Las Vegas Motor Speedway Recap

Carl Edwards Mid Back Flip (Picture from Google)

The Cup Series headed west this weekend to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Kobalt Tools 400.   Matt Kenseth claimed the Pole, setting a new track record.  When the pace laps were over, Matt led the field to the Green Flag.  On Lap 3, Greg Biffle passed Kenseth for the lead.   Keeping with the Las Vegas Motor Speedway tradition of having a caution within the first ten laps, Robby Gordon was sure to keep it going after spinning on Lap 8 in Turn Four.  Four laps later, on Lap 12, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya led the field to the Green after the rest of the field pitted.  Jeff unfortunately couldn’t lead a lap because by Lap 13, Tony Stewart took the lead.  The Green Flag didn’t last long; by Lap 15, the second caution came out when Andy Lally, in the No. 71, spun out. Once again, Tony Stewart restarted first and led until Lap 96, when he had to give up a 6.5 second lead over the rest of the field because Kyle Busch blew a tire and hit the wall. 

What happened to the long Green Flag runs?  Lap 101 came and went because on Lap 102 Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne brought out the fourth caution of the day.  When the restart came on Lap 106, Tony Stewart once again led; this time followed by Carl Edwards.  On Lap 149, David Gilliland’s tire goes down and he hits the wall and is done for the day.  This time on Lap 156, it was Carl Edwards’ chance to lead the field back to the Green Flag.  Carl held onto the lead for about forty laps before Jeff Gordon cut a tire and hit the wall in Turn Four.   Tony Stewart led the field back to Green, but on Lap 244, Cousin Carl snatched the lead away and by Lap 200, Carl opened a lead up of 2.2 seconds. 

As the Checkered Flag waved, Carl held onto his lead over Tony Stewart and won the Kobalt Tools 400!  Tony, who took two tires all race long, which worked, decided on the last pit stop to take four tires, which cost him the win.  The fastest lap of the race was set on Lap 36 at 204 mph, so much for trying to slow the cars down!