by Larry McReynolds

Updated: February 28, 2008, 4:01 PM EST

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I applaud what Bruton Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., LVMS General Manager Chris Powell and everybody has done with this track, especially the changes they made before we came here last year. They spent a tremendous amount of money to make this a much more competitor- and fan-friendly facility.

There was no question that after we raced here a year ago on basically a brand new surface — the trucks had raced on it after the renovations were made in the fall of 2006 — that we had a really good, competitive race. And we did it with a lot of tire issues.

As a quick recap, after the resurfacing of the speedway Goodyear came here and tested. Guys were blowing tires left and right because the speeds were unbelievably fast for a 1.5-mile facility. The tire maker went to the drawing board before we came back and they returned with a much harder, conservative tire choice. Still, they got blasted because the cars were sliding around so much. That was a no-win situation.

But that was also in the past.

Watching the teams testing back in late January, I saw that Goodyear has come a long way with the generation of tires we are running now.

When you stack everything into play — the fact that the track has had a full year of aging on it, the amount of grip it still has, the new progressive banking, the tire situation and the way that this new car seems to race and it makes me think that we are going to have even a better race than we had at Fontana, and that's a pretty tall statement because the racing was so good last weekend.

Back to normal

This weekend could be our first normal race weekend of the year. The forecast is good for the weekend — it's actually supposed to cool down a little bit on Sunday. It doesn't look like we are going to be hit by rain or have to deal with weepers in the racetrack.

Everything looks to be normal this weekend.

You got your practice and qualifying Friday, your two final practices to get ready to race on Saturday and the actual race on Sunday afternoon.

I can't wait.

More to come

I think because Las Vegas Motor Speedway has more grip, and the fact that it has the progressive banking, that we are going to see even more passing than we did on Monday at California.

That's the great thing about our sport. There's 43 teams out there — and yeah, in a perfect world we all want to see side-by-side battles for the lead — but the thing I saw at Fontana last week were side-by-side and three-wide battles in the middle and back of the field. Sometimes it's not all about the battle for the lead, it's that battle for fifth or 10th. We saw that all day long at Auto Club Speedway and because of the elements here, we are going to see that even more this weekend.

Remember, this is a little bit of a shorter race — it's only 400 miles — and it's a shorter racetrack.

Certainly all the ingredients are going to be the same if you want to win — you are going to have to get that car to handle, the speeds are still going to be over 200 mph going into the corners, especially during qualifying and sometimes on fresh tires after a restart during the race.

At Fontana, the surface has deteriorated, so whenever a caution flag came out teams had to come in for four tires. But because of the newer surface at Vegas which offers more grip, I think you are going to see a different strategy here. I think we'll see more guys staying out if they have only run 8-12 laps on their tires, especially at the end so they can keep their track position.

Who to watch this weekend

Pretty much Roush Fenway Racing and Hendrick Motorsports have owned this place. Roush was the team to beat in the beginning, winning five of the first seven events, and then Hendrick has won here four times, including the last three with Jimmie Johnson.

Can anybody dethrone these two dynasties?

Based on testing and how they ran at Fontana, Calif., last weekend, I believe we are going to have a heck of a race between those two organizations this weekend:

Jimmie Johnson: He is trying to accomplish something that is nearly impossible, win four consecutive races at one racetrack. But as he's shown at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the past, if anybody can do this it's the driver of the No. 48.

Carl Edwards: Because of how he ran this past week at California Speedway, and how he performed at the preseason test at Las Vegas, you have to believe he will be a contender.

Having said that, although it appears that we have a Roush/Hendrick battle brewing, when I look at the top guys in the points right now I see a group that's ready to end their dynasty.

Kyle Busch: That kid leading the points has extra motivation when we start this weekend because it is his and his brothers' home track. If I had to pick one person, I would say he is going to win this weekend.

Kasey Kahne: He has had a phenomenal record here. He has two pole positions and two top-five finishes — including a runner-up result in his rookie season — in four career trips to LVMS. He looked good at the preseason test and I think that Gillett Evernham Motorsports is starting to get their arms around what was missing last year.

Ryan Newman: I think he will run awfully good here as well.

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FOX race analyst Larry McReynolds has more than 25 years of NASCAR experience as a mechanic, crew chief and broadcaster. He and his fellow Crew Chief Club members take you behind the wall at www.crewchiefclub.com.

"How to Become a Winning Crew Chief" is on bookstore shelves, or you may order your own autographed copy from www.DWStore.com.