By Sam Atwell

The Las Vegas clichés roll into my brain as I write, roll the dice, take a gamble, a sure bet, put your money on, the smart money is on, well I have to say that this weekend the smart money would have to be on a Roush-Fenway driver at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With only two races in the books for this season only a Roush-Fenway driver, Matt Kenseth, has been to victory lane. Going back to last season Roush-Fenway has won five of the last six Sprint Cup races. Jack Roush leads all Cup Series owners with six wins at Las Vegas, so picking one of his drivers is a pretty sure bet. Matt Kenseth has two wins, four top fives, five top tens in nine races at Las Vegas. Kenseth is on a roll with two victories this season and could march into the record books with his third win in a row. However the Roush-Fenway driver that has the best chance to see victory lane on Sunday is Carl Edwards. In four starts at Las Vegas Edwards has one win, one top five and one top ten. Last season at Vegas Edwards started second, led the most laps and picked up the victory.

To say that a Roush-Fenway is a sure bet would discount a driver from Hendrick Motorsports picking up the win. Jeff Gordon has one win in eleven starts, but he has shown, so far this season, that he will visit victory lane soon this season. Gordon could set a personal mark of leading 20,000 laps in the cup series this weekend by leading eleven laps. Gordon’s teammate, Jimmie Johnson, needs to get his team headed back in the right direction and Las Vegas could just be the medicine he needs. Johnson has three consecutive wins at Vegas, three top fives, and four top tens in just seven starts. The Hendrick teammate that needs to roll the dice is the 88 team of Dale Earnhardt, Junior. With a miserable start to the season, Junior, finds himself in the 35th in the point standings. Las Vegas hasn’t been a great track for Junior. He two second place finishes in eight starts. Junior and Junior, (Earnhardt and Eury), need to be fast off of the truck on Friday and continue that momentum all weekend long. If there is another horrible run this week for the Dew crew the hole they find themselves in will be very, very deep.

No preview of Las Vegas would be complete without looking at the Busch brothers. Kurt and Kyle come home to Las Vegas to seek their first win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kurt is off to a good start this season, but only has one top five and two top tens in eight starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kyle is riding a big wave of momentum heading into Vegas. He had a record breaking day last Saturday by winning the Nationwide and Camping World series races. In five races at Vegas he has two top fives and three top tens and a pole last season. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a Busch in victory lane on Sunday.

All clichés aside, I think that the 24 team will finally get to victory lane in a points race this season. The racing is always good at Vegas and you can bet it will be an exciting time in the city that never sleeps.

By Sam Atwell

As I look down through the top twelve in t Sprint Cup point standings there are some drivers there that I didn’t expect to be there, even after only two races. I do believe that the rain-shortened Daytona 500 was fortunate for the teams that are currently in the top twelve, but Michael Waltrip, Juan Montoya, Elliott Sadler and David Reutimann will not be there at the end of the season.

My bigger concern is who is not there after two races. Jimmie Johnson has had a couple of bad weeks. The wreck at Daytona was pretty much unavoidable, but the run on Sunday was so out of character for the 48 team. They were untouchable in the early part of the race, but they made changes and never were contending again. Although he finished ninth it only moved him into 19th in the point’s standings. Another bad week for Johnson and the hole just gets deeper, Vegas wasn’t kind to Johnson last season.

The second team that may be concerned is the 88 team of Dale Earnhardt, Junior. After being involved in “the big one” at Daytona and the engine blowing up in California Junior finds himself in 35th in the points standings. Junior and his team, in the past, have not responded to adversity very well. His best finish in Las Vegas was second, twice, but only one other top ten in his career. These two bad runs by the 88 team, coming off the poor finish to the 2008 season should be a concern to Hendrick Motorsports. I don’t think the season is lost, but we will see what Junior (Earnhardt) and Junior (Eury) are made of. We will see if this team can finally, after ten years, live up the potential that everyone thought they had. I believe it is time for this team to show that they can be a contender for the championship all season long. It may be time for the 88 and 48 teams to roll the dice in Vegas to turn things around in 2009.

By Sam Atwell

Goes to show what I know about Sprint Cup Racing. The driver that has just tied a 32-year-old record by winning the first two races of the season didn’t even make my final top-twelve of the 2009 season.

Congratulations to Matt Kenseth for the victory on Sunday night in California. It was great to see Kenseth and Gordon battling for a win, instead of having a mediocre run somewhere back in 15th or 20th position. Last night showed us all again just how important a total team effort is in racing. The “Killer Bees” helped get Matt Kenseth off of pit road before Jeff Gordon on the last stop, while Greg Biffle is stopping on his air hose and losing about 10 positions on the track while he corrects the error. If Biffle had gotten off of pit road in second or third there may have been another Roush-Fenway car in victory lane.

Another great run by owner/driver Tony Stewart. Stewart finished in eighth position and is currently third in the point standings. Not a good day for Richard Childress Racing. The one bright spot ended into the wall when the engine in the 29 Harvick car let go. The highest finishing Childress driver was Clint Bowyer in 19th. Richard Petty Motorsports came back down to earth after a great showing in the Daytona 500. Kasey Kahne finished 12th with Reed Sorenson 21st, Elliott Sadler 25th and A. J. Allmendinger in 29th place.

As for the point standings, I have to figure that there will be some changes in the coming weeks. I don’t see Michael Waltrip in the chase and Jimmie Johnson outside of the chase or Juan Montoya in and Kyle Busch out.

Speaking of Kyle Busch I have to give the young man credit for an incredible day on Saturday. The performance that he had in the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series was nothing short of spectacular! Love him or hate him you cannot deny the driving talent that he has.

Later this week the Cup Series rolls into Las Vegas. Look for an exciting weekend of racing in the city that never sleeps!