Home Could Be Sweeter
Like the Busch brothers, Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan has struggled at his “home track.”

Gaughan will be making his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He has raced 10 times there in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, including a win from the pole in 2003. But that was his one shining moment to date; his average finish is 22.1 in his other nine races.

Kyle Busch leads the series standings after two races and won last week at Auto Club Speedway, while Gaughan finished ninth at ACS, is eighth in the rankings and leads the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings.

High-Stakes Finishes Common At LVMS
Thrilling finishes have been the norm in the Sam’s Town 300 over the last few years. In four of the last five races, the average margin of victory has been a half second or less and includes the closest MOV at the track – .119 second in 2004 when Kevin Harvick edged Kasey Kahne. Others are:

2008: Mark Martin holds off Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer in a green-white-checkered restart by .586 seconds.
2007: After near constant frontstretch contact on the final lap, Burton saved it to win by .101 seconds while Busch spun across the finish line in second.
2006: Kasey Kahne managed to escape from Matt Kenseth and Harvick on a green-white-checkered restart to win by .316 second.
2005: Martin overtook David Stremme with eight laps to go and ended up besting Harvick to win by 1.4 seconds.

What Does A Guy Have To Do?
Talk about unfinished business. Brad Keselowski’s dates back a year at Vegas and thus far has become a battle cry to start the 2009 season.

He was strong at Daytona, leading six laps and running in the top five before a cut tire on Lap 110 took him out of contention. His bad California karma continued when his night was finished after getting caught in a Lap 96 incident. He was running seventh at the time.

Now he comes to Las Vegas where last year he was challenging Carl Edwards for his first career victory with four laps to go. But Mark Martin – on fresh tires – tapped Edwards who collected Keselowski. Edwards and Keselowski spun out of contention while Martin apologetically took the win.

The good news for Keselowski – Martin isn’t in this race. The bad news? His JR Motorsports boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr. – will be in the No. 5 car that won last year.

Gaughan, Wallace Solid Early For RWR
Rusty Wallace Racing is off to a strong start thanks to the combined efforts of teammates Brendan Gaughan and Steve Wallace. Gaughan, in his first year with RWR, has gained his ninth-place standing in the points with a 15th-place finish at Daytona and his first series top-10 last week at California.

Wallace bounced back nicely after being knocked out of the season-opener due to an accident triggered by Jason Leffler. He finished 10th at ACS, his first career top-10 finish at a track (other than a road course) more than 1.5 miles.

Enter Speed, Exit Logano
Scott Speed will make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Las Vegas. Michael Waltrip has run in the No. 99 Toyota for the first two races of the season. On the flip side, Joey Logano, who rebounded from a 20th-place finish at Daytona to claim third at ACS, will turn the No. 20 Toyota over to Denny Hamlin at Las Vegas. Logano, Hamlin and Brad Coleman will share the No. 20 ride this year.