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Patrick looking to step up pace at Las Vegas

Tue 23rd, February 2010

Las Vegas, NV (Sports Network) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, February 27. Race: Sam's Town 300. Site: Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Track: 1.5- mile oval. Start time: 4:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 300. 2009 winner: Greg Biffle. Television: ESPN 2. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN) /SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.

Danica Patrick's learning curve in NASCAR continues this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Patrick finished 31st in her second Nationwide Series start last Saturday at California. Despite falling three laps behind, she finished the 300-mile race without any incidents. Patrick finished 35th in her Nationwide debut at Daytona, where she was caught up in a major pile-up just past the half-way point in the season-opener.

"I'm a competitor, and I'm used to running up front, and it's shocking when you go that far back," Patrick said after her finish at California. "This is a whole new ball of wax for me, and it's all different, and I have to disconnect from the results for quite some time, because they're probably not going to be what I'm used to."

Patrick has a busy schedule this week. She will participate in an IndyCar Series pre-season open test at Barber Motorsports Park on Wednesday and Thursday before heading to Las Vegas for the Nationwide race there. IndyCar is running at the Birmingham, AL road course for the first time in April.

After Las Vegas, Patrick will take a four-month break from Nationwide to concentrate on her full-time IndyCar schedule this year. She will return to NASCAR's second-tier series the last weekend in June at New Hampshire.

Carl Edwards heads to Las Vegas as the current points leader. Edwards, the 2007 Nationwide champion, has finished second and fourth in the first two races this season.

Roush Fenway Racing announced changes to Edwards' No.60 team on Tuesday, with Drew Blickensderfer taking over as crew chief. Mike Kelley had served in the role.

Blickensderfer was Matt Kenseth's crew chief in the Sprint Cup Series since the start of the 2009 season, but last week, Roush replaced Blickensderfer with Todd Parrott.

Kelley will assume the role of competition director for Roush's Nationwide effort.

Edwards has yet to win a Nationwide race at Las Vegas, but finished second to teammate Greg Biffle there last year.

With two races now in the books, Justin Allgaier has performed the best among the series-only regulars. Allgaier, the '09 rookie of the year, is fourth in points (-32) after a ninth-place finish at California and a fourth-place run at Daytona.

In his first Las Vegas start last year, Allgaier led five laps before finishing eight. It was his best finish in Nationwide competition at the time.

"It was pretty neat to go out and be as successful as we were last year at Las Vegas," Allgaier said. "We didn't qualify very well, but we were able to come through the field and race up front. The best part of that race for me was that I was able to pass Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards on a restart, and that's how we got the lead. Unfortunately, I ran out of patience and hit the wall, and that ruined our chances of winning the race."

Fifty-two teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Sam's Town 300.