LVMS serves as springboard for Sprint Cup title hopefuls

The Daytona 500 is NASCAR's most prestigious race, but a lottery could be used to decide the winner many years.

Some observers believe the Sprint Cup season really begins the following week at Phoenix, but the true start might be in Las Vegas today in the Kobalt Tools 400, which begins at noon.

Five of the race's 14 winners have gone on to win the series season title, and all but Kyle Busch in 2009 made the Chase since the playoff format started in 2004.

"This is our first intermediate track, and intermediate tracks make up such a big part of our schedule and obviously the Chase," Ryan Newman said. "This is truly a good litmus test of what to expect for not just the first 26 (races) but for the rest of the season."

Jeff Gordon in 2001 was the first to win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and go on to take the Cup title. Matt Kenseth pulled off the feat two years later.

No one experienced as much double success as Jimmie Johnson, who won here in 2006, 2007 and 2010 and captured the series title as part of his run of five consecutive season championships.

"I've always enjoyed this racetrack," Johnson said. "I've been able to win here a bunch of times. The cool thing for this track in my mind is how hard you can drive each and every lap. The progressive banking gives us some options to move around the racetrack and find other lanes to run on. You have to pull the belts tight and man-up to run around here. It's a lot of fun."

This weekend, though, has been as much fun for Johnson as watching UNLV's basketball team try to hold on to a big lead. He wrecked during practice Saturday, and will be sent to the back of the today's starting grid after being forced to go to a backup car.

This weekend has reinforced the frustrating start Johnson has experienced this season. His team was penalized 25 points when NASCAR suspended crew chief Chad Knaus for failing an inspection test before Daytona.

Maybe Johnson will run well today and find badly needed hope and momentum.

Last year's race was the perfect example of the kind of harbinger Las Vegas can serve as. Carl Edwards beat out Tony Stewart at LVMS, and nearly carried that over to a Sprint Cup championship. He was beaten by Stewart in the final race at Homestead to decide the title.

It was turnabout for Stewart, who had come one bad pit stop from thrashing the Las Vegas field.

"This was the strongest race that we had last year," Stewart said. "We had a car that just was dominant. We let it get away from us."

Maybe today's race will continue the trend of providing a preview to how the season will play out.

"You can bet if a guy has a good, strong run here that can give you a lot of confidence going to the rest of these racetracks -- Texas and Fontana and Kansas and all these places that rely on this type of setup," Edwards said. "This is one (race) that I've been looking forward to for a number of reasons, but one is to see where we stand and what we've got."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.