Pit Road Week 3: Las Vegas

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 3

By Richard Tix

NASCAR made its way into Sin City this past weekend and as usual we had a few gamblers (and not just the drivers who hit the casino up while in town). The race winner was actually decided by a gambling team who already has a win in 2014, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr and Crew Cheif Steve Letarte knew they might be about a half a lap short on fuel when leading late in the race.

As it ended up, Brad Keselowski (who was gaining on Jr, but not fast enough to win with the laps left) passed Jr about a half lap to go in the race when he ran out of fuel. Brad

Keselowski added to his strong start to the 2014 season by taking two 3rd place finishes and doubling down for a win in Vegas. In fact, BK became only the second driver to sweep the Vegas weekend after he won Saturday and Sunday (Jeff Burton was the other).

As it turned out, Dale's gamble paid off. Jr had a chance at the win, but even after running out of fuel he still finished 2nd. If you missed it, here are the full race results (I actually missed about 75% of the race unfortunately, but I did catch the last 15 laps, so this review only focuses on the end!).

Las Vegas Preview



Pit Road: Power Rankings Week 3 (Week 2 Power Rankings)

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-1)- Jr will not be moving from the top spot this week. Dale would have won if not for coming up a 1/2 lap short on fuel (which was called perfectly by his team). It was a gamble they could take after the 500 win. Plus, they still came across the line 2nd.
2. Brad Keselowski (LW-3)- 3rd, 3rd, and 1st. Not a bad way to bounce back from a struggle in the 2013 season where nothing went right. BK also swept the weekend by winning Nationwide (that doesn't go into these rankings though).
3. Jimmie Johnson (LW-2)- Well, JJ hasn't looks dominate so far this year, but he is keeping it together while he and his #48 team figure out this new Aero Package. Watch out when/if they do.
4. Jeff Gordon (LW-5)- After starting the season off with back to back top 5's, Gordon hung around on Sunday and finished 9th. A strong start to the 2014 season for the #24 crew.
5. Joey Logano (LW-8)- As I said, another strong weekend and JoLo will move up the list. He started off the weekend winning the Pole over BK (back to back weeks Team Penske took the front row). Right now Penske has the new package figured out and is fast, if they can stay ahead of the learning curve it will be a good year.
6. Carl Edwards (LW-5)- Quietly Carl is 7th in the points standings and finished 8th at Phoenix and then 5th this week in Vegas. If you count it up, that is the 3rd Ford in my top 6 spots, definitely a better start than 2013. 
7. Matt Kenseth (LW-6)- A small gap separates spots 6-12. really you can make a case for any of these guys. Kenseth hasn't been amazing, but he has two top 10's and his lowest finish was 12th at Phoenix.
8. Ryan Newman (LW- NR)- Newman has back to back 7th place finishes and was also fast at Daytona, but he was caught up in one of the many wrecks for a 22nd place finish. In his RCR ride he is higher then any other SHR car in the standings so far in 2014.
9. Kyle Busch (LW-7)- Speaking of JGR, Kyle has huge expectations this year and so far it has been a slow start. Kyle did lead 52 laps Sunday and brought it home 11th, but it wasn't the day Rowdy was looking for at his home track.
10. Denny Hamlin (LW-9)- Well Denny Hamlin was back and now he is just mediocre. He fell short at Phoenix last week and this week failed to get a top 10 again (12th). Seems like JGR in general isn't quite there yet.
11. Kevin Harvick (LW-4)- Huge jump last week, and a huge fall. This maybe to hard a fall for Harvick, but he sits 14th in the standings after the 41st finish (he did have a good car at one time), and places 6-12 in the rankings are all almost interchangeable. But any struggle right now with a SHR car just shows how far in the hole they have started.
12. Jamie McMurray (LW-12)- McMurray has started the year off on a strong note. He has yet to finish outside the top 15, in fact this weeks 15th place finish has been his worst of the year. That being said, he does get this spot due to his consistency, and because he should have finished higher than 14th at Daytona. 

Dropped out: Casey Mears (LW-10)

Just Missed: Kasey Kahne

Honorable Mention: Brian Vickers, Paul Menard

As always, here are a couple winners this week from Twitter who predicted the correct winner (actually tweeted them to @NASCARBTW)

I expect Dave to be on here a few times (or as many times as BK wins in 2014)

Devin went with his fellow MI native and predicted correctly!

Next week, get in on it and let me know on Twitter who you think will win Bristol. As always take a look back for the preview and a special "Modern Day King of Bristol" article. Also, check out the Bristol Fantasy Preview on ThisSportz and check back as they tend to update throughout the week for all your fantasy needs. Hopefully this week I wont miss most of the race, but in Minnesota, when you have snow you better get out and snowmobile while you can! Plus a Sunday with Family and Friends out riding can never be passed up.