Check out a short list of favorites for Sunday's UAW-Daimler/Chrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Jeff Burton
Burton has competed in all five races at Las Vegas
and is the only driver to record two victories (1999, 2000);
posted four top-10 finishes here, including ninth last season;
his 12th-place finish in last week's Subway 400 moved him from
11th to seventh in the Winston Cup standings; has opened the
season with two top-15 finishes.
Kurt Busch
The 24-year-old Las Vegas native finished second
in Sunday's Subway 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway and
climbed into first place in the Winston Cup standings; it is the
first time he has held the No. 1 position; this is the second
straight season he has started the season in the top five in the
standings; ranked fourth in the NASCAR top 10 after two races a
year ago; recorded seven consecutive finishes of sixth or
better, a streak that began last fall at Martinsville; in two
career starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his best finish was
11th as a rookie in 2001; finished 20th last season.
Ricky Craven
Returned to Rockingham, the site of his first
career Winston Cup start, to score his third consecutive top-10
finish last week; drove the PPI Motorsports Pontiac to a
fourth place at the Subway 400; has earned a top-10 finish in
three of his last seven series starts dating to October; vaulted
from 25th to eighth in the Winston Cup standings; it's the first
time Craven has been in the top 10 in a year; has competed in
all five races at Las Vegas but is seeking his first top-25
finish; was 31st last season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Calls Las Vegas "one of those tracks that I
like, and we always run really well there. We have led the race
there every year we've been there in the Bud car, so we're
planning to continue that streak Sunday." Started season poorly
with finishes of 36th and 33rd, placing him 38th in the Winston
Cup standings; started 35th last year but cracked the top 10 by
lap 123; late gamble with a two-tire pit stop eventually dropped
him to 16th; led 42 laps in the rain-shortened 2000 race,
marking the first time the Budweiser No. 8 Chevrolet was in
front for a significant distance.
Bill Elliott
Popular veteran is 36th in the Winston Cup
standings after pit stop miscues at Daytona and Rockingham; in
five races at Las Vegas, he has one top-five and three top-10s
finishes; best start at the track was his first, when he went
off fourth and finished ninth; top showing came in when he
placed fourth after starting 35th; was competitive from the
start last year, eventually finishing eighth.
Jeff Gordon
Four-time Winston Cup champion won here in 2001;
also finished third in 1999, giving him good results in
odd-numbered years; in even-numbered years, his best finish is
17th; has finished 12th and 15th in the first two races of the
season, leaving him 13th in the Winston Cup standings, 100
points behind Kurt Busch; won three races and three poles last
year, when he totaled 13 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes.
Kevin Harvick
Bakersfield, California native grew up racing
out west; 27-year-old enjoys Las Vegas, where he was married on
February 28, 2001; spent a lot of time at Las Vegas Motor Speedway while driving on the Winston West circuit; successful
test session in the Busch car early in the year gave him a boost
of confidence that he looks to carry into this weekend.
Dale Jarrett
At The Rock, recorded his 31st career Winston Cup
win last weekend; it was the first victory for crew chief Brad
Parrott; extended his streak to at least one win in 11
consecutive seasons, the longest among active drivers; climbed
from 10th to second in the Winston Cup standings; one of four
drivers to start the season with two top-10 finishes; has scored
three straight top-10s here; "Las Vegas is one of the cities I
always look forward to visiting," he said. "The track itself is
a great track for racing. It has a real wide, flat surface and
we'll probably see a lot of side-by-side racing;" Parrott helped
Jeff Burton to a win from the pole in the 2002 Busch series race
here.
Jimmie Johnson
Comes to Las Vegas as one of the hottest
drivers in NASCAR; is third in the Winston Cup standings, 33
points behind Kurt Busch; came in eighth at Rockingham for his
second straight top-10 finish; pushed his earnings to $826,336;
"We come off a good race at Rockingham and we're excited to get
to Vegas with the new (Chevrolet) body to see how it's all going
to shake out," he said. "We had a test there that went really
well. The car responded as we wanted to things that were
familiar."
Matt Kenseth
Third-place finish in the Subway 400 propelled
him from 19th to sixth in the Winston Cup standings; was eighth
at the end of the 2002 season; has competed in three races at
Las Vegas but has yet to score a top-10 finish; his best result
was 14th in his first race in the desert in 2000 and again last
year.
Bobby Labonte
After recording back-to-back fifth-place
finishes here in 1999 and 2000, stumbled to 29th in 2001 and
12th last season; "We're a better team than that, but we sure
didn't prove it the last couple of years out there," he said.
"I am excited about returning though. If the test we had is any
indication, then we should be in the ballpark when we unload
Friday morning."
Sterling Marlin
Defending race winner claimed one of two
victories last season here in the desert; "We probably had a
10th-place car and we changed some stuff up on it Sunday morning
and made it a lot better.," he said. "We just hit the right
combination and it just drove perfect all day. We're taking the
same car back this year;" is the only driver with two top-10
starts in 2003; also finished third in Las Vegas in 2001.
Mark Martin
Winner of the inaugural Las Vegas race in 1998;
finished seventh in the Subway 400 to move from fifth to fourth
in the Winston Cup standings; last week marked his seventh
consecutive top-10 finish, extending a streak that began last
fall in Martinsville; has been among the top 10 since Las Vegas
last season, the longest streak among active drivers; finished
last year second in the NASCAR standings; is the only driver to
register five top-10 finishes in this race; placed third last
year.
Jeremy Mayfield
Started all five Las Vegas races and has two
top-five finishes, leading 39 laps; in his first appearance
here in 1998, he came in fifth after starting 32nd; second-place
finish here a year ago was his best of the season; started
seventh here in 1999 but finished 17th.
Ricky Rudd
This will be his sixth appearance at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway and his 683rd consecutive start; owns one pole
(2000) and two 12th-place finishes (1998, 2000) here; is 10th in
the Winston Cup standings; looking forward to Sunday in Las Vegas, where he said the "fun factor" is very high; "It's a fun
race track to drive," he said. "Las Vegas is still a relatively
new track for Winston Cup competition."
Tony Stewart
Will spend Friday watching his World of Outlaws
team and driver Danny Laskoski at the Dirt Track outside Las
Vegas; "There are seven or eight Outlaw races this year where
we're going to be racing (Winston) Cup at the same place at the
same time," he said. "I'll do my job with The Home Depot
Chevrolet during the day, but at night I'll be with the Outlaw
team;" defending Winston Cup champion finished second here in
the rain-shortened 2000 race; last year, he started 15th and
came in fifth.
Rusty Wallace
Top effort at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a
third-place finish in the inaugural race in 1998; followed that
with an eighth-place finish in 1999 but has not cracked the top
10 since.