Las Vegas drivers remain in hunt as NASCAR chases onward

Of the 20 drivers still eligible to cop the cup in NASCAR’s two top series, three are from Las Vegas.

If you saw that coming 20 years ago, you probably did not grow up in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. When the NASCAR speedway there padlocked the gates in 1996 because of the westward expansion of the Cup series, it seemed most of the top stock car drivers still hailed from the Carolinas or from Hueytown, Alabama.

But as the Sprint Cup Chase clicks its ruby red heels in Kansas this weekend, two of the 12 drivers still very much alive on the yellow brick championship road are the Busch brothers, Kyle and Kurt, from Las Vegas. A rung down the ladder in the Xfinity Series, Brendan Gaughan, another local with some giddyup in his right foot, is among the eight who chase onward.

Kyle and Kurt are in good shape as they continue to trade paint and slingshot passes in an attempt to win their second Cup series championships — Kyle, the defending champ, is third in the Round of 12 and won the May race at Kansas Speedway. Kurt, who won it all in 2004, is fifth with this weekend’s race and one at Talladega still to run before the title contenders are trimmed again to eight.

But good shape in the Chase is a relative term and tenuous, when one mistake can put you out, or at least into must-win mode if you are to advance.

The Xfinity Series is a step behind Cup, as its Round of 8 is just beginning. Gaughan is the fifth seed in the bracket — the only of three Richard Childress Racing drivers to have qualified for the second round. With higher-profile teammates Ty Dillon and Brandon Jones having been relegated to spoiler roles, it can be assumed RCR will throw all wrenches and resources at Gaughan’s No. 62 Chevy starting this week.

“We did what we had to do. We just kept it rolling and kept improving,” Gaughan posted on his Twitter account after starting 11th and finishing 13th in the exhausting weather-delayed Sprint Cup-Xfinity doubleheader at Charlotte.

While that was happening, Hurricane Matthew finally petered out offshore, and weeds creeping up through the asphalt at old North Wilkesboro Speedway grew a little taller.

NASCAR

• Las Vegan Spencer Gallagher, who competes full time in the Truck Series, made his seventh Xfinity Series start of 2016 at Charlotte, finishing 24th after starting 21st. Gallagher was running five laps down to the leaders at the end. He has one top 10 finish in NASCAR’s top feeder series, having finished eighth at Daytona in July.

• After the Battle at Bristol, the game played between Tennessee and Virginia Tech that attracted a throng of 156,990 to Bristol Motor Speedway — the all-time largest crowd to witness a college football game — they left the goalposts up for East Tennessee State and Western Carolina. The Bucs (East Tennessee) defeated the Catamounts (Western Carolina) 34-31 before 13,863 spectators — not a record crowd.

LVMS

• Kayli Barker and Jay Beasley, former class champions at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring, were looking forward to driving in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity tryouts at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida south of Daytona Beach this week. That was before Hurricane Matthew lifted part of the grandstand and dropped it onto the track in the racing groove. Drive for Diversity, which has produced NASCAR talent such as Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez, has been rescheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

ELSEWHERE

• James Hinchcliffe, who drives for Henderson’s Sam Schmidt in the IndyCar series, and pro partner Sharna Burgess continue to top the leaderboard on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.” The two did the tango during Monday’s episode and scored 29 points of a possible 30. In a related development, A.J. Foyt and Parnelli Jones continued to shake their heads.

Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. His motor sports notebook runs on Friday. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski