If you’re in the Las Vegas area this weekend, be on the lookout for Matt Kenseth putting down a wager on the number 3 somewhere around town.

The way the season has started, I sure wouldn’t bet against Kenseth winning for the third straight time.

The Roush Fenway Racing driver has a chance to put his name in the record books with a victory in Sunday’s Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He would be the first in NASCAR history to win the season’s first three races.

Given Kenseth’s past record at the mile-and-a-half desert oval, the odds of setting the record are pretty good. Kenseth scored back-to-back Vegas wins in 2003 and ’04 and has five top 10s in nine career starts.

In a city built on numbers, Kenseth’s are solid, and after last week’s win in Fontana, he voiced his confidence heading into race No. 3.

“I’ve thought ahead. I feel real good about Vegas,” Kenseth said. “It feels pretty unbelievable to win the first two races, especially Daytona, to be able to come out of the box and run competitively here. I just feel great about the group we have assembled. Everybody’s having fun, everybody’s loose and everybody’s performing at the same time.”

That includes crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, who has started his Sprint Cup career with a 2-0 record.

But Blickensderfer isn’t getting caught up in the numbers game and knows how difficult winning three consecutive Sprint Cup races are at any time of the season.

“We really are trying to not get too wrapped up in three in a row,” Blickensderfer said. “It’s a long season and this is the next race on the schedule. We’ll go there and put in the same type of effort that we have been, and see where it goes from there. We know we have a driver and a team that is capable of winning at this style of tracks, it’s just up to us to put it all together and hopefully we’ll be there at the end with a chance.”

One of Kenseth’s main challenges Sunday will no doubt come from his teammate Carl Edwards, the defending race winner who has a pretty nifty Las Vegas career of his own.

Edwards’ win is one of two top five finishes in four Vegas starts, and after being shut out of Victory Lane in the first two races this season, he’s ready to take his first checkered flag of 2009.

“We only get to go to Vegas once a year,” said Edwards, who did win last year’s race despite being penalized 100 points for an oil cover that was dislodged from its reservoir. “Last year was a blast. We won the race and I want to go back and win another one there. It’s a fun race to win. The Victory Lane is in the Neon Garage Fan Zone. That’s cool. It’s an ‘event’ when you win that race.”

Jimmie Johnson knows what Edwards is talking about -– times three. The three-time series champion is also a three-time Las Vegas winner, having taken three consecutive checkered flags from 2005-07.

Johnson is off to a slow start in 2009 and knows a win Sunday would be just the thing to help jump-start the No. 48 team.

But Johnson also understands that being successful at intermediate-sized tracks like LVMS will go a long way in winning a fourth consecutive championship.

“I think this is going to be a good measure of our 1.5-mile program,” said Johnson. “I think everyone knows where we need a little bit of work and help and that’s on the high-banked 1.5-mile tracks and Vegas is kind of in that middle stage.”

“If I look at Chicago last year, we got beat there on the last lap but it was on a restart and I went up and took the lead from the No. 18 so I feel really good about the Vegas, Kansas, Chicago-style tracks. It’s just the ones with more banking that we need a little bit more work.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.