LAS VEGAS – The Dodge Boys head to the desert and the 1.5-mile Last Vegas Motor Speedway for this weekend’s Shelby 427 – the third of 36 point races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Six of the seven Dodge team are guaranteed a spot in the 43-car starting field based on a top-35 finish in the 2008 owner point standings.

The 2009 owner points will be used to determine the top 35 after the fifth race (Bristol) of the 2009 season.

With two top-10 finishes to start the 2009 season, Las Vegas native Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) looks to continue his impressive streak while searching for his first career win at LVMS. Posting one top-five and two top-10 finishes in eight previous starts, a trip to Victory Lane at his home track would be a dream come true for Busch.

“Yeah, winning at Vegas would be extra special for sure,” said Busch. “Me and my little brother (Kyle) have had plenty of success in the ‘bull ring’ dirt track across the street, but the speedway is where I really want a win.

“Our Miller Lite Dodge has been solid the first two races of the year. We have a solid race package and the new R6P8 (race engine) is providing the power we need to run with the ‘big boys’. A Vegas win would certainly be special.”

Richard Petty Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) looks to jump-start a sluggish 2009 beginning. Currently 23rd in Sprint Cup driver points, Kahne has two top-five and three top-10 finishes in five previous starts at LVMS.

“I think the race in California gave us a lot of confidence and an idea that we are heading in the right direction,” said the nine-time Sprint Cup Series winner. “The team did a lot of work in the off-season to make our cars better and I felt like that paid off at California. We still have some work to do, but we definitely made some gains and I think that will show this weekend.”

Other Notes:

· AJ Allmendinger (No. 43 Harrah’s Dodge Charger) will be making his first-career start at LVMS. He currently sits only seven points out of the coveted top-12 in NSCS driver point standings.

· Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge Charger) currently sits 11th in driver points and will be making his 360th career Sprint Cup start this weekend.

· Reed Sorenson (No. 43 Valvoline Dodge Charger) is the fourth Dodge driver currently inside the top-15 in the NSCS point standings. Sorenson was the second-highest finishing Richard Petty Motorsports-entry last weekend at California.

· David Stremme (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) rebounded from a disappointing Daytona 500 with a top-15 finish at California. Stremme started on the outside of the front row at the 2007 event at LVMS.

· Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) jumped three spots (to 29th) in the driver standings after a solid 23rd-place finish in California last weekend.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP

SERIES POINT STANDINGS

(Top 12 after 2 of 36 races)

1. Matt Kenseth 385

2. Jeff Gordon -81

3. Kurt Busch -91

4. Tony Stewart -91

5. Greg Biffle -117

6. Clint Bowyer -119

7. Michael Waltrip -121

8. David Ragan -123

9. Carl Edwards -125

10. Juan Montoya -129

11. Elliott Sadler -137

12. David Reutimann -137

What You Need To Know

Race: Shelby 427
Place: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Date: Sunday, March 1

Time: 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Track: 1.5-mile oval

Distance: 284 laps/427 miles
Television: Fox, Pre-Race begins at 3:30 p.m. (ET)

Motorsports on TV

(All Eastern Time)
1:00 p.m. – NASCAR Live (SPEED)
1:30 p.m. – Nationwide Series Practice – Las Vegas (SPEED)
3:00 p.m. – Sprint Cup Practice – Las Vegas (SPEED)
4:30 p.m. – Nationwide Series Final Practice (SPEED)
6:00 p.m. – NASCAR Now (ESPN2)
6:00 p.m. – NASCAR Live (SPEED)
6:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup Qualifying (SPEED)
8:30 p.m. – Trackside at Las Vegas (SPEED)
9:30 p.m. – NASCAR Live (SPEED)
10:00 p.m. – Nationwide Series Practice (SPEED)
11:30 p.m. – Trackside at Las Vegas (SPEED)

Saturday, Feb. 28

11:00 a.m. – Trackside at Las Vegas (SPEED)
12:00 p.m. – Nationwide Series Qualifying (SPEED)
1:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup Practice (SPEED)
2:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup Final Practice (SPEED)
4:00 p.m. – Nationwide Series Countdown (ESPN2)
4:30 p.m. – Nationwide Series Race – Sam’s Town 300 (ESPN2)

Sunday, March 1
10:00 a.m. – NASCAR Now (ESPN2)
2:00 p.m. – NASCAR RaceDay (SPEED)
3:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup Pre-Race Show (Fox)

4:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup Race – Shelby 427 (Fox) Green flag at 4:46 p.m.
7:00 p.m. – SPEED Report (SPEED)

8:30 p.m. – NASCAR Victory Lane (SPEED)

9:30 p.m. – Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain (SPEED)

Source: Chrysler Media Services Release, Motorsports

FONTANA, Calif. – The off-season work at Penske Racing appears to be paying dividends on the track in 2009. Kurt Busch recorded his second straight top-10 finish in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger with a solid fifth in the Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway.

Busch raced in the top five throughout the 250-lap event on the two-mile, D-shaped oval. He led once and received solid support from his team as crew chief Pat Tryson kept pace with the changing track conditions from day to night with accurate adjustments and the over-the-wall crew turned in consistently fast pit stops throughout the race which lasted 20 minutes short of four hours.

Combined with a 10th at Daytona in the season opener, Busch jumped to third in the season point standings.

“It was a good night for us,” Busch said. “I felt that our car had a great set-up in it. Our crew did a great job on pit road on our stops with the Miller Lite Dodge. We’re happy. A top-five finish is good.

“It’s an excellent turnaround over the off-season. It’s only one race; we still have a long way to go. It was a good solid run for us. We ran in the top five all day and came home fifth. I think some of the off-season changes have helped. It’s a good way to get a report card early. We have to keep working on it, making good adjustments and putting ourselves in position to win.”

Tryson says Penske teams are doing things differently. “We’re doing some stuff different than we did last year, so it’s a pretty good way to start the season. We still have a lot to learn with this car, but two top 10s to start the season, that’s good momentum. We still have more to do, but we’ve taken a big step from where we were last year. Hopefully we can keep tweaking on it and get ourselves in position to win races.”

Busch’s teammate, David Stremme, finished 13th as 16 cars were on lead lap at the checkered flag. A tire problem at Daytona nixed a strong run by the No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge, so Stremme was anxious to rebound. “We needed a solid finish after the misfortune at Daytona,” he said. Roy (crew chief, McCauley) and the crew did a good job. We were off in qualifying, but made a lot of improvement in practice and the car was even better in the race. I’m really proud of the finish we had. We still have more work to do, but it was a solid run for the No. 12 Dodge team.”
The third driver from the Penske stable, Sam Hornish Jr., ran in the top 15 through the early part of the race before a jack malfunctioned during a pit stop and left the No. 77 Auto Club Dodge team a lap down. Although Hornish was running laps comparable to those cars on the lead lap during the race, he never got the opportunity to make up the deficit.

“We had a pretty good car and should have had a better finish,” said Hornish. “We had a problem with the jack on a green flag pit stop and ended up losing a lap. Then I sped on pit road. We had a small problem and compounded it into a bigger problem. We just couldn’t get the lap back. We should have been a lot better than 23rd. We got what we could out of it today. We ran a good race. The team worked together. I was happy with the Auto Club Dodge and the people working on it. This car was much better than the cars I’ve had here the last couple of races. That’s what was disappointing. I feel like we had close to a top-10 car.”

Other Dodge finishes:

Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) – Kahne fell a lap down early, but managed to make up the deficit with a chance of making it into the top 10 in the closing laps before settling for 12th. “I feel we still have some work to do to catch those front three or four cars. They are so much quicker. From sixth or seventh back, we’re just a little off. Those front four or five, they were really tough today.”

Reed Sorenson (No. 43 Charter Communications Dodge Charger) – Sorenson received a pit-road speeding penalty early. Coupled with a 96-lap green flag segment, the No. 43 Dodge went a lap down to the leaders, but Sorenson battled back to finish 21st. “Man that was a tough night for us,” Sorenson said. “We struggled trying to get our car to turn in the center of the corner. There for a while, the only way I could get the car to turn was to pitch it sideways. For as much as we struggled, to walk out of here with the finish we did is a pretty good feeling. We’ll be better in Las Vegas.”

Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger) – Handling problems slowed Sadler early, but the team rebounded in the second half of the race to finish 25th. “The No. 19 Best Buy Dodge was really missing on the front end,” said Sadler. “We came a long way from practice yesterday, but we’re still missing something. We tried some things that we learned at Rockingham during the off-season, but it didn’t transfer as well as we would have liked to this track. We had great pit stops all night long and I can’t thank the No. 19 crew enough. They really worked hard tonight to get us as much as they could. Tonight may not have been exactly what we were looking for, but we learned some things and got as many points as we possibly could. What we learned tonight should help us get better next weekend in Las Vegas.”

AJ Allmendinger (No. 44 Charter Communications Dodge Charger) – Allmendinger started eighth and was looking to match his season-opening third at Daytona. He finished 29th. “We had no front grip all night long no matter what changes we made,” he said. “We made a lot of changes to the Charter Dodge throughout the race, but nothing seemed to help the car gain front grip. We were so tight in the center that it just killed us. I’ll give my guys credit, they stayed with me and we worked on it throughout the race and got it pretty decent there at the end.”

Source: Chrysler Media Services Release, Motorsports