Heading into the third race of the season, NASCAR Nationwide series heads to Sin City and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Busch dominated and led all 200 laps. Meanwhile series point’s leader Reed Sorenson earned a top five finish in the race.
This weekend there are a few more Sprint Cup regulars including Mark Martin and Denny Hamlin who will be running the race.
Coming off his first top 10 finish of eighth at PIR, Justin Allgaier is looking to find victory lane on Saturday.
At LVMS, in two starts his worse finish is an eighth in 2009. Last season he finished seventh and has spent an average of 96 percent of the laps run in the top 15.
Allgaier now with Turner Motorsports is looking for his second career win in NNS after his win last spring at Bristol.
For another young driver in Aric Almirola driving for JR Motorsports this will be his first time running at LVMS in a NNS car.
His success has come in the Camping World Truck Series races held here. In his last three starts he has an average finish of eighth.
After his 16th place finish at PIR, Almirola and his team were admittedly off in their setups. Now the team is heading to LVMS looking to rebound and come home with a victory on Saturday.
Almirola to me is a sleeper this weekend. His success in the trucks here should help him but he struggled when he ran Sprint Cup series races.
Two very different vehicles but the Sprint Cup car he ran is much closer to what they now run in NNS.
My final driver spotlight is Kenny Wallace. Wallace is with a new team and has new life in the NNS.
Now with RAB Racing, Wallace is back running in the top 10 and is looking like he will challenge for series title.
Coming off his 10th place finish at PIR; Wallace and his team should be a factor for the win. If they can continue to make the proper adjustments like they did last weekend.
LVMS is not his best track with an average finish of 23.2. He hasn’t led one lap but that could change this weekend.
Wallace hasn’t won since 2001 but with better equipment and Greg Zippadeli on the pit box; this could be the weekend for Wallace.
The key this weekend will be qualifying well. Clean air is so important and the closer you are to the front the sooner you have that clean air.
The series regulars need to find a way to be a factor in these races. With more Sprint Cup regulars running this weekend the challenge isn’t getting any easier.
Drivers to watch this weekend are Wallace, Hamlin and Brian Scott.
The Sam’s Town 300 is Saturday at 3pm ET on ABC.
Photo:turnermotorsportsllc.com
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