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Lucky number seven of the 10 races in Vegas’ history have been won by three drivers — Jimmie Johnson (’07, ’06 and ’05), Matt Kenseth (’04 and ’03) and Jeff Burton (’00 and ’99).

Johnson has had the hot hand in Sin City lately. Although the banking on the turns at the 1.5-mile tri-oval went from 12 degrees to 20 after the 2006 race, the 48 car remained the same. JJ won his third straight race in ’07, holding off Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon, who has three consecutive top-5 finishes (second, fifth and fourth) along with a 2001 victory on the strip.

Hendrick played with a stacked deck, with three top-10 drivers and a combined 204 laps led. Johnson finished first (leading 89 laps), Gordon was runner-up (111 laps) and hometown kid Kyle Busch took ninth (four laps).

Although his daddy had three top 10s in his only trips to Vegas from 1998–2000, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a runner-up finish in 2003, which was his highest finish to date. He ran 11th last season and is betting the new team might change his luck this year.

Tony Stewart has never won here but has completed every lap since 2000. Stewart’s track record — a second in 2000, third in ’04, fifth in ’02 and ’03, seventh in ’07 and 10th in ’05 — proves he is a whale poised to win big in Clark County.

Stewart’s Gibbs teammate Denny Hamlin has only been to Vegas twice, finishing third last year and 10th in ’06. Odds are good he’ll win here soon.

FANTASY STALL
Looking at Checkers
Johnson is gunning for his fourth win in a row.
Pretty Solid Pick
Kenseth won two straight before JJ started his run.

Good Sleeper Pick
Carl Edwards will step it up at some point.
Runs on Seven Cylinders
Don’t expect much out of the Ganassi stable.
Insider Tip
This place will have two races in ’09, which should

make JJ a happy man.

KEEP AN EYE ON...
Kasey Kahne We’re gambling on Evernham getting his engineering department up to snuff. If he does so, Kahne could come up aces, as he finished fourth here in 2006 and won the pole and led 13 laps before drastically fading to a woeful 35th in ’07.

Mark Martin The inaugural Vegas race winner, Martin continues to hit paydirt regardless of his affiliation. The Arkansas native has three runs of sixth or better in the last four Vegas events.

Martin Truex Jr. The young DEI driver has not yet been a frontrunner in Vegas, but he improved from a 20th-place finish in his rookie campaign to a 12th last season. Don’t expect a win, but he’s heading in the right direction.

Elliott Sadler Sadler has strung together consecutive top-15 runs in both Yates and Evernham equipment, with the common denominator being the driver.


RACE RESULTS FOR Shelby 427 (Mar 1st, 2009)
DRIVER MANUFACTURER START FINISH POINTS EARNINGS
Kyle Busch (#18) Toyota 1 1 190 $461,273
Clint Bowyer (#33) Chevrolet 37 2 175 $244,575
Jeff Burton (#31) Chevrolet 14 3 170 $247,281
David Reutimann (#00) Toyota 4 4 160 $194,923
Bobby Labonte (#96) Ford 17 5 155 $174,554
Jeff Gordon (#24) Chevrolet 28 6 155 $167,626
Greg Biffle (#16) Ford 24 7 151 $145,250
Brian Vickers (#83) Toyota 21 8 142 $143,923
Jamie McMurray (#26) Ford 38 9 138 $121,450
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#88) Chevrolet 31 10 134 $125,375
Kasey Kahne (#9) Dodge 7 11 135 $145,923
Kevin Harvick (#29) Chevrolet 9 12 132 $143,728
Joey Logano (#20) Toyota 20 13 129 $151,076
David Gilliland (#71) Chevrolet 30 14 121 $100,225
Robby Gordon (#7) Toyota 32 15 123 $123,235
Sam Hornish Jr (#77) Dodge 12 16 115 $121,235
Carl Edwards (#99) Ford 16 17 117 $146,331
David Stremme (#12) Dodge 11 18 109 $132,665
Regan Smith (#78) Chevrolet 18 19 106 $95,125
Marcos Ambrose (#47) Toyota 5 20 103 $116,048
Scott Speed (#82) Toyota 42 21 100 $111,198
Denny Hamlin (#11) Toyota 34 22 97 $110,125
Kurt Busch (#2) Dodge 2 23 99 $102,525
Jimmie Johnson (#48) Chevrolet 3 24 101 $145,201
Ryan Newman (#39) Chevrolet 6 25 88 $120,529
Tony Stewart (#14) Chevrolet 10 26 85 $100,173
Michael Waltrip (#55) Toyota 15 27 82 $98,300
John Andretti (#34) Chevrolet 29 28 79 $97,200
Elliott Sadler (#19) Dodge 33 29 76 $96,900
Casey Mears (#07) Chevrolet 41 30 73 $104,125
Juan Pablo Montoya (#42) Chevrolet 23 31 70 $122,998
Martin Truex Jr. (#1) Chevrolet 25 32 67 $122,715
A.J. Allmendinger (#44) Dodge 19 33 64 $85,975
Reed Sorenson (#43) Dodge 39 34 61 $122,176
Paul Menard (#98) Ford 36 35 58 $115,006
Max Papis (#13) Toyota 26 36 55 $85,400
Todd Bodine (#30) Toyota 43 37 52 $84,175
Brad Keselowski (#25) Chevrolet 13 38 49 $83,975
Aric Almirola (#40) Chevrolet 27 39 46 $91,775
Mark Martin (#5) Chevrolet 8 40 43 $91,525
Joe Nemechek (#87) Toyota 22 41 40 $83,300
David Ragan (#6) Ford 35 42 37 $91,155
Matt Kenseth (#17) Ford 43 43 34 $129,669
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