Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers from the recently completed NASCAR weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
NASCAR Winners And Losers: Las Vegas Edition
WINNERS
Steve Addington
A good case could be made that no crew chief was under more pressure to perform this season than Tony Stewart’s new team leader. But that’s to be expected when you’re replacing the guy – Darian Grubb – who led his team to five Chase wins and the championship.
Yet, instead of collapsing under the weight of the expectations placed upon his shoulders, Addington has embraced the challenge. Now, in just their third race working together, Stewart and Addington seem to have gelled just fine and Stewart appears up to the task of doing something he’s never done before in NASCAR – win back-to-back championships.
Greg Biffle
When you’re teammates with the guy who just won the Daytona 500 (Matt Kenseth) as well as the guy who tied for the championship a year ago (Carl Edwards), it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. But in three races this season, Greg Biffle has finished third in all of them and finds himself atop the point standings for the first time since June 2005.
Jeff Gordon
Why is Jeff Gordon of all people getting a nod for finishing 12th? Well, because for the bulk of the Kobalt Tools 400, it appeared the four-time champ was going to finish somewhere in the 20s, a couple laps in arrears. Instead, he and his Alan Gustafson-led team continued to fight and made the changes needed that enabled them to salvage a respectable finish.
LOSERS
Carl Edwards
He certainly didn’t do it intentionally – and yes, he did apologize afterward – but the fact remains Edwards wrecked his teammate Kenseth. At the very least, Edwards put Kenseth in a very uncomfortable and precarious situation where the odds of something bad happening went up astronomically. It is also worth noting this is the second week in a row where Edwards has been directly involved with another car wrecking – albeit unintentionally on both occasions.
Joe Gibbs Racing
In Phoenix, Denny Hamlin celebrated in Victory Lane, Kyle Busch challenged for the win before settling for sixth and Joey Logano posted his second consecutive top-10 finish.
Fast-forward a week, and the JGR teams didn't look at all the same. Hamlin never found the handle of his Toyota and crossed the line in 20th, Busch scraped the wall and later spun down pit road en route a 23rd-place finish and Logano came home a quiet 16th.
With Las Vegas being a barometer on what to expect out of teams on the 1.5-mile tracks, it proves JGR has a lot more work to do before we consider them the equals of the Roush, Hendrick and Stewart-Haas teams.
Penske Racing
Faulty fuel pumps saw the promising days of both Brad Keselowski and AJ Allmendinger come to an end prematurely with Keselowski 32nd in the final running order and Allmendinger 37th.
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