THE LAS VEGAS TEST RESULTS ARE IN FOR NASCAR CUP

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 01/30/2008

The two day NASCAR Sprint Cup Pre Season Thunder tests at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway are now complete and, as in the case of similar tests recently held at Daytona, any team with a Dodge or Toyota logo on its nose appears to be in pretty good shape. Juan Pablo Montoya, in his Chip Ganassi Havoline Dodge, topped the speed charts overall with a run of 186.761 MPH. That run was significantly higher than the previous track record of 184.856 MPH. The really interesting part here lies in the fact that Ganassi Racing fielded two cars for Montoya for the Las Vegas test. The first car, #42A, topped the speed charts while the second car, #42B, placed 73d. out of 74 cars, on the charts.

Following Montoya to complete the top five on the speed charts were A J Almendnger- Red Bull Toyota, Casey Mears-Hendrick Motor Sports Chevrolet, Kasey Kahne-Gillette Evernham Motor Sports Dodge and Reed Sorenson-Chip Ganassi Dodge.

BUT THE REALLY INTERESTING LAS VEGAS NOTES WERE OFF OF THE TRACK.

Former open wheel star Patrick Carpentier, busy preparing for his official NASCAR debut this year, made it crystal clear that he has no interest in moving to North Carolina where the hub of NASCAR racing is located and plans to remain at his adopted home in Las Vegas where his family has resided since 1999. Carpentier pointed out that he loves Las Vegas, his son and daughter were born there, his friends are there and further pointed out that there were daily non stop flights from anywhere in the country landing at the Las Vegas Airport. It's going to be interesting to see how many frequent flyer miles he accumulates by the time the season ends in November.

NASCAR driver and team owner Robbie Gordon spent some time in Laughlin-Nevada prior to arriving in Las Vegas. Gordon loves to drive his SCORE off road Chevrolet truck and participated in last Thursday's annual SCORE Leap Competition. Gordon catapulted his truck off of a six foot dirt jump and sailed 152 feet two inches before the wheels touched ground again to win the competition. He also came very close to setting a series record. The event was a prelude to this weekend's 14th annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challege which Gordon plans to compete in.

When not behind the wheel of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kyle Busch was bitterly complaining to the racing media about NASCAR's plan to raise the age limit for Sprint Cup drivers to 21. The younger Busch brother made it clear that driver eligibility for NASCAR's premiere series should be based on individual talent and performance and not what's printed on someone's birth certificate. He especially pointed out the example of driver Joey Logano who is a member of the Gibbs Racing driver development program. Busch referred to the soon to be 18 years old Logano as one of the best new talents in NASCAR today a point that many racing observers agree with and added that it wasn't right for him to have to sit in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for three years when he was ready for the Sprint Cup now. Kyle Busch would know a lot about this situation. He was prepared to launch his NASCAR career at age 16 when the sanctioning body raised the mandatory age limit to 18. Also not to happy with the proposed new age limit is J D Gibbs, President of Gibbs Racing, who noted the change would completely erase his plans to put the talented Logano in a fourth Gibbs Toyota in 2009.

The most bizarre off track moment at Las Vegas belongs to veteran Mark Martin who severely damaged his DEI/U S Army Chevrolet in the garage area while doing 20 MPH. Martin hit four medal posts that is used to protect a fire hydrant in the garage area. Part of the problem was the fact that the sun was in his eyes and he couldn't see the fire hydrant. A bigger part of the problem was the fact that a flat bed wrecked was partially blocking the entrance to the garage area and Martin struck the metal posts while trying to squeeze by the truck. But the really bizarre part of this accident involved exactly what was loaded on that flat bed wrecker. It was David Ragan's wrecked race car. The same #6 Roush Fenway Ford that Martin drover for many years. Sadly the left front of Martin's Chevrolet sustained significant damage and the team decided to send the car back to the North Carolina shop and have a new car shipped to Fontana-California for this week's test at the California Speedway.

SPEAKING OF THE CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY TESTS.

NASCAR's Pre Season Thunder tests now moves to the California Speedway for two days on January 31st and February 1st. This test is especially considered to be very important by the Sprint Cup teams because it marks the first time that NASCAR's new Car Of Tomorrow, COT, has been on the two mile, D shaped oval. Test times for January 31st are 9am to noon, 1 to 5 pm and 6 to 9 pm. February 1st times are 9am to noon and 1-5 pm. The Thursday night test session is equally important and is aimed at the California Speedway's second NASCAR date during Labor Day weekend. This race traditionally begins late in the afternoon and ends under the lights so a night time test session is going to provide crew chiefs a lot of valuable information for that race later in the year.

Fans are welcome to watch the California Speedway tests and will be admitted to the grandstand free of charge. Fans who have already purchased tickets for the February 24th Auto Club 500 by this Thursday will be admitted free to the terraces located above the sky boxes on pit road. The terraces offers fans a bird's eye view of the track as well as the garage area. Those who have not purchased race tickets by Thursday can still sit in the terraces by making a $5 donation to the Jimmie Johnson Foundation. Season ticket holders. who have renewed for 2008, will be treated to a special Q&A session with driver Robbie Gordon following the conclusion of Friday's tests.

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