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The NASCAR tour continues its west coast trip with a stop in Sin City. We've seen a kid not old enough to drink win the Daytona 500, and a veteran finally snap his long losing streak at Phoenix. What surprises will be in store this week?

Entry list below.

Sprint Cup - Kobalt Tools 400 (Sunday @ 3:30pm ET on FOX) 44 entries
Nationwide Series - Sam's Town 300 (Saturday @ 2:30pm ET on ABC) 42 entries

I have a fever. And the only cure is moar flipperz.
So, yes, I'm holding out hope for at least one flipper this weekend.
I feel like if it doesn't happen this weekend, we're going to have to wait 'til 'Dega.
And that's too long to go...

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We are witnessing the pussification of America.

Shepherd catches shoplifter: Most NASCAR drivers don't come to mind when you think of Las Vegas crimefighters, but then again, most NASCAR drivers aren't 69-year-old Morgan Shepherd. The veteran of 44 NASCAR seasons was getting out of his rental car in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store Monday evening just minutes away from Las Vegas Motor Speedway just as three men burst from the store's entrance with security forces trailing behind. Thats when Shepherd, a daily jogger and fitness perfectionist, sprang into action. "I just got out and took off after them," Shepherd said. "I caught one of them just as they were getting ready to hop a little wall at the end of the parking lot. I yanked him down and got on top of him." Shepherd said in a matter of seconds a Las Vegas police officer pitched the ageless NASCAR driver a pair and handcuffs and continued pursuit of the other two suspects, along with the store's security force. "I cuffed him and sat on top of him," Shepherd said. "The police department officers showed up and asked if I could hold him a while longer while they ran down the others. I told them he wasn't going anywhere." Shepherd said while the young shoplifter pleaded with him to let him go and about the possibility of going to jail, Shepherd used the time to lecture the youth about his poor choices. (Faith Motorsports)(3-1-2011)

Standings:

Cup:
[spoiler]1 KYLE BUSCH 80
2 KURT BUSCH 77 -3
3 TONY STEWART 69 -11
4 A J ALLMENDINGER 69 -11
5 JEFF GORDON 65 -15
6 MARK MARTIN 65 -15
7 BOBBY LABONTE 64 -16
8 RYAN NEWMAN 64 -16
9 JUAN PABLO MONTOYA 64 -16
10 DAVID GILLILAND 63 -17
11 PAUL MENARD 63 -17
12 CARL EDWARDS 59 -21
13 JIMMIE JOHNSON 59 -21
14 DENNY HAMLIN 58 -22
15 KASEY KAHNE 57 -23
16 MARTIN TRUEX JR. 56 -24
17 DALE EARNHARDT JR. 55 -25
18 BILL ELLIOTT 53 -27
19 REGAN SMITH 48 -32
20 BRAD KESELOWSKI 45 -35
21 CLINT BOWYER 45 -35
22 KEVIN HARVICK 44 -36
23 MATT KENSETH 43 -37
24 ROBBY GORDON 41 -39
25 DAVID RAGAN 39 -41
26 JAMIE MCMURRAY 36 -44
27 MARCOS AMBROSE 35 -45
28 GREG BIFFLE 33 -47
29 JOEY LOGANO 32 -48
30 TERRY LABONTE 30 -50
31 DAVID REUTIMANN 29 -51
32 JEFF BURTON 27 -53
33 BRIAN VICKERS 27 -53
34 CASEY MEARS 26 -54
35 ANDY LALLY 25 -55
36 DAVE BLANEY 21 -59
37 TONY RAINES 19 -61
38 J J YELEY 8 -72
39 MICHAEL WALTRIP 4 -76
40 MICHAEL MCDOWELL 4 -76
41 BRIAN KESELOWSKI 3 -77[/spoiler]

NWS:
[spoiler]1 REED SORENSON 78
2 RICKY STENHOUSE JR. 73 -5
3 JASON LEFFLER 71 -7
4 DANICA PATRICK 58 -20
5 JOE NEMECHEK 58 -20
6 ARIC ALMIROLA 56 -22
7 MIKE BLISS 55 -23
8 JUSTIN ALLGAIER 53 -25
9 KENNY WALLACE 50 -28
10 JEREMY CLEMENTS 50 -28
11 TREVOR BAYNE 48 -30
12 BRIAN SCOTT 45 -33
13 LANDON CASSILL 41 -37
14 DERRIKE COPE 40 -38
15 JOSH WISE 39 -39
16 ELLIOTT SADLER 38 -40
17 STEVE WALLACE 38 -40
18 SHELBY HOWARD 38 -40
19 SCOTT WIMMER 37 -41
20 ROBERT RICHARDSON JR. 32 -46
21 RYAN TRUEX 30 -48
22 MICHAEL ANNETT 30 -48
23 ERIC MCCLURE 30 -48
24 MORGAN SHEPHERD 29 -49
25 BOBBY SANTOS III 27 -51
26 MIKE WALLACE 26 -52
27 CHARLES LEWANDOSKI 23 -55
28 DONNIE NEUENBERGER 21 -57
29 PATRICK SHELTRA 20 -58
30 BLAKE KOCH 17 -61
31 TIMMY HILL 15 -63
32 JENNIFER JO COBB 12 -66
33 KEVIN LEPAGE 10 -68
34 DARYL HARR 9 -69
35 SAM HORNISH JR. 8 -70
36 CARL LONG 8 -70
37 KELLY BIRES 7 -71
38 BRETT ROWE 5 -73
39 JEFF GREEN 4 -74
40 J R FITZPATRICK 2 -76[/spoiler]

That's awesome

Talk about being at the right place at the right time. Glad he was able to help catch the criminals.

Too bad he didn't do it while on rollerskates, that'd have been epic.

edit: http://racewithfaith.com/newsdetail.php?ID=591 has a bit more stuff than what's quoted.. so funny.

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Gael

Wow, he should try to qualify the Batmobile.

From Jim Utter's Twitter (NASCAR media member):

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NASCAR in the up? Phoenix was sold out and hat bigger TV ratings.

The coverage is too bad for local fans to watch at home and forces them to show up to the track to watch, and the high gas prices are keeping the long-distance traveling fans at home and watching the races.

Brian France and David Hill are damned geniuses.
Not really...

I think that was the underdog winner effect of the 500. And an unexpected winner in Phoenix translates to what's going on in Vegas. Wait until Kyle, Carl, Jimmie or Kevin start winning races and it will all come back to "normal".

yeah jeff gordon is an unexpected winner

After 60 something races, it is.

2 wins in the last 115 races.

Would you bet money for him to win every week?

I was honestly shocked to see him win. After so many years of Letarte's idiocy and late race fuckups, I was expecting the worst.

I never waited to celebrate a win only after the checkered flag so much. Three times more than any other Nascar Sprint Cup Race.

I don't get the TV rating thing.. I mean how would you know that Gordon's win = higher ratings? What if someone was watching, and was a huge Burton/Bowyer/Edwards/McMurray etc fan, was watching the first part of the race, then shut it off after the big juan.. does that still count towards the ratings?

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Gael

Is this race worth watching ?

Because I can't remember anything except blown tyres and rexx in T4.

I've always wondered how they figure that stuff out too. Perhaps it doesn't figure in how long people watch and just counts raw numbers on whether people watch it period, be it a lap or the whole thing. If that's the case, then it's no surprise the ratings for both Daytona and Phoenix were higher given how in both races, you had situations near the end that would make a lot of people tune in irrespective of whether they're favorite driver was in it or not and that would certainly increase the viewership for that race. I think that's probably why NASCAR have always tried to ensure the finish is epic, especially in the Brian France era as he cares more about ratings than anything else.