NASCAR weekend forecast: Pleasant and fast

Race cars circle the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as the NASCAR Kobalt 400 runs on Sunday, March 6, 2016. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @CSStevensphoto)

Gentlemen, put away your wind tarps.

Here is AccuWeather’s forecast for NASCAR Weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

Friday: Party sunny and very warm.

Saturday: Increasing clouds.

Sunday: Sunshine and some clouds.

None of the following meteorological possibilities was mentioned: windstorm, dust storm, sandstorm, driving rain, ominous purple-black clouds that smack of Armageddon.

Those developments wreaked havoc with the scheduled start of last year’s Kobalt 400, as well as the drive to the checkered flag. Drivers talked about diving into a Turn 3 crosswind and coming out with Dorothy and Toto on their rear spoiler.

The forecast for Friday’s Stratosphere Pole Day Qualifying and World of Outlaws card, Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 Xfinity Series race and Sunday’s 20th running of the Kobalt 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series main event is fast, with a 50 percent chance of a speeding violation on pit road.

It’s even supposed to be sunny, nice and warm — high of 80 degrees — for Thursday’s return of the NASCAR Hauler Parade to the Strip and the Outlaws curtain-raiser at the LVMS dirt track.

While Sunday’s weather in Las Vegas was as blustery as last year’s race day, it was relatively pleasant in Atlanta where Brad Keselowski, the defending Kobalt 400 champion, inherited a victory in the second race of the season.

It has been said that what happens on the mile-and-a-half Atlanta and Las Vegas ovals can set the tone for the season, as winning the Cup usually requires success on the intermediate tracks that form the bulk of the schedule.

It also may require an accurate speed gun on pit road.

Kevin Harvick, the 2015 Las Vegas winner, led 292 of 375 laps at Atlanta and appeared headed to a dominating victory before he was penalized for speeding during his final pit stop.

That handed the victory to Keselowski, who has won two of the past three Cup Series races at LVMS, with a seventh-place sandwiched between victories. Kyle Larson finished second at Atlanta; Matt Kenseth, who won the 2013 Kobalt 400 and has three top 10 finishes in his past four LVMS starts, was third.

Hometown favorite Kurt Busch also will bear watching after breaking through for his first Daytona 500 victory in the season opener and soldiering to a seventh-place finish at Atlanta.

This year’s Kobalt 400 will be held under new rules that break races into three stages, with championship and bonus points awarded to the top finishers of each stage.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.