Las Vegas Vegas was really Sam’s Town all day long in the Nationwide race on Saturday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Hornish lead 114 of the 200 laps on Saturday to win for the second time in his career in the Nationwide series by winning the Sams Town 300. Hometown hero Kyle Busch had a great showing after battling handling issues early on and came home second in him home town. Pole sitter Brian Vickers cam home third after racing in the top 5 all day long.
“Your dream about having cars like this today,” said Hornish after the race in the media center. “The last time I had that good was in 2008 in the All Star race, its great to have cars like this, it reminds me of my Indycar days and I think I used more energy in the Celebration than the race itself.”
“I knew about halfway threw the race, that this was a very special car and that it was up to us to just keep it all together for the end of the race,” said crew chef Greg Erwin after the race.
Hornish dropped from the lead to third during pit stops on Lap 139, after NASCAR called a debris caution one lap earlier. Eight circuits after a restart on lap 145, Hornish regained the top spot, sailing past Busch and driving away.
Hornish led Busch by almost three seconds when Scott Lagasse Jr.’s spin in Turn 1 on Lap 182 caused the seventh caution of the race. The top seven cars stayed on track under the yellow while those behind them came to pit road for fresh rubber on Lap 184.
Early on in the Nationwide race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Trevor Bayne was leading and looked like he had the car to beat but on lap 88, The #6 Ford got loose under the young Kyle Larson coming off turn 4, when he got loose and collected the #32 Chevy. Larson got to worse of it, both car would continue on track, both on the lead lap. Brian Vickers took the lead after the pit stops but after the restart, its was the Sam Hornish Jr. show. Hornish held the lead for many laps. While Hornish stole the show, Trevor Bayne worked his way threw the field and with 8 laps to go, made his way up to 4th.
Larson wasn’t as lucky, he was collected in another crash that ended his day on lap 189. Larson was the one of the big stories of the day, after a great season opener in Daytona that didn’t end so well, and a Phoenix weekend that didn’t look as good either; Larson was up in the lead again this weekend and was putting on a show. He was not only battling for the lead but he was leading when Bayne got into him and more or less ended his day. If Larson can keep his nose clean we will see good things out of him in 2013 and beyond. Larson could be the next young super star that NASCAR needs, time will tell if he can keep his nose clean and keep his car out front.
Another young driver that had a great run on Saturday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was Alex Bowman, who was, at one point running in the top 5 and finished 8th in his #99 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Toyota. Bowman is running this season with an under funded team and he is doing great things. Robby Benton is his owner for Bowman and Benton has been around the sport for years but has never really had a lot of backing but at the same time does a lot with a little. This team is the little engine that could and with a little time we could see them in Victory Lane in the NASCAR Nationwide series before the end of the 2013 season.
