Kenseth Strikes Gold in Vegas!
by. rob elting march 2/03
Las Vegas Motor Speedway| 400 Miles | 267 Laps | Mar. 2, 2003
Matt Kenseth showing that he and his Dewalt team were ready to win, started digging early in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas,and stuck gold as the laps ran out to win by a 9 second gap over Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Mike Waltrip, Bobby Labonte, and Tony Stewart rounded out the rest of the top 5.
Mark Martin, the only driver to finish in the top 10 in each of the previous five Winston Cup races at Las Vegas, blew an engine on lap 116 of the race. Martin won the first Cup race at Vegas Motor Speedway in 1998, and was second to Jeff Burton in laps led. The Roush Racing driver had completed all 1,216 laps at the 1.5-mile track, but he finished last in Sunday's race. He had a poor run going as it was, running outside the top 25.
Mike Skinner took the blame for a hard crash that took out several cars, including Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, and Kurt Busch."Rusty jumped up on the outside of me," Skinner said. "I felt the back of the car coming around a little bit, and I got a little loose. I got into Rusty and caused the wreck. It was my fault, as far as I know.
Rusty said " I`m passing the car on the outside going into 1, and I don't know if I just didn't give him enough room, or else his front end pushed up or he got loose or whatever, but he got me in the left-rear quarterpanel, I know he didn't mean it. It was just one of those racing things, and that was it."
Elliott Sadler lost an engine and Dale Jarrett was caught up in a wreck at Las Vegas, putting the Yates teams 41st and 42nd at the end of the day. Sadler's No. 38 Ford was being pushed into the hauler as a pool of oil on the ground was being soaked up by some rags, the result of a broken engine. Not too far away in the garage, Jarrett's No. 88 was being worked on, the result of a hard crash in Turn 2, after Steve Park slightly lost control in the corner, came up and just hit Jarret`s left rear, sending him rear first in the wall. It could have been worse Sunday in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, but not much worse. Mark Martin finished last, but Sadler finished 42nd, and Jarrett 41st. "This is why you have to have good cast-iron stomachs to do this business," Robert Yates said. "We don't need to wreck and we didn't need this engine problem that looks like is still occurring from stuff we didn't make strong enough last year.
"We'll go back home, and hopefully we don't have to go all the way back to
the drawing board, but we probably will." Well another race down, and its off to Atlanta for another great race! Hopefully no rain.
Unoficial Results-
Fin St Car Driver Make Sponsor Pts/Bonus Laps Status
1 17 #17Matt Kenseth Ford DeWalt Power Tools 180/5 267 Running
2 4 #8Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Budweiser 180/10 267 Running
3 9 #15Michael Waltrip Chevrolet NAPA Auto Parts 170/5 267 Running
4 1 #18Bobby Labonte Chevrolet Interstate Batteries 165/5 267 Running
5 8 #20Tony Stewart Chevrolet Home Depot 155/0 267 Running
6 7 #99Jeff Burton Ford CITGO 150/0 267 Running
7 3 #12Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 151/5 267 Running
8 34 #40Sterling Marlin Dodge Coors Light 142/0 267 Running
9 26 #25Joe Nemechek Chevrolet UAW/Delphi 138/0 267 Running
10 39 #1Steve Park Chevrolet Pennzoil 134/0 267 Running
11 10 #48Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's 135/5 267 Running
12 16 #10Johnny Benson Pontiac Valvoline 127/0 266 Running
13 22 #29Kevin Harvick Chevrolet GM Goodwrench Service 124/0 266 Running
14 30 #9Bill Elliott Dodge Dodge Dealers 121/0 266 Running
15 18 #41Casey Mears * Dodge Target 118/0 266 Running
16 36 #5Terry Labonte Chevrolet Kellogg's/got milk? 115/0 266 Running
17 15 #7Jimmy Spencer Dodge Sirius Satellite Radio 112/0 266 Running
18 38 #21Ricky Rudd Ford Motorcraft Quality Parts 114/5 266 Running
19 6 #43John Andretti Dodge Cheerios 111/5 266 Running
20 24 #154Todd Bodine Ford National Guard 103/0 266 Running
21 13 #19Jeremy Mayfield Dodge Dodge Dealers 100/0 266 Running
22 11 #01Jerry Nadeau Pontiac U.S. Army 97/0 266 Running
23 21 #31Robby Gordon Chevrolet Cingular Wireless 94/0 266 Running
24 32 #74Tony Raines * Chevrolet Staff America 91/0 265 Running
25 20 #22Ward Burton Dodge Caterpillar 88/0 265 Running
26 41 #0Jack Sprague * Pontiac NetZero 85/0 265 Running
27 14 #30Jeff Green Chevrolet America Online 82/0 265 Running
28 28 #49Ken Schrader Dodge BAM Racing 79/0 263 Running
29 43 #37Derrike Cope Chevrolet Friendly Ice Cream 76/0 263 Running
30 33 #23Kenny Wallace Dodge Stacker 2 73/0 261 Running
31 19 #45Kyle Petty Dodge Georgia Pacific 70/0 261 Running
32 12 #42Jamie McMurray * Dodge Havoline 67/0 258 Running
33 42 #66Hideo Fukuyama Ford Kikkoman 64/0 258 Running
34 35 #77Dave Blaney Ford Jasper Engines & Transmissions 61/0 231 Out of Race
35 31 #14Larry Foyt * Dodge Harrah's 58/0 216 Out of Race
36 37 #32Ricky Craven Pontiac Tide 55/0 211 Running
37 2 #24Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 57/5 193 Out of Race
38 5 #97Kurt Busch Ford Rubbermaid 54/5 179 Out of Race
39 40 #4Mike Skinner Pontiac Kodak 46/0 174 Out of Race
40 25 #2Rusty Wallace Dodge Miller Lite 43/0 174 Out of Race
41 27 #88Dale Jarrett Ford UPS 40/0 131 Out of Race
42 23 #38Elliott Sadler Ford M&M's 37/0 125 Out of Race
43 29 #6Mark Martin Ford Viagra 34/0 114 Out of Race