Martin Truex Jr. has been struggling with the new car setup at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Todd Warshaw/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

GONE HOME Johnny Sauter crashed the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford during qualifying Friday for the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in what likely will be his only appearance in the car. “It’s just one of those deals where it’s either go or go home,” said Sauter. “That’s pretty much the essence of the whole deal. To get a call from the Wood Brothers, that’s huge in my book. That’s something to get excited about and you lose sleep over because you just want to get to the race track and do a good job for them. The car just got away from me a little bit.”

After failing to qualify for the Daytona 500, the Wood Brothers team is now in a deep hole and almost certainly will not be in the top 35 in owner points by Martinsville, which means the team will have to keep trying to make races of speed.

STILL STRUGGLING One driver decidedly unhappy at Las Vegas this weekend his Martin Truex Jr., who has been unable to come to grips – literally – with the combination of the new car, hard tires and the 1.5-mile track. Asked what was wrong, he said, “The same thing that’s wrong with my car every time I come here with these tires on the new asphalt, hard tire. We just can’t figure out how to get any grip. The car is real, real evil to drive. It just snaps loose whenever it feels like it. I think a lot of people fight the same thing, but we’ve never really figured anything out.”

Blog Post Friday, February 29, 2008 at 7:55 pm ET

CRUISIN' Kurt Busch grew up in Las Vegas, and he said his followed the same arc as a lot of other kids raised in Sin City.

"As a local, as a kid, when you're underage you see The Strip that much," Busch said, referring to the prime casino area of the city. "It was almost like when we packed the family car up to go down to The Strip as a family."

Of course, that all changed once Busch could drive himself. "As a kid growing up, once you get your driver's license that's the first place you go'"Busch said. " You're there cruising The Strip, riding with the music as loud as can have it and cruisin' The Strip until the cops say, "Okay, we've seen you too many times. Go somewhere else."

Blog Post Friday, February 29, 2008 at 2:48 pm ET

NICE CRIB Las Vegas Motor Speedway, now in it's second season since its extreme makeover, unquestionably is one of the finest facilities on the circuit, with its fabulous Neon Garage infield attraction the epicenter of a spectacular facility. The Neon Garage features a diverse, if pricey, selections of foods and beverages, as well as an equally eclectic mix of live entertainment.

The entertainment for the weekend is good, too: Carol Linnea Johnson, who stars in “Mama Mia!” at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, will sing Sunday’s National Anthem. Blue Man Group will perform Saturday and Sunday in the Neon Garage and during Sunday’s pre-race show. Country music artist Jason Michael Carroll will play Sunday morning in the midway behind the main grandstands. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, from next-door Nellis Air Force base, will perform Sunday’s flyover.

There was one disarming note – pun intended – this morning in the posh LVMS Infield Media Center: One of the city’s finest, going row to row with a police dog. When I asked what the pooch was sniffing around for, the police officer told me, “Explosives. Or kitty cats.” Happily, the dog found neither.

Blog Post Friday, February 29, 2008 at 9:25 am ET

TRUE BLUE The best part of heading to Las Vegas for the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway? The casinos? The shows? The gambling? The Elvis impersonators? The rebuilt 1.5-mile track? Nope, none of the above. It’s the weather forecast, which calls for sunny skies all weekend, with no chance of rain today, 10 percent on Saturday and just 20 percent on Sunday. After last weekend’s debacle in Southern California, dry weather is welcome indeed.

THE GRIND Usually, NASCAR Sprint Car teams are worn out at the end of the season, but this year the schedule tests the mettle of crewmen early on. After Sunday’s race in Las Vegas is complete, the teams will head to Phoenix for a two-day test before going back across the country for next week’s race in Atlanta. And all this comes after nearly two weeks in Daytona and a rain-delayed race in Southern California.

Teams have been sending trucks back and forth from their North Carolina shops, switching cars, motors and parts. The details of what to send where and when are enormously complex, requiring considerable advance planning. “We’ve got a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on,” says Peter Jellen, hauler driver for the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch. “We’re just trying to make it work logistically so no one gets burnt out.”

ON THE RISE While the 2008 season is still in its infancy, already some drivers and teammates are showing tremendous improvement. Brian Vickers, who finished outside the top 35 in owner points last season is 11th in the driver standings after two races this season. Vickers, of course, will have to race his way into the field again at Las Vegas because of his standing in ’07 owner points. Also much happier this year are Gillett Evernham Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler, who rank sixth and 13th, respectively, in the driver standings.

ODD STAT OF THE WEEK Just two races into the 2008 Sprint Cup season, the only drivers to score top-10 finishes in both races are Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne. Of those two, Busch is the only one with top-five finishes at both Daytona and Southern California. The Shrub has run in all six combined Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series races this year and he’s finished in the top five in all of ‘em. That’s plenty stout.

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