Fast Then Crash

First the good news: Scott Speed won the pole for Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by turning a lap at 182.451 mph — good enough for the track record. He became the ninth driver in Nationwide history to earn the pole in his first start.

And now the bad news: Speed had nowhere to go when Kyle Busch’s No. 18 car spun directly in front of him on lap 21 of the Sam’s Town 300. The damage to Speed’s No. 99 Red Bull Toyota was too much for the Michael Waltrip Racing team to fix, and Speed’s day ended right there. He finished 40th.

“It was a good time out there," Speed said. "At least we were running in the front and running well. What can you do? It’s just the wrong place at the wrong time — kind of the story of my year so far. Nonetheless, I’m certainly excited to get back into the next race with this team and with everything we have because we have good stuff. I think we’re going to have a good year in this thing.”