Resurgance For Carl Edwards
Carl Edwards broke a 70-race winless streak, and Jimmie Johnson had another strong showing and retained his points lead after the second race of the season in Phoenix this past weekend. Brad Keselowski looked good once again as he tries to defend his series championship and Danica took two very hard hits this week also.
Tony Stewart dominates at Las Vegas
Tony Stewart leads Jimmie Johnson during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nev.
Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR
The series will stay out west this week as they race in the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This is a mile and a half track with progressive banking. The third different type of track that the drivers will see in the three weeks of racing this season.
Kobalt Tools 400
Tony Stewart: Tony is my pick to win this week’s race. He won this race last season and finished second in 2011 to Carl Edwards. Tony has had the dominant car in the last two races here leading a total of 290 of the 534 laps run during those races. He should have a car that is setup pretty well right off the truck this weekend.
Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie finished second to Tony in this race last year and has four wins at this track during his career. With a first and second place finish in the opening two races of the season it looks like this team is looking to take the championship back at this early stage of the schedule.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Dale has also had two very good races this season and this is the type of track that he really enjoys racing on. He has four top ten finishes in his last five starts here and led seventy laps in last year’s race. He seems to be a little more relaxed and confident this year and knows that he has a car that is capable of winning each and every week.
Matt Kenseth: Matt has looked better than I thought he would this early in the year with a new team. This team should get better and better as the season progresses. He has also won two races at Las Vegas during his career and I think he will be getting his first win with this new team in the very near future.
Carl Edwards: As I mentioned earlier, Carl won this race two years ago and also won the race last week at Phoenix. This is a huge confidence builder for this team early in the season and Carl will be ready to contend once again this coming weekend. This is the type of track that all of the Roush/Fenway teams seem to excel at.
Kyle Busch: The frustrations continue for this team, but I have a feeling that they are about to have a near flawless weekend at Las Vegas. No team of this caliber can have this much bad luck for this amount of time. Kyle has won here before and has the equipment that it takes to contend every week.
Jeff Gordon: It has been a pretty quiet year so far for Jeff Gordon. Last year he really started to run well on these mile and a half tracks and that should continue for this team once again this weekend. His will to win hasn’t diminished at all and you could tell by how often he used his bumper at Phoenix to move drivers out of his way.
Greg Biffle: Greg finished third in this race last season, but has struggled just a bit keeping up with the changes to his car so far this season. However, he is another of the Roush/Fenway brigade so, he should have a car that can keep him in contention this weekend if his crew-chief can make the adjustments needed as the track changes this weekend.
Denny Hamlin: After losing an engine at Daytona and then changing an engine at Phoenix and starting at the rear of the field, Denny fought his way all the way back for a top five finish last weekend. They will need to find a cure for the valve train problems, because this is a track that can be hard on engines even though it is only a 400-mile race.
Brad Keselowski: Moving from Dodge to Ford hasn’t slowed this team down at all this season. Brad and his crew-chief always seem to be on the same page and make the necessary adjustments to get him into contention at the end of every race. He never gets mad about anything on the track and trusts Paul Wolfe to make the calls and he just drives what is under him to the best of his ability.
Yahoo Fantasy Racing Picks for Las Vegas
Yahoo Driver Group A
- Tony Stewart
- Jimmie Johnson
Yahoo Driver Group B
- Carl Edwards
- Kyle Busch
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Mark Martin
Yahoo Driver Group C
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Danica Patrick
My Top-5 Overall at Las Vegas
- Tony Stewart
- Jimmie Johnson
- Matt Kenseth
- Carl Edwards
- Kyle Busch
Dark Horse: Marcos Ambrose
Stay Away From: Paul Menard
My Martin pick looked good untill the gas tank went empty. I talked to Mark and he just pulled over for a nap. Ice fishing is great in Forest County and so is my sleeper pick for Vegas. Biffle!!!!
Howdy Jeff,
do you think waiting on using Ricky Stenhouse Jr till later in the season would be a good idea? I’m thinking he’ll just get better as the season goes on.
I also think that he will get better as the season progresses, but there aren’t a lot of real good choices in the C group. You have to check the entry list an Tuesday and see who is entered in what races this season to make your pick in that group.