TBT: 1998 Las Vegas 400 - 1st Vegas Cup Race!

As someone who's always been a fan of the Fords (and who hates their current standing within Cup), this race is absolutely amazing.

It's one of the last hurrahs for Geoff(rey) Bodine in the 7. After struggles for much of the rest of '98 (including a DNQ at Talladega), he'd wind up selling his remaining stake in the team and leaving to drive the#60 for Joe Bessey.

Ford absolutely blows the GM teams out of the water. 19 cars finished on the lead lap. 14 were Fords - including the #90 of Dick Trickle. Earnhardt was the only non-Ford in the top ten - a top 10 that included all five of Jack Roush's entries in the field.

It's also interesting to watch pre-reconfiguration Vegas races just to see how the track differed - a relatively flatter track meant lower speeds - though aesthetically there's still a part of me that prefers the old config. (FWIW, the difference in pole speed between the last race on the old layout and the first on the new? 12 MPH in the lap average).

The race was just a few days before Steve Park's horrible crash at Atlanta - and the #1 team DNQ's this race. A full time DEI team would not DNQ a Cup race again until Paul Menard's exploits in the 15 in 2007.

The Vegas race marked the 33rd entry onto the NASCAR schedule - noteworthy because for years NASCAR had stated they would not expand beyond 32 races. This refusal to move beyond 32 races was cited as a contributing factor in Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre's purchases of 50% each of North Wilkesboro -they each wanted a date for Texas/Loudon and NASCAR wouldn't add a 33rd for either (Fontana was already getting the 32nd date for '97).

Finally: As someone who was a Rick Mast fan (he had some decent runs in some genuinely terrible equipment) - his 11th place here tied his 2nd best finish of the season (8th at Sonoma being his only top 10)

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