Roush drivers Martin, Burton are kings of LVMS speed

Friday, March 3, 2000 | 10:09 a.m.

Experienced gamblers will tell you that there is no such thing as a sure bet.

But when it comes to the Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it's a safe bet that one of Jack Roush's drivers will be running up front -- if not in the lead -- when the checkered flag falls.

In the two previous Winston Cup events at LVMS, Roush has visited victory lane twice -- with Mark Martin in the inaugural race in 1998 and again last year with Jeff Burton.

Martin also won last year's Busch Series race here, giving him two wins in three starts on the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

"I don't dare hope for the same success we've had here in the Busch and Cup cars," Roush said, "but we haven't had a bad day here yet."

But Roush is quick to point out that two wins in two Winston Cup races at LVMS doesn't exactly make for a dynasty.

"That's a really small sample size," Roush said. "I think over the broad picture that we will not win more at Las Vegas than other folks and we're less likely to win this year than we have been in the past.

"If you look at a 10-year run, we will probably not win more than our competitors (at Las Vegas)."

Burton agreed with his car owner that other teams eventually will catch up to Roush Racing when it comes to nailing the race setup for LVMS.

"I hope we'll be better at Vegas three years from now than we were the previous two, but everybody else will be better, too," he said. "That's kind of what happens; you can have something that works really well for a little while but sooner or later, somebody is going to figure out something better."

Roush's drivers have yet to visit victory lane in 2000, but they've been close. In the season-opening Daytona 500, Burton finished second to Dale Jarrett while Martin ran fifth. Last week at Rockingham, a mechanical problem had Burton way down in 32nd at the end but Martin was a solid eighth in a race won by Bobby Labonte.

Burton said he and his Roush teammates got a handle on what it takes to run well at Las Vegas when Martin came out for a test prior to the inaugural race here.

"Mark came out here the first year and did a test and that test seemed to get us down the road on a setup," he said. "When we unloaded here the first year we came, we put Mark's setup in the car and we were really close -- and obviously Mark was close -- and that setup was a really good baseline setup.

"We've been able to modify and improve that setup a little bit but I think that (test) really got us pointed in the right direction."

Roush said having two drivers who are as flexible on the track as Martin and Burton has been a big reason for their success at Las Vegas.

"Mark and Jeff both adapt very, very well to anything that changes in the race-track environment and the fact that nobody had books or a lot of history to draw from let their ability to really adapt be telling," he said.

Martin is at a loss to explain his success at the 3-year-old speedway.

"I don't know what it is ... there are particular race tracks that have not come easy for me ... but certain race tracks just fit different driver's styles.

"Las Vegas is a wonderful race track, it's a driver's dream. It's a great place to race, it's a great place to go, a wonderful race track and a wonderful city with lots of things to do. It's really an honor to race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ... and all these new race tracks. It's just a dream come true for me."

Although Burton comes into Sunday's race as the defending champion and Roush cars have had success at LVMS, the 32-year-old native of South Boston, Va., said that doesn't make him any more confident that he can repeat.

"Every race is a new race and as easily as we ran well, we could run poor," said Burton, who finished second to Martin in the inaugural race. "We have got to come here and improve on what we did last year -- we don't have to improve on the result, but we have to improve on how we did it because every year it gets harder."

One area in particular that Burton will try to improve is his qualifying effort. Last year, Burton qualified 19th in his Exide Batteries Ford.

"We are trying real hard this year to improve our qualifying effort, to have better results," he said. "We need to qualify better. Qualifying does some things for you, some intangibles, that you need to be able to take advantage of."

But at a track that is as wide as Las Vegas, Burton conceded that starting position is not as important here as it is at other tracks.

"Any track where it's easier to pass on, there's less of a premium on qualifying," Burton said.

Saturday's Sam's Town 300 Busch Series race is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400 will begin at 11:30 a.m. and will be televised live by ABC Sports.