Jeff Gordon dominated Sunday's Shelby American race in Las Vegas -- leading 219 laps of the 267-lap race. He finished third. (Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)By NASCAR Media
Jimmie Johnson has done it again. He played possum most of the day and then turned on the afterburner to pass teammate Jeff Gordon with just 16 laps to go and win the Shelby American NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Gordon led more than 210 laps of the 267-lap event before losing the lead to Johnson, who seems hellbent to win his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship before Gordon does.

Johnson won last week at Auto Club Speedway and told members of the media leading up to Sunday's race he could care less about the people who think he's tainting NASCAR racing with his dominance.

"You compete to win. I'm not gonna apologize for winnning," he said. "I want to win every race."

While Johnson drove away for Sunday's victory, Kevin Harvick also passed Gordon for the runnerup spot. Gordon finished third ahead of fourth-place Mark Martin. And Matt Kenseth edged Joey Logano for fifth. Logano was sixth, a very impressive finish for the young driver. Tony Stewart was seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, Kasey Kahne ninth and Greg Biffle 10th.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., continued his struggle to compete with the frontrunners by finishing 16th.

Kevin Harvick, who had the most laps led with 82, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning Saturday’s Sam's Town 300. This is Harvick’s second win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)By Reid Spencer (Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
The best car in the Sam's Town 300 finally got to the front — just in time to win the race.

Frustrated by slow stops on pit road and a variety of different tire strategies on the part of his competitors, Harvick passed Denny Hamlin for the lead with 25 laps left in Saturday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and pulled away to beat Hamlin by 1.361 seconds.

The victory was Harvick's first of the season and the 35th of his career, second best all-time in NASCAR's Nationwide Series.

Carl Edwards ran third, polesitter Brad Keselowski fourth and Brian Vickers fifth. Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier, Paul Menard, Greg Biffle and Steve Wallace completed the top 10. Danica Patrick fell out of the race after a crash on Lap 83 and finished 36th in her final NASCAR race before returning full-time to the IndyCar Series.

Fortunately for Harvick, his No. 33 Chevrolet had enough muscle to overcome what crew chief Ernie Cope termed the team's "worst day ever" on pit road. Harvick lost spots on every exchange of pit stops.

"The car was really fast," said Harvick, who led a race-high 82 laps, most of them early in the race before getting burned by the lackluster work in the pits. "We've definitely got some work to do on pit road, but, fortunately, the car was fast enough.

"I get mad, and they (the crew) know how I am and what I expect of them. … But you can only gripe about it so long, and then you have to go back and drive the car."

Jason Meyers has been involved in some thrilling races over the years, but probably none quite as exciting as Friday night, when he battled 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser and four-time and defending series titlist Donny Schatz right down to the wire to score a breathtaking win in the Second Annual Las Vegas Super Sprint Classic at The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before a huge crowd. Even more impressive was the fact that Meyers lined up 18th on the grid for the 30-lap contest and steadily worked his way to the front.

Meyers took the lead from Schatz on the 28th lap on the low side of turns one and two and quickly open a slight gap. Kinser battled Schatz and took the second spot on that same lap and tracked down Meyers on the white flag lap, taking the lead on the low side of turn three, with Meyers battling back off turn four to win a drag race down the front straightway aboard the GLR Investments KPC to score the $10,000 triumph, which was the 36th A-Feature victory of his World of Outlaws career.

"I don't think I have ever won a race from that far back and I don't know when the last time an Outlaws race was won from that far back," said Meyers. "We went out and were trying to get a Top-Five on a night that had kind of gone backwards on us. The guys gave me one heck of a race car and there was a great track tonight. My hat's off to my team."

The win was extra special for Meyers, as his team was mourning the loss of his crew chief D.J. Lindsey's father-in-law Jim Boyd. The Wisconsin native was a fixture at many World of Outlaws events over the years.

LAS VEGAS – As the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s championship playoffs, comes to the season’s penultimate race in Las Vegas, each professional category in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series features its own dramatic storyline.

In Top Fuel, every championship contender is gunning to remove a category dominator from the throne he has held for the past five seasons.
In Funny Car, a female driver is trying to make history and become the first of her gender to win a world championship crown in the wildly unpredictable category which her father has dominated for most of two decades. In order to do it, she’ll need to stop five other men who are also in contention, including one multi-time champ, her former driving instructor, a teammate, last season’s series runner-up, and a driver who’s finished second in the championship standings three times.

NHRA Media PhotoSunday, April 05, 2009
by Candida Benson, NHRA.com

Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), and Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock) were the big winners at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas. The win is Schumacher’s second straight, Capps’ third this year, and Coughlin’s second of 2009.

The three now lead the points in their respective categories. Schumacher took over the Top Fuel points lead with his final-round victory over Brandon Bernstein, and now front former packleader Antron Brown, 412 to 394. Capps has led the points all year long, and he just added to his lead when he defeated teammate and new second-place driver Matt Hagan; Capps has a 106-point advantage, the biggest lead of any class. Like Schumacher, Coughlin took over the points lead when he won the final round. Coughlin trailed then-leader Jason Line by two points entering his final-round bout with Greg Stanfield and now leads Line by 18.

Tony Schumacher