Around the Track: Las Vegas
Jeff Burton puts you in the driver's seat at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
As told to Lee Montgomery, NASCAR.COM
 

Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile trioval with 12-degree banking in its four turns. Turns 1 and 2 are symmetrical and Turns 3 and 4, quite different both from each other and from the other pair. There's a 1,572-foot backstretch and a long, curving 2,275-foot frontstretch with nine-degree banking at the start/finish line, which is located midway between Turns 4 and 1.

The track is part of the Speedway Motorsports family of venues, though it resembles none of them.

I think of winning when I think of Las Vegas, because I've won there an awful lot -- in Cup in 1999 and 2000; and 2000 and 2002 in the Busch Series, when I won from the pole.

I really like that racetrack -- it's one of my favorite tracks. It's a really fun racetrack and it's a track that most drivers like. It has pretty good grip, but not so much grip that you just drive around there, wide open.

You've really got to modulate the throttle and handling means everything. It's just a real fun racetrack.

For qualifying, Vegas is a track at which you can get real aggressive on springs and shocks. It's a fairly smooth track, but just off the middle of Turns 3 and 4 there's a big bump right there and you've got to have a shock package that works well there.

Yet again, it's one of those tracks that's kind of flat, but it's a big, fast racetrack where you've got to be in the gas a lot. It's not a real fast-feeling racetrack, but you've got to be in the gas and the car's got to respond.

It's a fun track to qualify on.

When I say we're getting aggressive on the shock package, it's really an aerodynamic trick anymore. It's all about getting the car as low as you can without hitting the racetrack and getting everything working while it's on the ground.

It's just so much an aerodynamic world, right now. You've got to get the front of the car down and the back of the car up and Vegas is a place where it's difficult to do that because handling is so important here.

So if you hit it right, it really helps, but if you hit it wrong it really hurts you, because you have to be able to do it.

In race mode there's definitely several different grooves at Vegas. The second groove has really come into prominence here lately. I think, with the new spoiler rules the second groove is going to be that much more important.

I think that if you get up on the outside of somebody they're dead. I don't think they'll be able to hang in there with you because they won't have enough air on their car.

So I think the outside groove is going to be really important at Vegas, more than we've ever seen it.

As far as thinking about pit strategy, Vegas is a track that really slickens up. It's a track at which you lose a lot of grip and the cars don't handle as well as you want them to.

It's a tough little racetrack, so I do believe that short pitting will be the order of the day. If you get yourself in trouble not running as well as you need to, the crew chief is going to be very tempted to get on pit road before the leader does and try to get that track position back.

I think you'll see that more at Vegas -- really, really a lot. The tire wear isn't that bad but the fall-off in speed is extraordinary so I think you'll see a lot of short pitting.

We've had a lot of success at Las Vegas, as I've said, but I don't really know why that is. We just took off running well here right off the bat, with Mark (Martin) winning the first race, and we won the next two.

The race that Mark won, we finished second or third or something. Just for some reason, we've always run well there. Matt (Kenseth) picked up on that and he's won the last two out here.

The cars always handled well, they drove well and they fit what we were doing. The track was big enough where handling was huge and we just out-handled most people, and that was the whole key to it.

We had early success at Las Vegas and that let us build on that and change and keep evolving to stay on top of the game.

But having said that, with the way everything has evolved into an aero war, it's totally different now.

There's almost nothing that we won with then, that we could run now. But that's not a bad thing. Evolution in our sport is a good thing and we've got to find a way to keep up and of course be ahead of it.

But it definitely takes different stuff than it did in past years.

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cingular Chevrolet, will take fans Around the Track each race week during the 2005 Nextel Cup season.
By the Numbers: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
 

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend kicks off a landmark NASCAR season for the 1.5-mile oval with its traditional spring weekend, capped by the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.

Last year's surprising Bud Pole winner Kasey Kahne and 2003 Cup champion Matt Kenseth -- the event's two-time defending champion -- are the most likely to add to Las Vegas' statistical legacy, but odds are the wealth might get spread around among the other 47 entries.

The following numbers refer to the seven races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway unless otherwise noted.

• 0 -- Ricky Rudd's number of top 10 finishes.
• 1 -- The number of races shortened by rain, the 2000 Carsdirect.com 400 that went 148 of 267 laps.
• 1 -- The number of races won from a starting position within the top 10, by Mark Martin (seventh) in 1998.
• 1 -- The number of drivers who have competed in all seven races but have never led a lap, namely Ken Schrader.
• 2 -- Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth's leading number of career victories.
• 2 -- Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte's leading number of career pole positions.
• 2 -- The fewest caution periods, most recently in 2000.
• 3 -- The number of Bud Poles won by Robert Yates Racing.
• 3 -- The number of races in which Jimmie Johnson has led a lap -- the only driver to lead a lap in every race in which he has competed.
• 4 -- Mark Martin and Tony Stewart's leading number of top-five finishes.
• 4 -- The number of the 17 drivers who have started every race at Las Vegas currently ranked in the Nextel Cup top 10.
• 4.75 -- Kurt Busch's average starting position in four starts, best of all drivers.
• 5 -- The number of victories by Roush Racing.
• 5 -- Michael Waltrip and Bobby Labonte's leading number of top-10 starts.
• 6 -- Mark Martin's leading number of top-10 finishes.
• 6 -- The most caution periods, most recently in 2004.
• 7 -- The fewest leaders, in 2000.
• 8 -- Jimmie Johnson's consecutive number of top-10 finishes.
• 9 -- The fewest caution laps, in 1998.
• 9.40 -- Matt Kenseth's average finishing position in five races, best of all active drivers.
• 10 -- The fewest finishers on the lead lap, most recently in 1999.
• 13 -- The most leaders, most recently in 2002.
• 15 -- Jeff Gordon's best finish in his last three starts.
• 17 -- The number of drivers who have competed in all seven Cup races.
• 20 -- The most finishers on the lead lap, in 2002.
• 25 -- Matt Kenseth's starting position in 2004, the farthest back a winner has started.
• 25 -- The most lead changes, in 1999.
• 33 -- The fewest cars running at the finish, in 2004.
• 33 -- The fewest laps led by a race winner, by Jeff Gordon in 2001.
• 37 -- The most caution laps, in 2004.
• 42 -- The most cars running at the finish, in 2000.
• 45 -- Pit road speed, in miles per hour.
• 85 -- The number of drivers who have competed in at least one race.
• 123 -- The most laps led by a race winner, by Matt Kenseth in March 2004.
• 146.554 -- Mark Martin's 400-mile race record average speed in miles per hour.
• 174.904 -- Kasey Kahne's Bud Pole Qualifying record lap in miles per hour.
• 221 -- Matt Kenseth's leading number of laps led, in five races.
• $6,101,958 -- Posted awards for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.