Jack Roush’s Vegas Bets Paid Off
by Tom Jensen October 17, 2024
Hall of Fame team owner Jack Roush hit the jackpot in Sin City early and often.
Gambling on talent helped NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Jack Roush (Class of 2019) win more than 330 NASCAR races, as well as eight championships across NASCAR’s three premier series. And nowhere did those bets pay off bigger than at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Roush-owned Fords won 16 times, with eight different drivers.
Unlike many NASCAR owners, Roush wasn’t afraid to take a gamble, recruiting and hiring drivers with little to no NASCAR experience. Many of his gambles paid off, as Roush-scouted drivers developed into superior talent on the track. Two of Roush’s former drivers, Mark Martin (Class of 2017) and Matt Kenseth (Class of 2023) are already members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and a third, Carl Edwards (Class of 2025), will join them next February.
Beginning in 1997, team owner Jack Roush fielded race-winning Fords in the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy Jeff Bottari/Getty Images for NASCAR
Martin, Kenseth and Edwards are among the drivers who won NASCAR Cup Series races at the 1.5-mile track. With the third round of Cup Series playoffs set to begin October 20 in Las Vegas, here’s a look back at all the victories Roush drivers scored in the Sin City.
Surrounded in Victory Lane by legendary entertainer Wayne Newton and a pair of show girls, Mark Martin took home the trophy in the inaugural Las Vegas 400 in 1998. Photo courtesy of David Taylor /Allsport
Mark Martin, 3 wins
The first driver hired by Jack Roush when he started his Cup Series team in 1989 was Mark Martin. The Arkansas native scored what is arguably the team’s biggest victory at the Nevada track in 1998, when he won the inaugural Las Vegas 400 before a sellout crowd. Driving the No. 6 Roush Racing (now RFK Racing) Ford Taurus, Martin and his teammates crushed the field, with Jeff Burton finishing second, Johnny Benson Jr. fourth and Ted Musgrave seventh. In Las Vegas, Martin would also score a pair of victories in Roush Fords in what today is known as the Xfinity Series, taking the checkered flag in 1999 and 2005.
Victory Lane after the 2000 CarsDirect.com 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway included a showgirl (from left) crew chief Frankie Stoddard, race winner Jeff Burton, Burton’s daughter and wife, Kim. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Jeff Burton, 4 wins
A former racer turned NBC NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton has had more success at Las Vegas than any Roush driver. The Virginia native won the second Cup Series visit to the track in 1999, leading a race-high 111 of 267 laps. A year later, Burton swept the weekend, winning both the Cup and Xfinity Series races. In 2002, he won for the fourth time at the track, capturing the Xfinity race.
Matt Kenseth had quite a crowd with him after he scored his lone race victory of 2003. Photo courtesy of Jon Ferrey/Getty Images
Matt Kenseth, 2 wins
Another Hall of Famer who drove for Jack Roush, Matt Kenseth, had an interesting history with the team at Las Vegas. In 2003, Kenseth won the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400, the third of 36 races on the Cup schedule that season. It was also his lone victory in 2003. However, the next week, Kenseth took the points lead at Atlanta Motor Speedway and held it over the final 29 races of the season, becoming the first Roush Racing driver to win a Cup Series championship. Kenseth repeated his Vegas victory in 2004. Footnote: When Kenseth moved to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013, his first of seven race wins that season came early in the year at Las Vegas.
Carl Edwards celebrated his 2009 Las Vegas victory in trademark style, with a backflip off the race-winning car. Photo courtesy of Harry How/Getty Images
Carl Edwards, 2 wins
One of the most popular showmen among all the NASCAR drivers of his generation, Carl Edwards won two Cup Series races at Las Vegas while driving Fords fielded by Jack Roush. The first came in 2008 in the UAW-Dodge 400, when Edwards took the checkered flag 0.504 seconds ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Class of 2021). Three years later, Edwards finished 1.24 seconds in front of Tony Stewart (Class of 2020). Of course, both times, Edwards celebrated with a backflip.
After winning 2009 Sam’s Town 300, Greg Biffle (right) was greeted in Victory Lane by his Roush teammate Carl Edwards. Photo courtesy Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR
Greg Biffle, 2 wins
Like his former Roush Racing teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle piloted Jack Roush-owned Fords to victories in two different NASCAR Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Unlike Martin and Burton, however, Biffle did not win a Cup race at Las Vegas. Biffle’s first win at Las Vegas came in 1999, when he won The Orleans 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. Then in 2009, Biffle captured the Sam’s Town 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was all smiles after winning the 2012 Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy of Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 1 win
The 2012 season saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. score his second consecutive championship in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The first of Stenhouse’s career-best six wins in the season came at Las Vegas in the third race of the year. Stenhouse won the Sam Town’s 300 by a whopping 5.90 seconds over former Roush Racing driver Mark Martin, who for the only time in his career drove a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in an Xfinity Series race.
A victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Smith's Las Vegas 350 was cause for a celebratory burnout for driver Travis Kvapil. Photo courtesy of Jeff Gross/Getty Images
Travis Kvapil, 1 win
Las Vegs Motor Speedway proved to be lucky for Travis Kvapil in 2007, as he won his career-best fourth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race of the season at the 1.5-mile Nevada track. The Vegas victory was the ninth and final Truck Series win in Kvapil’s career.
Roush Racing scored its first NASCAR National Series race victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Joe Ruttman in 2007. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Joe Ruttman, 1 win
Here’s a good piece of Roush Racing trivia for you: The first Roush driver to win at Las Vegas was Joe Ruttman, who took the checkered flag in the penultimate race of the 1997 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season at the 1.5-mile Nevada track. During the 1997 season, Ruttman captured 5 wins, 13 top fives and 19 top-10s over 27 races in his Roush prepared Ford.
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