What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, huh? Well no one told that to the drivers after they finished testing there in January. They got the word out quickly and clearly — the place is fast.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway underwent a major renovation over the past 12 months, increasing the banking in the turns from 12 degrees to 20 degrees and adding six degrees of banking on the backstretch — from three to nine. There is also a new garage and a new pit road.

The results? We’ll have to wait until Sunday’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 to fully find out, but the safest bet in all of Las Vegas has the track being much faster than last year.

If January’s NEXTEL Cup testing there is any indication, look for speeds to increase by as much as 18 mph over last year’s mark. Elliott Sadler had the fastest lap at testing with a 188.772 mph mark. During last year’s Happy Hour prior to the 2006 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, Kyle Busch had the top speed with 170.089 mph.

The speeds in race conditions are another story. This will be the first NEXTEL Cup race at Las Vegas, but there is some data to go on. Last September, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series raced at the newly renovated track and the speeds increased considerably. For instance, though Jack Sprague had the fastest average Speed on the Backstretch in both 2005 and 2006, the numbers were vastly different. He posted a speed of 158.176 mph on the backstretch during the 2005 race at the “old” LVMS. Last year, at the “new” track, he posted a 174.242 mph speed.

Figure the same to hold true for the NEXTEL Cup race. Also figure that those drivers who have excelled in the past at Las Vegas will continue to do so. It happened for the Craftsman Truck drivers, as Ted Musgrave, Mike Skinner and Sprague all earned top-10 Driver Ratings in both the 2005 and 2006 versions of the track.

Jimmie Johnson has clearly been the class of the Las Vegas field since NASCAR started collecting Loop Data at the beginning of 2005. The winner of the last two races at LVMS, Johnson has an average Driver Rating of 131.4 (a perfect rating is 150.0). The mark is over 15 points ahead of second place Kyle Busch (115.2).

Over the past two years, it looks as if Hendrick Motorsports has pumped out the most qualified cars at LVMS. Joining Johnson and Busch in the Driver Rating top five is Jeff Gordon, who has a 106.1 average Driver Rating. The three also have top-five rankings in Average Running Position. Johnson, with a 4.564 Average Running Position, ranks first, while Busch (5.237) and Gordon (8.820) are third and fifth, respectively.

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