Las Vegas Weekly

February 27, 2009 · 10:28 AM

Start your engines: It’s NASCAR weekend in Sin City

By Robin Leach

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards flips at the thrill of victory.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

For local fans, it’s the most exciting weekend of motor racing this year: three days of 60th anniversary NASCAR madness, mayhem and maximum-speed mileage. An incredible invasion of auto fanatics from across America -- estimated to be as many as 150,000 -- are in town with 2,000 journalists for the penultimate pit party with race greats including Jeff Gordon, Kurt and Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth, who claimed victory last weekend in Fontana, Calif.

The falling economy has probably ended hopes for an eighth consecutive sellout, but there will still be mega-crowds for the 12th Annual UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Nextel Cup race on Sunday: 267 laps for 400 miles with a purse of more than $6 million! The Sam’s Town 300 Busch Series 200-lap race over 300 miles is tomorrow with the winning purse at more than $1million. Will Jimmie Johnson score his fourth Sprint Cup Championship or will Carl Edwards, who can do backflips for victory, duplicate last year’s win?

Our hometown speedsters and heroes Kurt Busch and younger brother Kyle will once again be battling at speeds heading toward 200 mph in an attempt to get a checkered flag victory out at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Here are the key facts for the two races: More than 40 cars will race Saturday with Jeff Burton still holding the race record of 135.118 mph. It will be broadcast live on ESPN. Sunday’s Sprint Cup race with a qualifying record set last year by Kasey Kahne at 184.856 mph will be broadcast on Fox starting at 12:30 p.m. with the flag scheduled to go down at exactly 1:46 p.m.

As in the past four years, I’ll chopper out there to handle the emcee duties in the pre-race show with my friend and multi-talented impressionist Gordie Brown, who has just opened at the downtown Golden Nugget after his world tour with Celine Dion. After I introduce the 40-plus cars and drivers and their pole positions -- and we’re not talking a Sin City strip joint pole, folks -- we’ll have the USAF Thunderbirds flyover, and then I turn the order, “Gentlemen, start your engines,” over to Fox.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on out, motor heads! The weather forecast is partly cloudy with a little sunshine and a high of 75 degrees. Vegas DeLuxe will have the full photo report right here of the largest single-day sports event crowd on the annual Nevada calendar.

Meantime, there are still opportunities to get up close to the NASCAR stars. Tonight, Marcos Ambrose and Michael McDowell do their meet and greet autograph session in the Monte Carlo at 7:30. Also tonight, Kurt Busch hosts a racecar simulator challenge at 6:30 for three hours at Sierra Gold ultra tavern on Jones at I-215. Tomorrow, two-time champion Tony Stewart will meet fans for autographs starting at 5 p.m. at the Sportsbook Bar & Grill in the Palazzo.

Free live music and entertainment all weekend long starts tonight on the 1st Street and 3rd Street stages as Race Jam roars off at the Fremont Street Experience. Highlight acts tomorrow are the Artimus Pyle Band and Trent Tomlinson, while Southern Stue, Country Fever’s T.J. Weaver, High Wire Band, Tony Marques Band and Speaks Brothers close the weekend Sunday from 8 to 11 p.m.

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