LVMS 17TH ANNUAL KOBALT "400" Official Race Results and Notes

Las Vegas proved to be another gamble gone flat for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had a commanding car to lead the pack with, but in the end, came up short on fuel for the checkered flag, finishing second.  And it was a masterful move on Brad Keselowksi's part to come at him hard in the last 20 laps, forcing him to use a splash more fuel than he might have if Dale Jr. wasn't pressed like that.

Be it as it may, Brad Keselowski used good race tactics and got himself the win, making himself the 3rd driver to earn himself a berth in the Chase with a win.  Dale Jr still managed a second place finish, showing that early on in this 2014 season, he's a force to be reckoned with.

Brad Keselowski won the KOBALT 400, his 11th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. Prior to the green flag to start the event, the following car(s) will drop to the rear of the field for the reasons indicated: #9, 30 (Engine Change) and #26 (Back-up Car).

NEXT EVENT: March 16, 2014 - 54th Annual Food City 500, Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN (266.50 Miles) (500 Laps)

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Official Results

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES OFFICIAL RACE REPORT No. 3
17TH ANNUAL KOBALT "400"
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Las Vegas, NV - March 9, 2014
1.5-Mile Oval
267 Laps - 400.5 Miles Purse: $6,496,304

Pos		Driver	Laps	Points	Status	Laps Led
1	-	Brad Keselowski	267	48	Running	53
2	-	Dale Earnhardt Jr	267	43	Running	51
3	-	Paul Menard	267	42	Running	6
4	-	Joey Logano	267	41	Running	44
5	-	Carl Edwards	267	40	Running	1
6	-	Jimmie Johnson	267	39	Running	34
7	-	Ryan Newman	267	37	Running
8	-	Kasey Kahne	267	36	Running
9	-	Jeff Gordon	267	35	Running
10	-	Matt Kenseth	267	35	Running	2
11	-	Kyle Busch	267	34	Running	52
12	-	Denny Hamlin	267	33	Running	1
13	-	Brian Vickers	267	31	Running
14	-	Martin Truex Jr	267	30	Running
15	-	Jamie McMurray	267	29	Running
16	-	Austin Dillon #	267	28	Running
17	-	Jeff Burton	267	27	Running
18	-	AJ Allmendinger	267	26	Running
19	-	Kyle Larson #	266	25	Running
20	-	Trevor Bayne	266	0	Running
21	-	Danica Patrick	266	23	Running
22	-	Greg Biffle	266	22	Running
23	-	Clint Bowyer	266	21	Running
24	-	Marcos Ambrose	266	20	Running
25	-	Aric Almirola	264	19	Running
26	-	Kurt Busch	264	18	Running
27	-	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	264	17	Running
28	-	Casey Mears	264	16	Running
29	-	Michael Annett #	264	15	Running
30	-	David Gilliland	264	14	Running
31	-	Justin Allgaier #	264	13	Running
32	-	David Ragan	263	12	Running
33	-	Tony Stewart	263	11	Running
34	-	Reed Sorenson	262	10	Running
35	-	Ryan Truex #	261	9	Running
36	-	Cole Whitt #	261	8	Running
37	-	Alex Bowman #	259	7	Running
38	-	Timmy Hill	258	6	Running
39	-	Travis Kvapil	253	5	Running
40	-	Parker Kligerman #	240	4	Running
41	-	Kevin Harvick	237	4	Running	23
42	-	Josh Wise	212	2	Running
43	-	Michael McDowell	141	1	Engine

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Failed to qualify: (5) #35 Blake Koch; #40 Landon Cassill; #77 Dave Blaney; #87 Joe Nemechek; #44 J.J. Yeley

TIME OF RACE:2 hours, 35 minutes, 24 seconds       AVERAGE SPEED:154.633 mph      MARGIN OF VICTORY:1.53 second(s)

COORS LIGHT POLE AWARD:  Joey Logano (193.278 mph. 27.939 secs.)

SUNOCO ROOKIE OF THE RACE:  Austin Dillon

Caution Flags: 4 cautions for 18 laps. [Beneficiary in Brackets]
18-22 (Fluid On The Track [30]);
46-49 (Debris Turn 3 [83]);
156-160 (Debris Backstretch [1]);
222-225 (Debris Frontstretch [47]).

Lap Leaders:  21 lead changes among 10 drivers.
Logano 1-19, Keselowski 20-21, Logano 22-46,
Johnson 47-76, Ky. Busch 77-95, Earnhardt Jr 96-97,
Ky. Busch 98-129, Harvick 130-139, Ky. Busch 140,
Keselowski 141, Kenseth 142-143, Harvick 144-156,
Keselowski 157-195, Johnson 196-198, Menard 199-204,
Johnson 205, Earnhardt Jr 206-210, Edwards 211,
Hamlin 212, Keselowski 213-222, Earnhardt Jr 223-266, Keselowski 267.

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NACSAR 'Kobalt Tools 400' Mini Recap

Today's race was from Las Vegas, the Kobalt Tools 400, in the desert of Nevada.

Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the pack to the race starting green flag and by the end of the first lap, Dale Jr. had himself the lead, which he held onto for 70 laps.

Cautions today included a

• Lap 44 incident with Timmy Hill.
• 73:  A David Reutimann spin.
• 127: Travis Kvapil blew an engine.
• 204 & 229: debris caution.
• 244: Landon Cassill blew an engine.
• 255: Kurt Busch RR tire blew, sending him into the inside wall.
• 259: Kyle Busch LR tire, solo spin.

That that said,

Brendan Gaughan  hit the wall early... no caution, but hard enough to mess his day up.

Despite Dale Jr. pulling away and leading the entire first bit of the race, he had a scare when he started pitting on lap 44/5 when the caution came out... but he got back out in time and retained the lead for the restart.

On the restart, Dale Jr. again led them to speed...

On lap 71, car Nos 88, 17, 29, 16 and 14 were the front runners.

The lap 78 restart found Dale Jr. back in the pack for the first time today, in 16th after taking four tires while many took two!

The front runners included Kenseth, Harvick, Johnson, Stewart and Biffle.

A bit later Jimmie Johnson took the lead from Kenseth...

With around the 50 to go mark, we had Stewart, Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth lead the pack to speed.

With 38 to go, we had a caution and the field piled onto the pits.  Two or four tires?  If any!?  Leaders were topping off only and everyone was ready for the last dash of the day.  (I thought)

But one more caution pulled everyone together for a restart but this restart cursed Brad Keselowski which was a shame... it looked like he might have won this race... but he had some sort of fuel issue.

But now the race looked like it was going to come down to Tony Stewart (leading) and Jimmie Johnson on his tail.  (I wonder if Jimmie might have been saying "Here kitty, kitty, kitty"?)

But then as they got going, the No. 51 car of Kurt Busch drove-piled the wall after his RR tire went away, bringing everyone back together and cooling those tires back down down.  Again.

(I don't think Kurt's having fun yet this season.) 

Again... with 9 to go, Stewart led them aggressively to the line and pulled away while Johnson spun his tires.

AND THEN KYLE BUSCH spins and lands it in the grass...  LR tire flat.

OK, once again, with feeling!

With 4 to go...  Stewart, Johnson, Biffle, Kenseth, Edwards... and Edwards shot down onto the apron to pass the pack and Kenseth gets into the outside wall... the closing few laps Johnson covered Stewart's butt like a blanket, trying to pass him.

With one to go, Johnson can't quite get there and Tony Stewart won the Kobalt Tools 400, Jimmie Johnson finished 2nd, followed by the 16, 39, 99, 16, 27, 1, 21 & 88 cars.

It was good to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. perform well in clean air but once he got in dirty air, he seemed to have a few more issues.

Plus, I was keeping an eye on Dale Jr. during restarts.  On SiriusXM radio, a caller had said earlier in the week that Jr sucked at restarts.  It seemed to be a bit of an iffy talent of his on this day.

But there you have it...  a snarky race recap from NASCAR Bits and Pieces on the Kobalt Tools 400.
NASCAR: Kobalt 400 results - unofficial

Now... we all wait until Tuesday when we'll hear about the No. 48 team appeal decision!  See ya there!

=-Bruce

Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 'Kobalt Tools 400' TV Times & Some Basic Stats

This weekend has NASCAR visiting Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the 15th time for the Kobalt Tools 400 and hopefully, not losing too much money in the process.  At least at the tables!

First up is the TV schedule for the NASCAR weekend (All times noted are ET):

Friday, 3-9

• 3:00 PM First Practice (on Speed)
• 6:30 PM Qualifying - (Speed)

Saturday, 3-10

• 12:30 PM Practice (Speed)
• 3:00 PM Practice (Speed)

Sunday, 3-6-12: 3:00 PM ET The Kobalt Tools 400 live on Fox

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With that said, since 2006, Las Vegas has seen Jimmie Johnson win three races, Carl Edwards winning two and Kyle Busch slipping in there to take one title from the boys.

Kyle has historically enjoyed the pole, having nabbed it twice, brother Kurt, once, and that distinction of winning the pole was also shared with Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, and Matt Kenseth.

Over the last seven races in the Nevada desert, Jimmie Johnson has the best average finish of 10.4th.  (If that's a number!)  But the next few spots of best average finish is hotly contested amongst Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch.

But keep your eyes out for Jeff Gordon & Tony Stewart also.  I say that because if they're not attacked by bad luck, they could be contending for the win, as they are noted as two of the top three who have led the most laps here in Vegas.

Mark Martin has a huge stat in scoring top-10's, having, well, ten of them.  So keep an eye on that "kid."

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As always, thank you for coming by.  I appreciate the visit and hope you like what I've done with the place!

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