NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
  • Peg It on GarageMonkey
CUP: Sunday Las Vegas Notebook
Matt Kenseth won the Kobalt Tools 400...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 01, 2013   Las Vegas, NV
Matt Kenseth won the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
RESULTS:Kobalt Tools 400

Las Vegas Race Notebook

VIDEO:

NASCAR RaceDay: Carl, Brad, and Carrot Top - Las Vegas

NASCAR RaceDay: Las Vegas Pit Strategy

Saturday Las Vegas Notebook

Friday Las Vegas Notebook


[SUNDAY 11 am ET]

GO TIME — This afternoon’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be the first test of the new Generation-6 NASCAR Sprint Cup cars on a 1.5-mile track. It should be an interesting afternoon.

Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski will start on the pole because qualifying was rained out on Friday and the field was set per the NASCAR rule book..

No worries about rain today, as there isn’t a cloud in the sky over the beautiful desert facility. A couple of guys to keep an eye out for today are Carl Edwards, who won last week in Phoenix, and Kyle Busch, who has been fast all weekend.

Edwards was second and fifth in Saturday’s two practice rounds, while Busch was third in both sessions, in addition to finishing second to Sam Hornish Jr. in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

“I think this is probably one of my worst mile-and-a-half (tracks) and we ran pretty good today,” Busch said Saturday. “Taking what we learned today and going to places like Kansas or Charlotte or something like that where they better suit me — we'll see how it all stacks up.”

And, of course, Daytona 500 winner and five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson is always a threat to win, pretty much wherever the Cup Series races.

HOLDING OUT HOPE — Could Sam Hornish Jr.’s hot start in the NASCAR Nationwide Series lead to a full-time seat in a third Team Penske Sprint Cup car next year? Hornish sure hopes so. In three Nationwide races so far this season, the three-time IZOD IndyCar Series champ finished second at Daytona, seventh at Phoenix and won Saturday at Las Vegas. He leads the Nationwide points standings by 19 over Justin Allgaier.

“Roger (Penske, team owner) has said many times he wants a third Cup team again and we want to make sure we do things the right way,” said Hornish.

Hornish was also bullish on The Captain’s decision to move to Ford this year. “A lot of people questioned why you would go somewhere else after the success you had with Dodge but he (Penske) knew there was a way we could be better and he wanted to jump full on to it and see if we could live up to what we should,” said Hornish.

Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Starting Grid

Rain Hands Pole To Keselowski

PHOTOS: Friday Garage Pass Gallery

NNS PHOTOS
Race Gallery
Sam Hornish Jr. Wins

NNS RESULTS

NNS: Hornish Crushes Vegas Field

Sam's Town 300 Race Results

Nationwide Standings After Sam's Club 300

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.
tom_jensen's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.