Local star, rock star featured at Bullring’s NASCAR event

A racing star and a rock star will add luster to the year's biggest NASCAR Super Late Models race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Bullring.

Las Vegas native Kyle Busch will make his second start of the year on the three-eighths-mile oval Saturday night. Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell, who will try to qualify for his first stock-car race, will join Busch at the track.

The annual Fall Classic, which begins tonight with qualifying and heat races, is expected to have around 30 Super Late Models trying to make Saturday's 140-lap feature that pays the winner $5,000.

Busch will compete in today's NASCAR Craftsman Truck race at Phoenix International Raceway, where he'll also run in Saturday's Busch Series event before jetting to Las Vegas. He'll fly back to Phoenix after the Classic for Sunday's Nextel Cup race.

Busch will receive a "promoter's option" that locks him into Saturday night's race, which is to start at 9 p.m.

Harwell, who joined Busch for testing this week at the Bullring, will be driving a car owned by Dick Cobb that Dustin Ash drove to this season's Bullring championship.

Ash can't compete in the Fall Classic because he'll be attending the NASCAR All-American Series banquet Saturday at Mandalay Bay as the Super Late Models state champion.

Harwell, 40, has raced shifter go-karts and has been logging practice laps in the Charlotte, N.C., area. The Las Vegas resident hopes just to qualify for the feature race.

"I've done a little racing here and there," Harwell said. "I'm learning, asking questions and taking advice from Kyle."

Smash Mouth is best known for hits "Walkin' on the Sun" and "All Star."

IMCA Modifieds will compete tonight for a $2,500 first-place check in a 100-lap race.

Other feature races include Bombers (50 laps) tonight and Late Models (100 laps), Legends Cars, Chargers, Bandoleros and Thunder Roadsters on Saturday. Qualifying and heat races begin around 4 p.m. each night with the main event starting around two hours later. ...

The speedway suggests using Las Vegas Boulevard to avoid freeway traffic headed for the air show at Nellis Air Force Base this weekend.

• NASCAR -- Three-time Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr. will leave IndyCars to drive a third Nextel Cup car for Penske racing.

Hornish, the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner who has failed to qualify for the six Cup races he has entered, will try today to qualify for Sunday's Cup race.

• DRAG RACING -- Ashley Force, 24, has been voted top professional rookie in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series. Her highlight this year was two weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when she became the first woman to advance to a Funny Car championship round. ...

Antron Brown will drive a Top Fuel dragster next year for David Powers Motorsports, where he will be a teammate to Rod Fuller, who is set for knee surgery today in Las Vegas. ...

J.R. Todd has joined Morgan Lucas on the Lucas Oil Racing Top Fuel team.

• DESERT RACING -- A successful Championship Off Road Racing event was completed Sunday to open Las Vegas International Off Road Raceway in Primm.

Carl Renezeder won the Jason Baldwin Memorial Cup race. Scott Douglas in Pro 4 title and Las Vegan Rob MacCachren in Pro 2 also won.

Thirty-one Nevadans are among 450 teams entered for the 40th SCORE Baja 1000, which is to begin at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday in Mexico at Ensenada. The 1,296-mile race along the Baja California peninsula will finish in Cabo San Lucas around 24 hours later.

Troy Herbst of Las Vegas and teammate Larry Roeseler of Hesperia, Calif., will go for an unprecedented fourth straight Class 1 title.

• LVMS VOLUNTEERS -- Las Vegas Motor Speedway needs volunteers to work during the Feb. 29-March 2 NASCAR Weekend. Each will receive access to the speedway's Neon Garage and an event hat. Contact volunteer@lvms.com.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0247.