The NASCAR Nationwide Sereis 'Sam's Town 300' Race

The NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway started with Elliott Sadler leading the pack early in the race but the crowd thinned out, as they usually do.

What was noticeable was the bounce the cars were experiencing going into and through turns one and two and into the back-stretch.  Dang, when did the track get that bumpy?

As you might know, I'm more or less chronicling the experiences of Austin Dillon and Danica Patrick as they tackle their first full season in the Nationwide Series division!  Check it out...

In the early going, (less than ten laps in), Austin Dillon was 5th, Kyle Busch 12th and Danica Patrick was 14th.

The first caution around lap 10 was for a solo spin.  Later on, Kyle Busch was the solo-car spin.

Lap 40ish saw Dillon around 5th still and Patrick in 19th.

Joey Gase pulled out the third caution...

Mean while, in the garage, Kyle Busch had smacked the wall during his solo spin earlier and was still in there on lap 67 getting pieces and parts fixed.

Lap 70ish, Dillon was 7th, Hornish Jr 11th, Patrick was 16th.

Jennifer Jo Cobb had a caution come from her solo tire-smoker.

Brian Scott WAS 6th, but then near midway of the race, spun it up into the outside wall.  Hard.

The lap 100 restart saw Dillon 6th, Patrick 10th, K. Wallace 13th.  (Kenny only has sponsor money for a few more races before his team has to fold it up.)

Lap 130 is when we learned that Brad Keselowski was having fueling issues and he ran out of gas under green... coasting to his pit stall.  And then he could not get it restarted after pitting.

A debris caution took place just short of the 150 lap mark.

The lap 160 restart had Ricky Stenhouse Jr. leading the pack, Austin Dillon restarting 3rd, Danica Patrick 6th and Sam Hornish Jr was 9th.

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With around 30ish laps to go, there were a few late pit stops, Patrick being one of them, taking her away from being near the top-5.

As the laps wore down, it was apparent that unless the hand of fate reached down and intervened, it was Stenhouse Jr.'s race... 

At the finish, it was Stenhouse Jr. 5 seconds in front of Mark Martin, then Elliott Sadler, Trevor Bayne and Gaughan in the No. 33.

Austin Dillon finished 7th across the start/finish line, Sam Hornish Jr 9th, and Danica Patrick pulled off a 12th place finish.  Check it out at NASCAR.com for more Results.

-Bruce