Freezing temperatures and dark, cloudy skies that threatened to dump the valley's first snowfall of the winter hovered over Las Vegas Motor Speedway Friday night as NASCAR veteran Greg Biffle grabbed the pole for Sunday's UAW DaimlerChrysler 400. He will be joined in the 1 1/2-mile oval's front row by 2005 Nextel Cup winner Tony Stewart and defending 400 and reigning Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson, the race favorite. Unseasonably cool weather is forecast for Sunday, with highs near 50 degrees (C) and lows in the 30s. Regardless, the race was expected to sell out. Showers are possible -- the 2000 event was delayed twice because of rain before finally being called with Jeff Burton the leader and winner -- but last time local forecasters predicted precipitation, they were dead wrong. Meanwhile, traces of snow disappeared early Saturday morning, hours before Kasey Kahne held off favored Matt Kenseth to win the Busch Series Sam's Town 300. Kevin Harvick, Biffle and Carl Edwards followed them in the finishing order to give Cup drivers the Top 5 spots. "We lost on Kasey, buy we didn't lose a lot," said Toni Edwards, a sports book supervisor at host Sam's Town. "Matt had the most money on him, then Greg, but he was up there with them." Edwards noted bet shop traffic slowed during and for a few hours after the 300, with hoops and horse players filling a big majority of seats. By 8:30 p.m., the ponies were over and only two NCAA conference basketball games remained on the evening schedule, along with the usual pro hoops and hockey. "We're starting to fill up and it's all NASCAR," Edwards said. Johnson, who followed his Daytona victory with a second in California, was the 9/2 choice. "Everybody's betting him," Edwards noted. Bunched together at 5/1 were Biffle, Kenseth and Stewart. Right behind them were Carl Edwards at 7/1 and Jeff Gordon at 8/1. Edwards pointed out Bobby Labonte had dropped from 75/1 to 35/1. "I saw that he was getting a lot of action, called Jake at the Stardust and told him we needed to move the line on him," she said, referring to former Sam's Town colleague Jake Kolleth, who switched from one Boyd Group property to another. "He was like, 'Whoa, I guess we do.''' |
