Late surge propels Kvapil to victory
Many in the estimated crowd of 55,000 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday night didn’t get to their seats until after about one-third of the race had been completed.
But the late-arriving spectators needed to be there only for the last 15 laps.
Travis Kvapil was one of three drivers who swapped the race lead over the final 15 laps of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, and he held onto it for the last four to win for the fourth time this year.
The Fenway Roush Racing driver out-battled runner-up Johnny Benson and Jon Wood to win the 146-lap, 219-mile Smith’s Las Vegas 350, which came within one yellow flag of tying the race record of nine set in 1996.
“Awesome finish,” said Kva-pil, who drove the No. 6 Ford.
Kvapil, 31, started on the pole, and although he didn’t lead the first lap, he never ran outside the top three.
Like several drivers, Kvapil had trouble with bumps in the second turn of the year-old racing surface, but a lesson learned early paid off late in the race.
Once he adjusted to a second racing groove above the bumps that he helped create with other drivers moving higher on the track, he was able to rely on the top through all corners.
The native of Janesville, Wis., used the high side through the fourth turn to pass Wood on lap 133 for the lead. Benson took the lead in his No. 23 Toyota from Wood on lap 142, but Kvapil quickly got it back on the next circuit and eventually won by seven-tenths of a second, or about five truck lengths.
The victory might have put Kvapil back into championship contention.
Mike Skinner started the night 29 points behind leader Ron Hornaday, but he reclaimed the top position after a blown right-front tire on Hornaday’s No. 33 Chevrolet with 11 laps left caused severe damage. Hornaday, who was running fourth at the time, finished 22nd.
Skinner leads Hornaday by three points and Kvapil by 181 with six races left.
“Coming into tonight I didn’t think I had much of a shot,” Kvapil said of the championship. “One or two more nights like this, and we’re right in the mix.”
Wood, driving the No. 6 Ford for Fenway Roush, was pleased with his third-place run. He led a race-best 49 laps.
“It’s frustrating to lead that much and finish third,” said Wood, who will return next week to driving for his family’s Wood Brothers Racing in the Nextel Cup series. “But I think it’s a pretty nice night.
“We definitely had a dominant truck.”
Wood was the fastest on the 1.5-mile tri-oval and said he did best on long runs. He started 14th and moved to second before stopping on an air hose to cause an extended pit stop after the first caution on lap 33.
But 41 laps later, he was leading the race.
The near-record number of cautions prevented Wood from maintaining the pace he preferred.
Several cars seemed to have excessive right-front tire wear, which led to blowouts, including two on the No. 77 Chevrolet of Las Vegan Brendan Gaughan.
The first caution was caused by a blown tire on two-time Las Vegas race winner Jack Sprague, whose resulting deposits of debris might have caused Gaughan’s first flat when he was running 10th but fell to 22nd after his pit stop.
A later tire failure on lap 86 ended Gaughan’s night.
• NOTES — Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve qualified seventh in his first NASCAR race but finished one lap down in 21st. Buddy Lazier, a former Indianapolis winner and NASCAR newcomer like Villeneuve, came in 24th after qualifying 21st. …
Part-time Southern Nevada resident Scott Lynch came in 19th after starting 27th.
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