Three observations from Sunday's NASCAR race at Las Vegas

   Three observations from Sunday's Kobalt Tools 400:

   - There have been several doubters of whether NASCAR’s new Chase format would live up to its promises. Three races into the 2014 season, it’s safe to say it’s already delivered. The is no way Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team elects to roll the dice on fuel three races into the season to gain a second win if he wasn’t already virtually ensured a spot in the Chase. He and his crew chief, Steve Letarte, confirmed that after the race. And the downside – which really isn’t one – is there are already three very talented drivers known who will battle for the title – Brad Keselowski, Earnhardt and Kevin Harvick.

   - For much of the weekend, it appeared Danica Patrick may be primed for one of her better NASCAR performances. She was fast in practice on Friday and did well in qualifying. She was also good in Saturday’s first practice session. In Saturday’s final practice, however, she seemed to fall off and in Sunday’s race she quickly fell back in the field. But it wasn’t all bad, by the end of the race Patrick finished 21^st, one lap down, but she was the highest finisher of all four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers.

   - No idea if it’s a sign of things to come but fans certainly turned out in much larger numbers this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway than a year ago. The tone was set on Friday which saw one of the largest qualifying crowds in several years for any NASCAR track. It’s much too early to tell if NASCAR changes this season are the reason, but it’s safe to say they haven’t hurt.

Chip Ganassi Racing adds Dylan Kwasniewski as development driver

   Two-time NASCAR K&N Pro series champion and current Nationwide series driver Dylan Kwasniewski has joined Chip Ganassi Racing as a development driver.

   

   Kwasniewski, 18, will continue to compete in Nationwide with Turner Scott Motorsports but team owner Chip Ganassi hopes to move the 18-year-old Las Vegas native to the Sprint Cup series in two to three years.

   “This young man has impressed us from the moment we saw him,” Ganassi said. His poise, skill and determination on the race track are remarkable for someone so young.”

   Kwasniewski called the move "a dream come true."

   "I have wanted to do nothing but race for as long as I can remember," he said. "I look forward to being part of Chip's organization and will hopefully be a key contributor to its future success."

NASCAR will evaluate new qualifying process and make changes if necessary

   NASCAR officials will continue to monitor and evaluate its new knock out qualifying procedures, which have drawn almost universal praise by competitors and fans but have also raised some potential safety concerns.

   During Friday’s Cup series session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, there were some close calls on the track with cars running at full speed to post fast laps nearly missing cars running off the pace while attempting to cool their engines between runs.

   Driver Brian Vickers, who won the first of three rounds, called the session “the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done in a race car.”

  Friday’s session was just the first on a superspeedway and first using the three-round format.

   “As we discussed with the teams in the offseason, we expected to use the first few weeks of the season to get a good snapshot of how things went and how things played out on various size race tracks,” said NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp. “We’re still in that process.

   “However, the new format has been deemed a success almost universally by the competitors, promoters and fans and that is a very positive development for the sport. We’re getting great feedback and ideas from the garage and if we can tweak it to make it even better moving forward we will.”

   Teams have the ability to address the problem now, if they elected to remove tape from their front grille areas. But unless every team decided to do so, some teams would have an advantage over others.

   When NASCAR first announced the new qualifying procedures it was not going to allow teams to make any changes to the cars during the sessions. It was only upon receiving feedback from teams NASCAR elected to allow some changes to be made.

Who does Dale Junior think is NASCAR's next Chad Knaus?

 

 

   Chad Knaus, the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson's six Sprint Cup Series championships, is not going anywhere soon, but Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has an idea of who the next brightest crew chief mind in the sport may belong to.

   That's Rodney Childers, new crew chief for driver Kevin Harvick, who won last weekend's race at Phoenix.

   “I think that people perceive him as maybe the next Chad Knaus. He has got a lot of respect from his peers because people really realize his potential and his talent. He has got a great opportunity to showcase that," Earnhardt said of Childers. "I think that obviously Jimmie (Johnson) is going to be one of the guys as a favorite early in the championship. But I think that (Kevin) Harvick has been consistently in the top five in points year after year. 

   "I believe that he is really in a program where he can shine with the opportunity with Rodney to excel even more. They will be extremely challenging. I think that the Phoenix race was just a sign of more to come. When we went to test at Charlotte his car was by far superior to everyone else there. I was like ‘man everybody better watch out, everybody better wake up because this is going to be a strong team.’ They are going to be tough and deservedly so. I think Rodney has already had some good success, but this is a great opportunity for him to really showcase his talent. I think he’s got a ton of it.”

Former NASCAR champ Kurt Busch to try Indy 500-Coke 600 double

 

 

   Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, will join Andretti Autosport for the 98th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25. He'll also seek to become the fourth driver to "do the double" by competing in the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C.

   "To add a driver with the résumé of Kurt Busch to the Indianapolis 500 field is a huge gain for IndyCar," said Derrick Walker, IndyCar Series President of Competition and Operations. "We want to see the best 33 drivers put their skills to the test on the biggest stage in motorsports, regardless of which series they come from. To attempt 'the Double' is a tremendous challenge, and we're looking forward to watching Kurt accomplish the feat this May."

 

   Busch, 35, who is dedicating the effort to U.S. military personnel serving around the world, said the opportunity "is a dream come true."

 

   "My dad, a Mac Tools distributor, and I would go to car shows and see Indy cars and he'd say, 'This is about as close as you'll ever get to one of these things' because it was so far removed from what we could dream as a small blue-collar family from Las Vegas," Busch said. "It's just the different opportunities that have come up in motorsports (that have led me) to this biggest moment outside of stock cars.

 

   "It was a talk over dinner (with his agent, John Caponigro) one night on 'what if?' and now it's all becoming a realty for me to drive in the Indy 500 with Andretti."

 

   Marcus Smith, president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, was excited about Busch's decision.

 

   "As a past Coca-Cola 600 champion, Kurt Busch knows what a test of endurance 600 miles can be. To race 1,100 is nearly impossible. Our records show that only one driver has ever completed all 1,100 miles of the double in the same day, and that was by Kurt's new team co-owner, Tony Stewart. To even attempt this takes a lot of guts," he said.

   "Fans will appreciate this effort, and I know they'll be as excited as I will watching the clock to see if he can make it to Charlotte in time for our green flag."
 

NASCAR close to extension with Truck Series sponsor

 

 

   According to several recent reports, NASCAR is close to completing a long-term extension with Camping World to continue to sponsor its Truck series.

   NASCAR issued the following statement on Sunday in regards to the reports:

   "We are interested in extending our agreement with Camping World and we know the company is as well. While we don’t have a signed agreement yet, we are very pleased with the direction in which our discussions are headed. We love our partnership with Camping World and as soon as we have news to share, we will let you know."

  
   Camping World has sponsored the series since 2009.

Tony Stewart will be happy when you stop asking how he feels

 

 

   Speedweeks was NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart's first time back in the car since breaking two bones in his right leg last summer in a dirt track race.

   Obviously, along the way Stewart has been asked how his leg has felt. Stewart was asked yet again on Friday at Phoenix International Raceway.

   Here was his response:

   “I’ll be honest, I’ll be more happy when everybody quits asking me how I feel. I’m not 100 percent. I’m not going to be 100 percent for a while. It was fine. There wasn’t any drama, same as we said for the shootout, same as we said for the qualifying race and same as we said after the (Daytona) 500," he said.

   "I appreciate everybody checking on me, but it’s not going to change in a week. It wasn’t a big drama, everything is fine.  Everything is fine in the car this week so far. Hopefully, we will be able to talk a year from now about how far we have come.”