Fantasy Preview: Las Vegas

Last week I made it clear that the battle would come down to Roush-Fenway Racing vs. Hendrick Motorsports, and that’s exactly what happened as they claimed four of the top-five spots between their two teams. However, the real winner in that race, perhaps, was Joe Gibbs Racing who claimed the #1 and #3 spots in the points standings thanks to 4th and 7th place efforts from Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart. This week should continue to make things interesting as all three of the previously mentioned teams have quite an extensive history of success in the last few years at Las Vegas. Of the three teams, though, it’s clear that Hendrick Motorsports has been the happiest when it comes time to fly out of Vegas – at least for the past three years  anyway, as defending Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson has won each of those three events. During those same three years, Johnson’s HMS teammate Jeff Gordon has also posted three consecutive top-five finishes, clearly making them the most dangerous duo on the track.While the numbers alone would suggest sheer dominance on part of team Hendrick, that’s not exactly quite the case. Previous to Johnson’s current Vegas winning streak that began in 2005, Roush Racing’s own Matt Kenseth won the previous two events in ‘03 and ‘04 and has finishes of 8, 2, and 4 since then. Roush also won the event in 1998 with Mark Martin and in ‘99 and 2000 with Jeff Burton. Additionally, Roush has placed three top ten finishers in this event for each of the past four seasons, in two top-ten’s every year prior with the exception of 2001.Joe Gibbs Racing has never won a Cup race at Las Vegas, but they seem hellbent on pushing the issue, and this year could stand to be one of their best chances considering the roll that Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart are currently on. Stewart has also finished six of his nine Vegas starts in the top ten, while Denny Hamlin has raced here only twice and has posted two top-ten’s as a result. While Busch has never raced here as a member of the Gibbs outfit, he’s been here four times with Hendrick and has posted top-ten’s in each of his last three attempts.