NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Saturday Las Vegas Notebook (UPDATE 4)
Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Nationwide series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway won by Sam Hornish Jr....
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 09, 2013   Las Vegas, NV
Sam Hornish Jr. celebrates with a burnout after winning the Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Nationwide series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
NNS Points Standings

Sam's Town 300 Race Results

NNS: Hornish Crushes Vegas Field

[SATURDAY 4:35 pm ET]

NNS: Las Vegas Nationwide Notebook

Starting Grid: NNS Sam's Town 300

NNS Current Standings

[SATURDAY 3:35 pm ET]

GOOD TO GO — Martin Truex Jr., one of several contending drivers from last year who is off to a slow start this year, paced the final Happy Hour round of practice for tomorrow’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Truex had a best lap of 188.383 miles per hour in the No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota to set the pace ahead of last week’s winner, Carl Edwards, who went 187.007 mph in the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

PHOTOS: CUP - Las Vegas Saturday Practice

But the man to watch might well be Las Vegas native Kyle Busch, who had the best 10-consecutive-lap average speed in Happy Hour and was third overall in the session. Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has looked good all day and is itching to win on his home track.

Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson was fourth in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by Truex’s teammate, Mark Martin.

Clint Bowyer made it three MWR Toyotas in the top six. He was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Greg Biffle.

[SATURDAY 2:38 pm ET]

AND AROUND WE GO — Just two minutes into the final Happy Hour round of practice for tomorrow’s Kobalt Tools 400 and already there’s been an incident, as Denny Hamlin spun his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Turn 4. Hamlin kept it off the wall, though, needing only four fresh Goodyear Eagle racing radials to get back on track.

PHOTOS: Friday Garage Pass Gallery

[SATURDAY 1:40 pm ET]

ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO — Kasey Kahne's season has gotten off to a slow start, but you’d never know it by the way he ran in today’s opening round of NASCAR Sprint Cup practice for the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kahne wheeled his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a best lap of 188.134 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile track, tops among the 43 cars in the field. Greg Biffle was second, followed by Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards.

Stick around. SPEED will also televise the second round of Cup practice, which runs from 2:35-3:30 p.m. ET.

[SATURDAY 1 pm ET]

CARS BACK ON TRACK — Good news! After yesterday’s rainout, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is finally on track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The first practice runs until 1:40 p.m. ET, with a second round scheduled for 2:35-3:30 p.m. Both sessions are televised on SPEED. After 20 minutes of practice, Greg Biffle is fastest, followed by Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and last week’s winner, Carl Edwards.

[SATURDAY 11:24 am ET]

RAINED OUT — The weather is starting to clear up in Las Vegas, with clearing skies and only a 20 percent chance of rain today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a 0 percent chance tomorrow for the main event, the Kobalt Tools 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race. All on-track activity was rained out yesterday.

At Daytona International Speedway last month, NASCAR unveiled its new, high-tech Air Titan track dryer, which is super efficient and greatly speeds up track drying times.

Unfortunately, for the time being, the Air Titan is limited to Daytona only. Development work on the device is ongoing, and among the myriad issues to be figured out is how to transport the Air Titan from track to track.

Today is a busy one for teams at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
So at Las Vegas this weekend, it’s conventional jet dryers only.

Here’s the schedule for the rest of today:

11:30a (ET) 8:30 (PST) – NNS Final Practice (SPEED)

12:40p (ET) 9:40 (PST) – NSCS Practice (SPEED)

1:40p (ET) 10:40 (PST) – Trackside (SPEED)

2:30p (ET) 11:30 (PST) – NSCS Final Practice (SPEED)

4:30p (ET) 1:30 (PST)– NNS Race (200 Laps)

DONE DEAL — Lowe’s has signed a multi-year contract extension with Las Vegas Motor Speedway to remain as title sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race here. “Lowe’s is a company with a long and stories history in NASCAR and has been a wonderful partner for the past three years,” said track track president Chris Powell. “We’re very excited that they have decided to extend the agreement, and we’re looking forward to helping Lowe’s build its brand within the NASCAR community and beyond.”

Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Starting Grid

Rain Hands Pole To Keselowski

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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