Saturday, March 1 Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada

Martin Wins Vegas WreckFest
By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service


Dale Earnhardt Jr. (left) celebrates the first win for JR Motorsports with Mark Martin taking the No. 5 to Victory Lane...

LAS VEGAS (March 1, 2008) -- Before Mark Martin allowed himself to celebrate his victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he felt compelled to offer his condolences to a former teammate and a current one.

Martin pulled away from Greg Biffle in a green-white-checkered-flag restart that took the race two laps beyond its posted distance of 200 laps and extended his series record to 48 career victories, but the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet was subdued after triggering a wreck on Lap 195 that eliminated Carl Edwards, his former Roush Fenway Racing teammate, and Brad Keselowski, his teammate-for-a-day at JR Motorsports.

As Edwards and Keselowski raced side by side toward the stripe on Lap 195, a tap from Martin turned Edwards' Ford into Keselowski's Chevrolet, sending both cars spinning into the frontstretch wall.

That brought out the record 13th caution of the race and sent the event into overtime. After the final restart, Martin beat Biffle to the finish line by .586 seconds. Clint Bowyer ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and David Stremme. Dario Franchitti, Mike Wallace, Patrick Carpentier, Brad Coleman and David Ragan completed the top 10.

In a war of attrition, it paid to be running at the end, as only 14 cars finished on the lead lap.

"I've got to apologize before we do any celebrating," Martin said in victory lane. "I hate for that to happen. I didn't intend for it to turn out that way. But I couldn't stop it, once it started. I feel real bad for Brad, because he was so close to getting his first victory."

Edwards was tantalizingly close to the victory, too, before Martin tapped his bumper and inherited the lead on Lap 196.


Mark Martin (No. 5) slides by after making contact with Carl Edwards (No. 60) who, in turn, hit Brad Keselowski (No. 88) - with less than five laps to go...

"I'd like to be mad at Mark, but he's a heck of a guy, and I'm sure he just made a mistake," Edwards said.

Rick Hendrick, who partners with Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, watched as one of his cars started the wreck that took out the other.

"That's your worst nightmare when you've got multiple cars on the track," Hendrick said. "It's bound to happen sooner or later."

The fireworks at the end came long after several of the best cars in the field fell by the wayside.

For the third straight week, Tony Stewart had the dominant car, but unlike the previous two Nationwide races -- at Daytona and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. -- Stewart didn't win at Las Vegas. On Lap 138, his car jumped to the right after contact with David Reutimann's Toyota, and the two Camrys spun in tandem into the Turn 3 wall.

Kyle Busch started from the back of the field after a wreck on his second qualifying lap forced him to go to a backup car. Busch made a ferocious charge to the front and took the lead after a quick pit stop on Lap 63. He was running second to Stewart on Lap 103 when a blown right front tire sent his No. 18 Toyota into the outside wall at the end of the backstretch.

That ended Busch's bid to become the first driver to lead all three of NASCAR's top touring series at the same time; he retired from the race and finished 31st, but Busch will start from the pole in Sunday's UAW-Dodge 400 Sprint Cup event.

Busch and Harvick leave Las Vegas tied for second in the Nationwide points standings, 42 behind Stewart, who finished 27th.

Despite losing a lap for an unscheduled pit stop to replace a cut tire, Jeff Burton worked his way back to the lead lap and was overtaking Martin for the top spot on Lap 158 when the engine in his No. 29 Chevrolet expired.

Complete Race Results click here

Post-Race Driver Point Standings click here

Schedule/Broadcast Times*

Practice: Friday, February 29 (SPEED at 2:30 p.m./AT)

Qualifying: Saturday, March 1 (SPEED & TSN-alt at 1 p.m/AT)

Pre-Race: Saturday, March 1 (ESPN2 & TSN-alt at 5 p.m./AT)

Race: Saturday, March 1 (ESPN2 & TSN-alt at 5:30 p.m./AT)

*AT is one hour ahead of ET, i.e. if it's 2 p.m./AT - it's 1 p.m./ET...

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: Sam’s Town 300
The Place: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
The Distance: 300 miles/20 0laps
TV: ESPN2 & TSN-alt, 5 p.m./AT, 4 p.m./ET
Track Layout: 1.5-mile oval
2007 Winner: Jeff Burton
2007 Pole: Kevin Harvick
Schedule: Friday—Practice 10:30-11:50 a.m.; Final Practice 1:45-3:30 p.m. Saturday—Qualifying, 9:05 a.m. (Impound).
Year-To-Date Standings: click here

Track Map



Event Stats PDF files unless otherwise noted

Friday Final Practice click here

Qualifying Order click here

Pre-Race Pit Stops

• Toyota Tag-Team: Stewart, Busch Showing Early-Season Strength... So much for the restrictor plate-only win theory. Tony Stewart (No. 20 Old Spice Toyota) has won four races in his NASCAR Nationwide Series career, three of those at Daytona International Speedway including the 2008 season opener. But he stepped outside the box this past Monday at Auto Club Speedway, winning his first series race without a restrictor plate. His two-race winning streak is the first in the series since Kevin Harvick (No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet) won last summer at Montreal and Watkins Glen. Stewart’s chances at three straight are pretty good, too, considering his recent series results. He’s coming off a perfect 150.0 Driver Rating at California, only the eighth driver to do so in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He finished third in this event last year with a perfect view of the thrilling finish between defending race winner Jeff Burton (No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet) and his current teammate and Las Vegas native Kyle Busch (No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota). And the hot start by second-year manufacturer Toyota certainly doesn’t hurt Stewart’s chances, nor those of his teammate Busch or the other four Toyota drivers entered in the event. In fact, Busch’s start has bordered on historic. He leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings and is second in the NASCAR Nationwide Series rankings heading to his home track.
• Woosley First Female Crew Chief In NASCAR National Series History... Cindy Woosley didn’t set out to be a pioneer. She’ll be the first to tell you she’s “all about the cars.” But this weekend at Las Vegas, a woman who has always had an affinity for working on cars, has worked as a sheet metal fabricator as well as a skilled home builder, will add another line to her resume – the first female crew chief in NASCAR national series history. Woosley will lead the No. 01 Lori Morgan LLC Chevrolet of JD Motorsports with Kertus Davis as the driver at Las Vegas. She moved to the top of the pit box following a six-race suspension imposed on regular crew chief Gene Allnut, who was one of five crew chiefs suspended due to a rule violation at Daytona. A native of Kentucky, Woosley has been with the team since last year and has been involved in racing for two seasons.
• Familiar Territory: NASCAR Veteran Mike Bliss Right Back In Top-10 Mix... It hasn’t taken long for Mike Bliss (No. 22 Supercuts Dodge) to get back in the NASCAR Nationwide Series groove. Ranked eighth in the series standings, Bliss has improved his finish in the season’s first two races: 17th at Daytona and 13th Monday at California. The NASCAR national series veteran driver – who won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship in 2002 and has 384 combined starts in NASCAR’s three national series – is back full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the first time since 2004. He finished fifth in the standings that season after a 10th-place ranking in 2003, his first full season in the series. Last year, the 42-year-old native of Milwaukie, Ore., competed in 23 races for Fitz Motorsports and posted three top fives and eight top 10s, including a runner-up finish at Memphis Motorsports Park. His results propelled the team to an 11th-place finish in the owner points, its highest ranking ever. Owner Armando Fitz moved quickly to secure Bliss for full-time duty this season. He also kept crew chief Paul Wolfe in the fold and the two are meshing well early. Bliss has also recently been joined on the team by another NASCAR veteran, Kenny Wallace (No. 36 Shark Energy Drink Dodge). Bliss has run well at Las Vegas regardless of the series. In two NASCAR Nationwide Series starts he has a pole, a fifth-place and 12th-place finish. He has four top fives in six career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts and finished 16th in his lone NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at the track.
• The Director’s Take: Fuel And Tire Strategies In Play At Las Vegas... “We’re coming back to Las Vegas not long after it was one of the Preseason Thunder test stops for the NASCAR Nationwide Series,” NASCAR Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash says when sizing up Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “Teams will have a good indication of what they’ll need for the event based on being able to test at the track just last month. “One of the big changes teams will see this weekend will again result from the introduction of the tapered spacer. It will change the way the drivers roll through the corners and also affect strategy on how they race the event because their corner entry and exit speeds will be different than previous races at this track. “Fuel and tire strategies will also be different this year due to the smaller fuel cell. We’re at 17.75 gallons in each of our three national series as opposed to the 22-gallon cells we had across the board in years past. “The crew chiefs will also need to recalculate their strategy as to when they put on fresh tires. Due to that combination, we may see an increase in fuel-only stops this year.”
• Las Vegas is the first of 19 scheduled trackside appearances for the “Nationwide Insurance Mobile Experience,” which will be located in the frontstretch display lot between the start/finish line and Turn 4. The 75'x75' NASCAR Nationwide Series-branded interactive display is focused on educating race fans about the series and its drivers, while reenforcing Nationwide Insurance's relationship with the Series and its product offerings. The display features various interactive activities including NASCAR Nationwide Series racing simulators along with Motorcycle and ATV simulators, the NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver Match Game, a green screen imaging station, a Nationwide Insurance Prize Wheel, the Nationwide 'Up to Speed Challenge' as well as the Nationwide show car and a driver autograph session on Saturday before the Nationwide race.
• What’s quickly becoming an annual affair in Las Vegas, the Raybestos Rookie Cooking Challenge will be held on Thursday, Feb. 28 at the ESPN Zone located at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip from 2-4 p.m. MST. NASCAR Nationwide Series rookies Cale Gale (Kevin Harvick Inc.), Landon Cassill (JR Motorsports) and Michael McDowell (Michael Waltrip Racing) will take part in the event. Chefs from the ESPN Zone will coach the drivers as they each prepare a meal that will be judged by members of the Las Vegas Boys and Girls Club. Brad Coleman (No. 27 Scott’s Bath-Von’s Ford) took the crown last year.
• Once he crossed the 100-mile mark in Monday’s race at California, Kevin Harvick officially logged 45,000 miles in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition since his first start in 1999.

IMPORTANT: All information, schedules and/or scheduled events is/are subject to change without notice. Please check with the source to confirm.