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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 UAW-Dodge 400 (Mar 2nd, 2008)
DRIVER MANUFACTURER START FINISH POINTS EARNINGS
Carl Edwards (#99) Ford 2 1 95 $425,675
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#88) Chevrolet 8 2 175 $252,000
Greg Biffle (#16) Ford 6 3 165 $205,800
Kevin Harvick (#29) Chevrolet 17 4 160 $202,436
Jeff Burton (#31) Chevrolet 24 5 160 $178,483
Kasey Kahne (#9) Dodge 37 6 150 $158,016
David Ragan (#6) Ford 38 7 146 $124,450
Travis Kvapil (#28) Ford 29 8 142 $140,264
Denny Hamlin (#11) Toyota 27 9 138 $144,441
Mark Martin (#8) Chevrolet 3 10 139 $140,983
Kyle Busch (#18) Toyota 1 11 135 $131,575
Elliott Sadler (#19) Dodge 10 12 127 $129,170
Casey Mears (#5) Chevrolet 11 13 124 $116,975
Ryan Newman (#12) Dodge 15 14 121 $144,400
Martin Truex Jr. (#1) Chevrolet 18 15 118 $131,208
Jeremy Mayfield (#40) Dodge 23 16 115 $99,175
Bobby Labonte (#43) Dodge 39 17 112 $134,311
Reed Sorenson (#41) Dodge 35 18 109 $123,489
Juan Pablo Montoya (#42) Dodge 31 19 106 $123,083
Matt Kenseth (#17) Ford 13 20 108 $141,166
Ken Schrader (#96) Toyota 19 21 100 $108,033
Paul Menard (#15) Chevrolet 40 22 97 $100,075
David Gilliland (#38) Ford 34 23 94 $108,083
Brian Vickers (#84) Toyota 43 24 91 $89,850
Jamie McMurray (#26) Ford 36 25 88 $97,350
Dave Blaney (#22) Toyota 26 26 85 $101,508
J.J. Yeley (#96) Toyota 30 27 82 $91,850
Clint Bowyer (#07) Chevrolet 21 28 79 $100,850
Jimmie Johnson (#48) Chevrolet 33 29 76 $136,786
Mike Skinner (#5) Toyota 5 30 73 $82,875
Michael Waltrip (#55) Toyota 22 31 70 $93,833
Kyle Petty (#45) Dodge 41 32 67 $91,522
Dario Franchitti (#40) Dodge 42 33 64 $92,225
Regan Smith (#01) Chevrolet 28 34 61 $89,575
Jeff Gordon (#24) Chevrolet 4 35 63 $130,286
Scott Riggs (#66) Chevrolet 7 36 60 $81,150
David Reutimann (#44) Toyota 14 37 52 $80,925
Kurt Busch (#2) Dodge 9 38 49 $80,725
Dale Jarrett (#44) Toyota 16 39 46 $80,525
Patrick Carpentier (#10) Dodge 12 40 43 $80,275
Sam Hornish Jr (#77) Dodge 20 41 40 $125,650
Robby Gordon (#7) Dodge 32 42 37 $87,930
Tony Stewart (#20) Toyota 25 43 39 $128,839

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