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NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Race
#19 | Smith’s Las Vegas 350
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, Nevada
Saturday, September 22, 2007
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With Saturday's victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Travis Kvapil joined Ron Hornaday Jr. and Mike Skinner as a four-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series winner in 2007. Kvapil, however, still is scratching his head over his performance a week earlier in New Hampshire. It might be a case of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" but his 181-point deficit in the race for the 2007 title might be much smaller. (Ronda Greer Photo)
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Travis Kvapil lights 'em up in celebration after winning the Smith's Las Vegas 350. (VPS Motorimages Photo)
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Travis Kvapil found an outside groove that hooked up with his Roush Fenway Ford late and made two passes that carried him to victory Saturday night in the Smith's Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Kvapil, who started from the pole, was running third behind Jon Wood and Johnny Benson on a restart with 29 laps remaining. "I didn't think I had much for them because we were all running the same lap times," Kvapil said. "I knew I had to try something different. I'd been running the outside in (Turns) 1 and 2 and decided to test the waters in 3 and 4. I had clean air out there, it stuck good for me, I had momentum, and I was able to make the passes." Kvapil went around Benson exiting Turn 4 to take second 11 laps later and made the same maneuver on Wood four laps later to take the lead on Lap 133 of 146 on the 1.5-mile superspeedway. Wood was third, followed by Terry Cook and Erik Darnell. It was the best finish of the year for both Wood, who has run only six NCTS races, and Cook, who has run the entire schedule.
Jacques Villeneuve became the first Formula One world champion to drive in a NASCAR race in nearly 40 years and the second ever. The Canadian started seventh, fell to 15th in two laps and then began holding his position. Villeneuve damaged the front of his truck in making contact with Brian Scott on Lap 47, but managed to bring it home one-lap down in 21st. Buddy Lazier, the 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner, also made his NASCAR debut and finished 24th.
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Travis Kvapil found an outside groove that hooked up with his Roush Fenway Ford late and made two passes that carried him to victory Saturday night in the Smith's Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kvapil, who started from the pole, was running third behind Jon Wood and Johnny Benson on a restart with 29 laps remaining. "I didn't think I had much for them because we were all running the same lap times," Kvapil said. (VPS Motorimages Photo)
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Travis Kvapil held off a furious charge by both Johnny Benson and Jon Wood over the final six laps to pick up his fourth win of the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the Smith's Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After the final restart of the evening, first Wood and then Benson both took a run at the lead but in the end Kvapil was able to hold on to pick up the win by 0.718 seconds over Benson. Wood had his strongest run since returning to the series full-time earlier in the year, coming home in third. (Ronda Greer Photo)
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It hasn't happened often this year during qualifying, but Mike Skinner found himself bumped off the top of the charts with another Bud Pole Award in his grasp. Skinner will start outside the front row for tonight's Smith's Las Vegas 350 after Travis Kvapil ran a lap at 30.789 seconds/175.387 miles per hour to take his third pole of the 2007 season. Skinner was the only other driver to break the 175 mile per hour barrier, running a lap at 30.854 seconds/175.018 miles per hour. (VPS Motorimages Photo)
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When the green flag waves over the Smith's Las Vegas 350 this evening at 9 pm Eastern on SPEED, another milestone for women in NASCAR will have been conquered. Kim Lopez Johnson will be the lead Official Starter located in the flagstand at the start/finish line. Johnson will become the first female in a NASCAR national series event to tackle one of the most demanding positions for any official NASCAR inspector. Johnson, a Queens, New York native, had never been to a race until a few years ago after following her father to North Carolina. (CloseFinishes.com Photo)
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The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has always gone big in Las Vegas. The inaugural Truck Series event at LVMS in 1996 brought one of the largest entries in series history, and also had the largest starting field in history as well when 40 drivers took the green flag. For three seasons, from 1996 through 1998, the series champion was crowned in Las Vegas and the 1998 championship - won by Ron Hornaday, Jr. over Jack Sprague by just three points - wasn't settled until the last lap. Hornaday's three point margin of victory remains the closest in series history. (David M. Vaughn Photo)
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After reaching the pinnacle of the sport with a Daytona 500 win in 2002, Bill Davis Racing has strived to regain that form in recent months. One of the flagship Toyota teams in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams, the team has picked up 15 NCTS wins since 2005 with drivers Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson, Jr. In an effort to bolster the organization's Cup Series program, 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1997 Formula One World Driving Champion Jacques Villeneuve will join the team and run the final seven Truck Series races in 2007 in preparation for a full Cup run in 2008. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR Photo)
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Mike Skinner, winner of the 2006 Smith's Las Vegas 350, is favored by Station Casinos' oddsmaker Micah Roberts to repeat in Saturday evening's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Current series points leader Ron Hornaday is next at 4-to-1. Todd Bodine, who has won at LVMS in both Craftsman Trucks and the NASCAR Busch Series, goes off at 6-to-1. Roberts believes LVMS' high-speed highbanks will be tough to tame and so "rookie" Jacques Villeneuve has been relegated to 25-to-1. (VPS Motorimages Photo)
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Performance on the intermediate speedways - those measuring 1.5-miles in length - likely is the key to winning the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship. Simply stated, four of the remaining seven races, beginning with Saturday's Smith's Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will be contested on 1.5-mile ovals. Who's the favorite? Take your pick. Mike Skinner (No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota), who trails Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet) by 29 points, is the defending winner at LVMS. (Ronda Greer Photo)
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Formula One champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve (No. 27 Bill Davis Racing Toyota) is set to make his NASCAR debut this week in Las Vegas. But Canadian competitors are no strangers to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In fact, Randy Churchill of Windsor, Ontario, competed in 1995's seventh race at I-70 Speedway near Kansas City. Churchill's father, Jerry, joined his son at Bristol, making them the first father-son entry in a series race. Randy MacDonald of Oshawa, Ontario, is the Canadian leader in starts (94) and winnings ($953,783).
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The official entry list for the Smith's Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the nineteenth event of the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
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The announced debut of Formula One and Indianapolis 500 champion Jacques Villeneuve at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sept. 22 was a surprise to the racing world. It is no surprise, however, that team owner Bill Davis is using the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to prep the 36-year-old Canadian for NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series competition in 2008. With NASCAR's new car sharing handling characteristics with the Toyota truck Villeneuve will drive in the season's final seven races, the connection is obvious.
UPDATE: Villeneuve Third F1 Driver - On August 28, 1999 at Heartland Park Topeka, Topeka, Kansas - Olivier Beretta drove the No. 4 Bobby Hamilton Racing Dodge, sponsored by DANA/MOPAR - he started 10th, finished 17th on the lead lap in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 275. Villenueve will join the NCTS ranks with former F1 drivers Eliseo Salzazar and Olivier Beretta - becoming the third F1 driver to ever compete in the NCTS.
(Team PR Photo)
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South Point Racing will host its Annual Open House meet and greet on Friday, Sept. 21 and fans are invited to tour the race shop and visit with driver Brendan Gaughan...
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Smith's Las Vegas 350 - Las Vegas Motor Speedway
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Event Schedule
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The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will continue to have cosponsorship from Smith's Food & Drug Stores and Las Vegas Events. Smith's joined with longtime Truck race sponsor Las Vegas Events last year and both have elected to return to their title roles for the Sept. 22 Smith's Las Vegas 350.
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The spectators who are found guilty of throwing cans and other debris on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway will not be welcome at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. LVMS general manager Chris Powell said Wednesday that fans banned from Talladega as a result of Sunday’s trash-throwing incident will not be allowed to purchase tickets at LVMS.
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