nascar 2007

Russ Spence

Commercial Pressure Wash Expert
After Kasey Kahne turned a lap of 184.685 mph Monday in the first of two days of preseason testing on the track, changed from 12 to 20 degrees of banking and completely repaved, two-time Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart was not pleased.

``It's just so fast around the bottom. I mean we're running ridiculously fast speeds,'' Stewart said. ``It's stupid to be running this fast in a Cup car, I think. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me why we're running mid-to-low 29-second laps in a 3,400-pound stock car around here.''

And it just got faster Tuesday.

Elliott Sadler, like Kahne, driving one of Ray Evernham's Dodges, showed the way with a lap of 188.772.

Paul Menard, a Cup rookie this season with Dale Earnhardt Inc., was also fast in a Chevrolet the morning session at 188.370, just a bit faster than a lap of 187.188 by Sadler.

Sadler's quicker lap came in the afternoon, while Scott Riggs, the third Evernham driver, was right behind at 187.318. David Gilliland, driving a Ford for Robert Yates Racing, was also fast in both sessions, running third in the morning at 186.896 and in the afternoon at 187.175.

The Toyota teams, new to Cup racing this season, continued to work out the bugs. Mike Skinner, driving for Bill Davis Racing, was ninth fastest in the morning at 185.033, while owner/driver Michael Waltrip was the fastest Toyota entry in the afternoon at 186.162, also good for ninth.

The complaints started Monday as soon as the speeds began climbing far beyond Greg Biffle's pole-winning speed of 172.403 at the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at LVMS.

But some drivers had no problem with going faster.

``I like it a lot,'' Waltrip said. ``It's really fast, obviously, but I don't know what you think (anybody is) going to do about that and I don't know why people complain about it. We're race car drivers, for gosh sakes. The cars just go fast -- it's not the track's fault. The cars would be easier to slow down than build a track that isn't fun for the fans to watch.''

Former champion Dale Jarrett, who will drive for Waltrip this season, agreed with his new boss.

``Everything's good,'' Jarrett said. ``There are a few bumps here and there, but that's just what you learn about the race track. It is extremely fast and we've already got multiple grooves out there and that's a really good thing. It should be beneficial to good racing when we come back (in March for the race).''

Kyle Busch, another former series champion and a Las Vegas native, also shrugged off the higher speeds after testing two of his Penske Racing Dodges.

``The speeds keep getting quicker and quicker and the lap times keep getting lower and lower,'' Busch said. ``Where is going to be the point break with the tires? With the engines?

``There's really a unique aspect of racing cars, going fast and trying to be safe at the same time. We challenge ourselves most of the time at a new track like Charlotte last year or Texas when it was first built. Atlanta still holds the ultimate record for speed at 197 on a downforce type car. We're always going fast and we're going to continue to go fast. There's always going to be that question of if we are going too fast.''

The two-day Las Vegas session also served as a test for NASCAR's new unleaded gasoline. Leaded gas will still be used in the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, but Sunoco will begin supplying the unleaded product beginning with the race Feb. 25 at California Speedway.
 
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