Stewart loves LVMS racing

Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 | 10:26 a.m.

In his first trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart left the track in an ambulance after crashing out of the inaugural Indy Racing League event here in 1996.

"It was the worst injury of my career," Stewart said. "My collarbone, shoulder blade, pelvis and the back of my left heel -- all fractured."

Unpleasant memories, to be sure, but the incident did nothing to lessen Stewart's fondness for the 1.5-mile superspeedway, which on Sunday will host the sixth annual UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race.

Besides clinching the IRL championship at LVMS in 1997, Stewart has posted two top-five finishes in the Winston Cup race here, including a fifth-place showing last year.

"I really like the track," Stewart said. "The racing will be better this year and the reason for that is it's kind of getting like Atlanta; it's finally getting enough age in the track where the bottom groove is wearing out so once tire wear starts getting to be a factor, guys are going to move around and guys will separate and race on different spots on the racetrack and that will make the racing better."

Las Vegas native Kurt Busch, who admitted to being partial to his hometown track, agreed with the reigning Winston Cup champion.

"It's gorgeous and it's a lot of fun," said Busch, who has two runner-up finishes in two races and is the Winston Cup points leader going into Sunday's race. "You can drive five-wide down the front straightaway and then funnel down to two-wide going into the corners with no stress whatsoever.

"The asphalt has matured well enough there to where you can do a lot of things -- run low, run the middle, and the high groove is coming in as well. You can race side by side for quite a long time around there.

"We'll see some side-by-side racing, we'll see plenty of passing and we'll see some single-file racing -- it's going to be the same as it has been in the past. From the beginning of the race to the end, you never know who is going to win and of course that's what keeps the excitement level up for the fans."

Both Stewart and Busch agreed on another point. Because of NASCAR-mandated changes to the cars' body styles following the 2002 season, fans will become familiar with two phrases this weekend: clean air and aero push.

Because of similarities in the cars' aerodynamic packages, the need to run out front -- in clean air -- will be at a premium Sunday. The cars that are not running in clean air will be subject to the dreaded aero push -- a car's inability to pass because of turbulence created by the car it is following.

"I think we're going to see the aero push thing this weekend but I don't think it's going to be so bad that we're not going to be able to race with each other," Stewart said. "You're still going to be able to race but you're going to have to move around in different spots of the racetrack; you're not going to be able to follow a guy and expect the car to stick.

"You need to qualify well to get a good pit selection and you need to try to stay up front all day. You need to get up front and get in clean air as much as you can. If you can't, you just have to keep working on the car all day and hope that you can get your car right. That's not saying you can't pass here but if you can get out front, you can be a little easier on the tires and the longevity of the run will be better."

Ben Leslie, Mark Martin's crew chief, said getting a proper aero balance at a track such as Las Vegas is even more critical this year because the cars are so similar.

"The aero balance is incredible on these cars anymore," he said. "It's not where it was last year, it's not where it was five years ago -- it's 100 times where it was seven years ago. The aero-balance is almost as important as what springs and shocks you have on the car.

"You hear about everybody getting an aero push behind cars and all that. If you can get that out of your car, then you've done something that nobody else has been able to do and it's a huge advantage. The aero deal, even with the new templates and everything, still plays such a major role in these cars."

Then again, so does a driver's feel for the track. Jeff Burton is the only two-time winner of the Las Vegas Winston Cup race and has four top-10 finishes in five Winston Cup races. He also is a two-time winner of the Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Busch Series race here but is at a loss to explain his success in Las Vegas.

"We've definitely had success in Vegas," Burton said. "But to be honest, I don't know why. I immediately liked the racetrack the first time I ran here and that means a lot. There are several different grooves to run on and I'm a driver that likes to run where the car works best -- it doesn't matter to me whether I'm running high, low or in the middle."