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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: 5 To Watch, Viva Las Vegas Edition
Richard Childress Racing is the hottest team in NASCAR...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 25, 2010   Las Vegas, NV
Jeff Burton had a nice jump in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings from 12th to eighth position following Sunday’s Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway . (Photo: LAT Photographic)
It's the most fundamental rule of sports: Don't mess with a streak.

And right now, Richard Childress Racing is on one heck of a streak. The three RCR drivers — Kevin Harvick (first), Clint Bowyer (second) and Jeff Burton (fifth) are all in the top five in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings and none of them has finished worse than 11th in the first two races of the season.

This week, the RCR trio and the rest of the Cup boys roll into Sin City for the Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A year ago, Bowyer and Burton finished 2-3 here, with Harvick a still respectable 12th.

So with the RCR squad on a roll at the start of the season, the top of this week's 5 To Watch list shouldn't be too surprising.

1. JEFF BURTON, Richard Childress Racing — Hello? Statistically, this one is a no-brainer: Burton is the only driver in the field with a single-digit average finish at Las Vegas (9.833). He has two victories at LVMS and is tied for the lead in top fives here. He's also third in number of laps led here with 280.

In his last four Cup starts dating back to last year, Burton has two runner-up finishes and a third place. If RCR truly is back, then Burton absolutely should be one of the cars to beat this week.

“The tire test that we did this winter, combined with the way we ended last year, gives all the RCR teams a lot of confidence going into these races,” said Burton. “We are much more prepared and have a better shot at doing well this year than we did last year.”

2. KYLE BUSCH, Joe Gibbs Racing — LVMS is the home track for The Shrub, last year's winner in this race. The younger Busch also has finishes of second (2005) and third (2006) here, so he truly knows how to get around the track. “To go out there and to run a smooth race, and to have a shot at winning the race at the end of the race, is what it’s all about,” Busch said of last year's Las Vegas victory.

An interesting footnote: Busch has 62 race victories in NASCAR's top three divisions this decade, which puts him well ahead of Harvick (51) and Jimmie Johnson (48). Busch has more victories since 2000 than Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. combined (61).

3. JIMMIE JOHNSON, Hendrick Motorsports — Should the four-time defending Sprint Cup champion simply have an automatic spot on this page? Sure seems like it sometimes. At LVMS, Johnson is all over the board — his three victories are most of anyone in the field, but since transitioning over to the new-generation car, he's finished 29th in 2008 and 24th last year.

“With the paving job they did a couple of years ago, the track is a lot faster than it's been in the past,” said Johnson. “I'm not sure what the asphalt has done over the off-season and how much speed it's lost, but that track went from being a slippery track that you had to manage your time and manage your lap time around the track to a place that you have to manage.”

4. MATT KENSETH, Roush Fenway Racing — Although last season's woes began in Las Vegas, where his normally bulletproof Ford Fusion lost an engine at the start of the race, the 2003 Cup champion is usually fairly stout in Sin City. Kenseth has led more laps (438) than any other driver here. He won here in 2003-04 and finished second in '06. You can do a lot worse.

“I’m eager to get a chance to race at Las Vegas this weekend,” said Kenseth, who is preparing for his second race with new crew chief Todd Parrott. “Last year we only ran six laps before our engine expired so we weren’t able to see how good our car was. Las Vegas is a bumpier race track surface than Fontana (Calif.) was this past weekend so I know that Todd and the guys are focused on making sure that our balance and shock packages are exactly where we need them to be. Handling is a priority at Las Vegas because if we can get our car into the corners faster, we can run down the straightaway faster.”

5. MARK MARTIN, Hendrick Motorsports — No one has more top-five or top-10 finishes at Las Vegas than Martin, who won the first Cup race here in 1998. The ageless won also has three NASCAR Nationwide victories at Vegas as well.

“When I won here made that day was so cool. It was the first time the Cup Series raced at Las Vegas. I don’t think the win really sank in at first. I’m trying to really appreciate wins more because you don’t know if there will be a next one. And that night, after all the post-race stuff was over, we helicoptered out of the track. The Strip was all lit up and it was just an incredible sight. I remember sitting in the helicopter and letting that win sink in.”

AVOID THIS WEEK — Juan Pablo Montoya best finish at Vegas is 19th, while Martin Truex Jr. has never finished better than 12th here.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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