Busch seeks second win in hometown
It’s early in the 36-race run to a championship. But it’s Las Vegas, so the lights will shine brightly at this weekend’s Sprint Cup event, even if what’s revealed isn’t exactly clear. Perhaps the new lowerdownforce package being tested Thursday for its first race use at this 1.5-mile venue Sunday will help decide which teams already are championship contenders.
Maybe everything will change with one rotation of a wheel.
USA TODAY Sports looks at five drivers to watch in the Kobalt 400 on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
Jimmie Johnson: Coming off a victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Johnson could go a long way toward announcing whether his No. 48 Chevrolet team is ready to regain the form on 1.5-mile tracks that helped make him a winner of 76 races and six Sprint Cup championships. Johnson has the series’ highest driver rating at Las Vegas at 111.9 (Kyle Busch is next at 103.4) and has led 16.5% of the laps he has raced there in 11 starts. Most important, he has won there four times, most re- cently in 2010.
Kyle Busch: The defending series champion is not only a sentimental story — as a hometown driver who missed the race last year because of injury — but also a legitimate threat to win. If he does, he would all but secure a Chase for the Sprint Cup berth as have Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin ( by winning the Daytona 500) and Johnson ( by winning last week). Busch, the points leader, has spent a serieshigh 79% of his laps at Las Vegas running inside the top 15 since 2005. Trouble is, he has parlayed that real estate into just one win and four top-five finishes.
Kevin Harvick: He never had won at Las Vegas until last season — finishing 17th, 11th, ninth and 41st since a career high of second in 2010 with Richard Childress Racing — and the Stewart-Haas Racing driver was impressive in leading 142 of 267 laps, including the final 16. Another strong push through a westward Sprint Cup jaunt could help him to the points lead, just as he did last season. Harvick enters the third race of the season four points behind Busch.
Matt Kenseth: A three-time winner in 16 races at Las Vegas, most recently in 2013, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has led 10% of his laps run there since 2005. He has held the lead in seven of his last eight races there.
Carl Edwards: A self-inflicted collision with Kasey Kahne with 75 laps remaining relegated him to a career-worst 42nd-place finish last season in his first Vegas start in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Otherwise, Edwards has been exemplary at the track, with two wins (the last in 2011) and three consecutive fifth-place finishes.