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Race 3 Wrap-up: Las Vegas 400

 Here's the top ten from Sunday's race. Quite a show it was. For the full race results, check out Nascar.com's page here.

Boy did I tell y'all some bad picks for this race. I said go Ford all the way, but there's only three Fords in the top ten. You can't blame me too much, though -- last year's Las Vegas race ended with 13 Fords in the top 15.

There were a bunch of lead changes in this race. Pole-sitter Bobby Labonte lead the first 25 laps, then things started shuffling around as Mayfield, Gordon, Irvan, T. Labonte, Martin, Sterling Marlin, and John Andretti had their time at the front. None of those guys could hold on, though. Soon the strongest car appeared to be that of Ward Burton, who was something of a surprise this week. My dad was the only person who put him in the top five, and I still don't know how he came up with that pick.

Ward led for awhile, but he started getting loose. Pretty soon the other Burton, first name Jeff, took control of the race. J. Burton's 99 Exide Batteries Ford dominated the rest of the race. Despite running out of gas as he entered pit row, J. Burton had the unbeatable ride on Sunday. He led most of the rest of the race, and the finish wasn't exactly close.

The Burton story was great, but the wrecks were even greater. Early on, good old Johnny Benson lost control of his car and smashed up rookie Tony Stewart. To the surprise of all, Ernie "Wall Dancer" Irvan and Joe "I've wrecked and I can't get up" Nemechek didn't get collected in that wreck. Close to halfway through the race, Kenny Irwin got lose and took out K. Wallace, Bill Elliott (who'd been having a great race up to that point), and some losers no one's heard of. Irvan again missed out on the fun, but Nemecheck managed to get into it. He pretty much had to dive down off the track and into the grass to find a car to hit, but he got the job done. Buckshot Jones did a couple of 360's on the track, hoping to get hit I guess, but he missed everyone.

Elliott Sadler got frightened when he saw pavement ahead of him, and decided the best thing he could do was ram straight into the wall as hard as possible. It was a great trick, but somehow they patched his car together enough that he could keep running. Makes it hard to pick DNF's when the wreck and keep coming back for more. Mark Martin lost a whole cylinder, and he STILL finished in the top ten. I'll tell you what: I lose a cylinder, I'm pulling off the road pretty much immediately.

Points-wise it wasn't the best week we've ever had, but some good picks were made. My dad's picks were something else - he got W. Burton, B. Labonte, and Gordon. That's his best week ever. Looks like he wised up on his former strategy of picking Kyle Petty to win every week. David "Enchilada Supreme" H. and Kevin "The Nose" K. both chose J. Burton to win. Several people liked Gordon, and with good reason. The most common pick, I guess due to my intense lobbying, was for Bobby Labonte. He was in seventh with just a few laps to go, but fifth-place Martin lost a cylinder and sixth-place Mayfield was forced to pit because of bad tires, giving Bobby the top-five finish.

After his showing at Rockingham, lots of people went with Ernie "The Wall Cleaner" Irvan as their DNF, but he didn't satisfy this week. We also saw Bill Elliott being picked by the masses as their surprise, but Irwin surprised him by collecting him in a big wreck.

There were also some great comments this week. Insight, humor, rage, and controversy came across the network lines. We're finally seeing some ad hominem attacks, too. I always like the ad hominem stuff, so keep it coming. This week Neil "Oops - I forgot to tell anyone I'm getting married" W. is the main target. The attacks were penned by Will "Web developer, schmeb developer" P. Will's comments were great, and so were the words of two other members this week: Nathan "My first child, boy or girl, will be named George Lucas" S. and Kevin "I just wanna be loved, is that so wrong?" K. I urge each of you to go to the picks and comments page and check out their words of wisdom and comedy. You won't regret it.

Here's how the points looked for Las Vegas:

Here's how the cumulative points look after three weeks:

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