Full Throttle

After finishing second to Matt Kenseth two weeks ago at California, one lap was all Jimmy Johnson needed to reverse his fortunes in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at LVMS in “Los Wages.” The driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet nipped the Roush/DeWalt Power Tools Ford driver by .045 seconds - less than a car length.

But it wasn’t all peaches & cream for many of the drivers/teams in the “City of Sin,” and in keeping with the weekends venue this weeks Cesspool is numbers oriented and lists those that “crapped out” in Vegas.

First on the list has to be the #8 of Dale Jr. Starting 42^nd because of a near-crash during qualifying, he had worked is way all the way to unlucky 13th with three laps to go. A caution for debris sent Dale Jr. to the pits for four tires but was issued a pit-road speeding penalty in the process. It forced Junior to the rear of the field for the two-lap sprint. He took the green in 29th and passed two cars on the final lap. A “roll of the dice” and Jr. crapped out and earned his first visit to the NASCAR Cesspool this year.

The #12 of Ryan Newman probably wishes Vegas had been axed from this years schedule. After crashing out due to a blown tire he placed blame on anything but reality: