Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LaJoie has eyes on Las Vegas Busch race

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. His golf notebook appears Wednesday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4089.

One down, one to go.

Immediately following his victory Saturday in the NASCAR Busch Series NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona International Speedway, Randy LaJoie turned his attention to Las Vegas.

"It's a great facility, a great, great race track and it's on my list to win this year," LaJoie said of the 1.5-mile superspeedway, which will host the Busch Series on March 6. "My first one to win was Daytona and my second one to win is at Las Vegas.

"We're going to go there and really get prepared."

Las Vegas Motor Speedway has not been kind to the former two-time Busch Series champion. Two years ago, in the inaugural Sam's Town 300, LaJoie crashed during his qualifying lap and was forced to start near the back of the pack. LaJoie finished 29th -- his worst showing in a season in which he won five races and won his second consecutive series championship.

Last year in Las Vegas, LaJoie was on his way to a top-10 finish -- despite battling an ill-handling car all afternoon -- when he got caught up in a last-lap accident and wound up sliding down turn four on the roof of his car.

"I passed more cars on my roof than I did all day," LaJoie said, summing up his 18th-place finish last year.

Although LaJoie won't test here before the week of the Sam's Town 300, he is well aware that three-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon will be making his 1999 Busch Series debut in Las Vegas and will be here next Tuesday and Wednesday to test.

"Jeff Gordon is going there to test next week for two or three days so you know he is going to be very good," LaJoie said. "We're really going to have to have our stuff together to compete with Jeff when he comes into the Busch Series because you know he's going to have his stuff together."

That's not to say that Gordon will be the lone driver LaJoie has to worry about.

"The Busch Series is a very competitive series," LaJoie said. "Mark Martin and Jeff Burton are always strong when they come into our series, but that kind of (speaks to) the Taurus because they run well. Tony Stewart ran well last year ... Tim Fedewa is going to run good this year in a Pontiac.

"There is a lot of equality in the Busch cars. The Busch Series is very strong and we're going to see how strong we are when Jeff Gordon brings his team into race with us."

LaJoie said he is not interested in moving back to the Winston Cup Series on a full-time basis unless it is with a front-line team. He pointed to his win last weekend in Daytona as the primary reason.

"I came out of Daytona Beach with a victory under my belt, with a nice trophy sitting here from the NAPA 300, with a lot more than I think I could have come out (by) running 15th or 10th or 5th in the Daytona 500," he said. "Yeah, my bank account ... those guys that finished fifth made well over $100,000, but I have a trophy and my name is in that record book at Daytona Beach as going into victory lane.

"And that's what it's all about to me."

* NASCAR: NASCAR officials levied several fines for technical violations in the wake of the season-opening Winston Cup and Busch Series races at Daytona International Speedway.

Newt Moore, crew chief for Robert Pressley's Ford, was fined $5,000 for unapproved brake rotors; Greg Conner, crew chief for Mike Wallace's Ford, was fined $3,000 for a non-magnetic drive shaft; Joe Garone, crew chief for Bill Elliott's Ford and Wayne Orme, crew chief for Dick Trickle's Ford, were fined $2,000 each for use of unapproved exhaust pipes.

On the Busch Series side, Richard Jackson, crew chief for Lance Hooper's World Championship Wrestling-sponsored Pontiac, was fined $10,000 for pulling air from unapproved sources. The infraction was determined following second-round qualifying and Hooper did not make the field for the NAPA Auto Parts 300.

* CART: Henderson resident Richie Hearn will be among nine drivers participating in an open test Tuesday and Wednesday at Laguna Seca Raceway in Northern California.

Hearn and his Della Penna Motorsports team will be putting their new Budweiser Swift/Toyota through its paces in preparation for the March 21 season opener at the Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex. ...

Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas will be among the celebrities competing in this weekend's 11th annual Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament in Rancho Mirage, Calif. ...

Team Kool Green, which fields a car in the CART Fed Ex Championship Series for Las Vegan Paul Tracy, announced this week it will enter a car for Alex Gurney in the Kool/Toyota Atlantic Championship this season. Gurney, 24, is the son of driving legend Dan Gurney and the 1997 winner of the Team Green Academy American Driver Development program at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

* IRL: Las Vegas' Davey Hamilton and team owner Rick Galles are close to announcing a sponsorship deal with Big Daddy's BBQ Sauces and Spices that will allow Hamilton to run the entire IRL season.

Hamilton, who finished second in IRL points each of the past two seasons, ran the IRL season opener last month with borrowed equipment and said it was doubtful he would compete in any other races unless the team found sponsorship. Hamilton finished eighth at Walt Disney World Speedway in January.

* BACKMARKERS: The USAC Coors Light Silver Bullet Series and MCI WorldCom USAC Midget Car Series events from the 22nd Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway will be aired Sunday, Feb. 28 at noon on TNN. ...

Southern Nevada Boys and Girls Scouts will be admitted free to Bud Pole Day qualifying for NASCAR Winston Cup cars on Friday, March 5 and the Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Busch Series race Saturday, March 6, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Scouts must be in uniform to gain free admission. Scout leaders will also be admitted free both days, if they are in uniform.

The grandstands of the 1.5-mile LVMS superspeedway will open at 7 a.m. on March 5 and 8 a.m. on March 6.

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