Brad Keselowski is back in Victory Circle as he passed a faltering Kyle Busch with five laps remaining and held on for the win, beating his teammate Joey Logano by half a second. This is Keselowski’s first victory in the last 33 races.
The race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was relatively so-so in race-related incidents: six cautions for 36 laps. 
The dreaded water bottle once again showed up as debris on the track, bringing out the first caution. NASCAR has to do something about this situation, as it seems to me a driver just has to flip an empty water bottle out the window when he needs a caution. Drivers need to be hydrated, but there has to be a way for them to have water in their cars without a portable water bottle.
Pit-road speeding penalties seem to be a bug-a-loo at Las Vegas as once again, many pit-road speeding penalties were issued, eight, including one to race winner Keselowski.
Weather was an issue at Las Vegas although it did not delay the race except for a few minutes at the start.  Huge wind gusts, a little rain and a desert dust storm were all part of the afternoon. Announcers seemed to think it would affect the drivers, but because they are the best in the world, they handled it with ease.
“It was dusty, windy, rainy and crazy,” second-place finisher Logano said after the race. “But it made for a great race. I was a little nervous about what Turn 3 was going to look like the first time we went down there. But it was consistent and wasn’t gusting much, so we all kind of knew what we had and could adjust to it.”
Rookie Ryan Blaney, whose sixth-place finish was the best of the rookies, said he was pretty captivated by the strange weather too. “I got blown into Turn 3 pretty hard one time and almost took Dale Earnhardt Jr. out and that would have been terrible. As I was sliding up toward him that was on my mind. But the spotters did a great job of letting us know if it was picking up or what direction it was coming. It was very different today between the dust and wind – definitely more than anything I’ve ever been a part of.”
Fourth-place finisher Kyle Busch seems to have mellowed quite a bit in the past few years. Maybe being from Las Vegas had something to do with it, but surprisingly he was more concerned for the race fans than himself.
“This weather was horrible for the race fans, I’d say,” Busch said. “I feel bad for all of them. When you deal with the wind in the desert you get sand in your face and in your eyes and everything. For us behind the wheel it wasn’t too bad.”
I think Rick Hendrick needs to have his airplanes checked more often. They have had several instances where they either crashed or had mechanical problems. It happened again for Hendrick Motorsports as they were flying back to Charlotte. The plane was carrying team members home from Las Vegas when they detected smoke in the cabin. The plane made an emergency landing in Memphis with no injuries to the passengers.
Tony Stewart has defied doctor’s orders for the past two weeks by showing up at the race tracks to oversee his team. There is one order he won’t ignore: the order he won’t return to racing until the broken bone in his back has healed.
Stewart said Friday he will be ready to race once the doctors give him the OK. X-rays will be taken Wednesday, letting him know his progress and possibly setting the schedule for his rehab and potential return.