. "It's a long day ," said Gordon, "We've got a lot of work ahead of us but there's nobody better at doing that -- especially when you've been tested at your most difficult time -- to step up and bring a good finish back." "With the tires we have, the track is aged enough to where you can pass," Gordon said. "There's no doubt we can work our way up there. We've got a decent place on pit road so we can make some decent pit stops. So with the whole team effort, yeah, no doubt we can. I have the utmost confidence that this team and myself can get it back together and come out strong." One driver on the hot seat here is rookie Brendan Gaughan, whose casual betting has become a hot topic and a problem for NASCAR officials. Perhaps he can put all that behind him with a good run. "I love being at home," Gaughan said. "I actually get cheers. I feel like Dale Jr."
|
|
NASCAR TODAY
What: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 (400 miles or 267 laps)
|
|
Date Opened: June 25, 1996 First NWCS Race: Las Vegas 400, March 1, 1998 Qualifying Record: Kasey Kahne, 174.904 mph(30.874 sec.), 3/05/04 Race Record: Mark Martin, 146.554, 3/1/98 TRACK CONFIGURATION Distance: 1.5 Mile Oval Banking in Turns 1-4: 12º Banking on Frontstretch: 9º Banking on Backstretch: 3º Length of Frontstretch: 2,275 ft. Length of Backstretch: 1,572 ft. Grandstand Seating: 126,000 Miles/Laps: 400 mi. = 267 laps |
|
