Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net
Chevy Drivers talk about LVMS from their favorite moments to track strategy.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
What are your thoughts on Las Vegas Motor Speedway?
“Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a great mile-and-a-half. The track is rough through Turns 1 and 2, and you have to be able to cut through the bumps. Restarts are wild, too. Vegas is an awesome place to go.”
What makes Las Vegas Motor Speedway a race every fan should experience in person?
“Obviously, the atmosphere at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is pretty cool. You get the nightlife and the fun that goes on in the city, and it just naturally translates over to the track. I feel like the racing is really good. The groove has spread out over the years. The track has a lot of character. It’s a cool track.”
What’s the biggest win you’ve had on or off the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway?
“It’s hard to choose between my NASCAR Truck Series win and my NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win there. I loved my NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win in the No. 33 racing Ryan Blaney in the Penske car at the end of the race in 2015. Nick Harrison was the crew chief, and he decided to keep me out. We dominated the entire race, and when the caution came out, we stayed out but Blaney came to pit road to get tires. Nick lied to me and told me that no one got tires. All of the sudden, I’m having to race Blaney with what I’ve got. I blocked him all the way to the grass in that race and was able to win it on older tires. After the race, Nick just said, ‘I told you we’d be all right,’ and I was like, ‘what do you mean?’, and he told me Blaney had tires behind me. I was glad he didn’t say anything during the race. I knew as dominant as we had been all day, that when Blaney caught me as fast as he did, that I was in a situation and there was no way we were on even tires. It was just a ‘it is what it is’ situation, and I hoped that his stuff fell off.”
Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
What makes Las Vegas so exciting and challenging?
“Vegas is exciting because it has a lot of character. It’s a mile-and-a-half racetrack with lots of options. You can run the middle, the bottom, or the top. It sits out in the middle of the desert, so it can get pretty windy. The car is very sensitive to the wind, and those conditions can change quite a bit, which makes it a challenge. The wind and weather in Las Vegas is also pretty unpredictable, so you just have to be able to feel the car and figure things out as the race goes on.”
You finished second at Las Vegas last Spring. What’s the biggest win you’ve gotten in Vegas, whether that be a personal victory at the casino or a good run at the racetrack?
“I’m not a gambler. The only place I gamble is at the racetrack. Finishing second last year was very painful. Sometimes it’s almost better to finish fifth than second because second is just so close – especially the way I finished. I feel like there were a couple of things we could have done differently, but that’s racing. You live and learn. Vegas has been a good place for me in the past, and I’m looking forward to going back.”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
What makes this track unique to its other 1.5-mile brethren?
“I would say what’s cool about Vegas and makes it a little bit different from the other mile and a half racetracks out there is the banking. It’s probably banked more than some of the others and it lends itself to some really good racing. A lot of the other mile and a half racetracks have sort of been repaved over the years with progressive banking, but this one still has standard banking, but it races really well. You can run bottom, middle, top, it kind of depends where your car works well.”
How does having multiple grooves play into the driver’s hands having a choice at a track like this to find clean air and keep momentum?
What is the vibe of the Las Vegas racetrack and how do you experience that as a driver there?
“I think it’s a really cool vibe at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Not only do you get some of the nightlife there, but you get the racetrack as well, the neon garage with all of its access, the fan area as well with everything going on out there, driver appearances, stage appearances, cool celebrities coming out to that race sometimes. So, it’s a really neat race to be apart of, and you should come check it out.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
“I think Las Vegas Motor Speedway has probably always been our best mile-and-a-half racetrack, along with Homestead-Miami Speedway. It’s a really fast track. In Turns 1 and 2, you’ve got to get through the bumps, and in Turns 3 and 4, depending on how warm it is, it can get really slick. It’s a track where we have good notes and a setup we can rely on from the past. Hopefully, we can go there and, as always, unload super quick, only have to make small adjustments, and put together another solid race.”
Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet
“Las Vegas is the first intermediate track of the year, so everybody is excited, seeing this package for the first time of the year and seeing what we can do out there with our HaasTooling.com Chevrolet Camaro. Also, with it being as hot as it is going to be in Vegas this time, the track surface is going to be hot and slick, with people sliding around, so it’s going to be interesting to see who handles that the best.”
