The 2008 UAW-Dodge 400 was the third stock car race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on March 2, 2008, before a crowd of 153,000 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The 267-lap race was won by Carl Edwards of the Roush Fenway Racing team, who started from second position. Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second and Edwards's teammate Greg Biffle was third.
Kyle Busch, the pre-race Drivers' Championship leader over Ryan Newman, won the pole position with the fastest overall lap time in the qualifying session. Busch led the first twenty laps until he was passed by Edwards. He held the lead until the first green-flag pit stops and regained the position after the stops ended. Busch retook the lead on lap 81 and held it until he was passed by Matt Kenseth. Jeff Gordon took over the lead on lap 163, before Earnhardt became the leader on the 181st lap and maintained this position until Edwards regained it 14 laps later. The race was stopped for 17 minutes when Gordon crashed on lap 262, and car parts were strewn into the path of other drivers, requiring officials to clean the track. Edwards maintained the lead at the restart and held it to win the race. There were 11 cautions and 19 lead changes by nine different drivers during the race.
It was the second victory in succession that was achieved by Edwards over the course of the season, and the ninth of his career. He was later issued with a 100-point penalty after his car was found to violate NASCAR regulations, dropping him from first to seventh in the Drivers' Championship. Kyle Busch increased his lead over Ryan Newman to twenty points as a consequence. Ford took over the lead of the Manufacturers' Championship, five points ahead of Dodge. Chevrolet moved clear of Toyota in third place, with 33 races left in the season. The race attracted 12.1 million television viewers.
Background
The UAW-Dodge 400 was the third out of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It ran for a total of 267 laps over a distance of , and was held on March 2, 2008, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a four-turn oval. Its turns are banked at 20 degrees and both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch are banked at 9 degrees.
Before the race, Kyle Busch led the Drivers' Championship with 335 points, six points ahead of Ryan Newman in second and nineteen points over Tony Stewart in third. Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards were fourth and fifth, respectively, and Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top 12. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Dodge and Ford were tied for the lead with 12 points each; their rivals Chevrolet and Toyota were tied for third place with 10 points each. Johnson was the race's defending champion.
In preparation for the race, NASCAR held the second of its two preseason tests for Sprint Cup entrants on January 28–29 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sessions began at 9:00 am Eastern Standard Time (EST), paused from 12:00 to 1:00 pm, and concluded at 5:00 pm Sixty-seven cars participated in the January 28 morning session; Denny Hamlin was quickest with a top speed of , while Kyle Busch was quickest in the afternoon session, with a top speed of . Several incidents occurred during the second session; Regan Smith spun leaving turn two and damaged his car's nose after hitting the inside wall; Sam Hornish Jr. heavily damaged his car after scraping the wall hard; and Dario Franchitti heavily damaged his Dodge's rear after spinning. Jacques Villeneuve spun, but did not damage his car; David Ragan wrecked after spinning off turn two; and Mark Martin damaged the front of his vehicle when he hit a concrete piling after swerving to avoid a tow truck. During the third session with 74 cars, Edwards had the fastest speed of , and Burton damaged the right side of his car after hitting the wall. Juan Pablo Montoya recorded the fastest speed of the two days, at in the fourth and final session.
Edwards was looking forward to the race weekend, and felt his result would be good. Biffle was confident he could secure a top-five finishing position, and stated if his car's handling were good, he believed he could be in contention for winning the race. Having won twice at the track in the early 2000s, Kenseth said he enjoyed racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and hoped the Roush Fenway Racing cars would be able to contend for race victories. Johnson was considered by some bookmakers as the favorite to win the race, and in the event he succeeded, he would have become the first person to secure four consecutive victories in a NASCAR Cup Series racing event since Jeff Gordon won the Southern 500 four times between 1995 and 1998. He said it would be "great" if he took the victory, but would not approach the event differently from at a track where he had not won a race.
One change of driver happened before the race. Jon Wood, the grandson of retired driver Glen Wood, was originally scheduled to replace 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing car, but withdrew because of a lack of experience with the Car of Tomorrow, and former Haas CNC Racing driver Johnny Sauter took over his seat. Wood said he felt Sauter was a better qualifier when Elliott was not available to drive. Kahne developed a sinus infection two days before the event, and his team had Nationwide Series driver Jason Keller ready to replace him if he could not compete.
Practice and qualifier
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race, one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, the second 45 minutes and the third 60 minutes. In the first practice session, Kyle Busch was fastest with a time of 30.009 seconds; Jeff Gordon, Johnson, Stewart, David Reutimann, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, and Jeremy Mayfield rounded out the session's top-10 fastest drivers. Hornish made contact with the turn-two barrier, while Reed Sorenson and Patrick Carpentier spun in turn four, but avoided damaging their cars. Montoya switched to a back-up car after heavily colliding with the turn-two wall, and Bobby Labonte did the same after he lost control in turn four and damaged his left-rear quarter. Kahne made light contact with the turn-four wall, and the car was repaired by his team.
Forty-seven drivers entered qualifying on Friday afternoon. Due to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, 43 could race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitors' fastest times. Drivers who recorded their lap times early in the session were at an advantage because the track was cooler, and thus the air was more dense and the track gave more grip. Edwards felt his car had oversteer during his run. Kyle Busch won the third pole position of his career with a time of 29.613 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Edwards, who was 0.125 seconds slower and had the pole position until Kyle Busch's lap. Martin qualified third, Gordon fourth, and Mike Skinner fifth. Biffle, Scott Riggs, Earnhardt, Kurt Busch, and Sadler completed the top-10 qualifiers. The four drivers who failed to qualify were A. J. Allmendinger, Joe Nemechek, John Andretti, and Sauter (who crashed at turn two on his first qualifying lap). Burney Lamar withdrew from the race prior to qualifying. After the qualifier, Busch said his team was aware of the car's potential, which was displayed in Friday's sole practice session and the January test session; he was worried about his vehicle being very tight going into the first and second turns, having been on the accelerator pedal throughout his fastest lap.
On Saturday afternoon, Matt Kenseth was fastest in the second practice session with a time of 30.321 seconds, ahead of Clint Bowyer, Earnhardt, Travis Kvapil, David Gilliland, Biffle, Johnson, Newman, Hornish, and Edwards. Kyle Busch scraped the outside wall while driving up the track; he sustained minor damage and did not switch to a back-up car. Later that day, Kahne led the final practice session with a time of 30.580 seconds; Edwards, Paul Menard, Gordon, his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Johnson and Earnhardt, Reutimann, Biffle, Bowyer, and Dave Blaney occupied positions two through 10. Bowyer moved to the outside of the track, but was unable to steer left and hit the outside wall leaving turn two and into the backstretch; he came down the track and Kyle Petty hit Bowyer and damaged his front-left fender before Bowyer's car stopped after he made contact with the inside wall. Bowyer was required to use a back-up car, but Petty was able to repair his chassis.
Qualifying results Grid Driver Team Manufacturer 1 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 29.613 182.352 2 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.738 181.586 3 8 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.786 181.293 4 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.795 181.238 5 27 Bill Davis Racing Toyota 29.815 181.117 6 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.817 181.105 7 66 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 29.856 180.868 8 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.861 180.838 9 2 Penske Racing South Dodge 29.871 180.777 10 19 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge 29.881 180.717 11 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.891 180.656 12 10 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge 29.899 180.608 13 17 Roush Fenway Racing Dodge 29.922 180.469 14 00 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 29.937 180.379 1512 Penske Racing South Dodge 29.941 180.355 16 44 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 29.955 180.270 17 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.960 180.240 18 1 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.961 180.234 19 49 BAM Racing Dodge 30.001 179.994 20 77 Penske Racing South Dodge 30.007 179.958 21 07 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.011 179.934 22 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 30.023 179.862 23 70 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 30.030 179.820 24 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.034 179.976 25 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 30.071 179.575 26 22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota 30.108 179.354 27 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 30.123 179.265 28 01 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 30.124 179.259 29 28 Yates Racing Ford 30.132 179.211 30 96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota 30.140 179.164 31 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 30.167 179.003 32 7 Robby Gordon Motorsports Dodge 30.169 178.992 33 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 30.177 178.944 34 38 Yates Racing Ford 30.258 178.465 35 41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 30.271 178.389 36 26 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 30.278 178.347 37 9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge 30.281 178.330 386 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 30.284 178.312 39 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge 30.291 178.271 40 15 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 30.352 177.913 41 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge 30.433 177.439 42 40 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 30.472 177.212 43 83 Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 30.029 179.826Failed to qualify 44 84 Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 30.174 178.962 45 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 30.451 177.334 46 34 Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet 117.513 45.952 47 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford – –
Race Live television coverage of the race began at 3:30 pm EST in the United States on Fox. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were sunny, between , and no rain was expected. Gusty winds from the north created strong headwinds on the back straight. Kenny Farmer, chaplain of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, began prerace ceremonies with an invocation. Actress Carol Linnea Johnson of the stage production Mamma Mia! performed the national anthem, and John Byers, co-director of UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, two drivers moved to the rear of the field because of unapproved changes: Bowyer had switched to a back-up car, and Kahne had changed his engine.