When Bruton Smith decided to completely remodel the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway two years ago he did it with a view to improving the somewhat insipid racing that had generally been the norm since NASCAR made its first trip to Sin City in 1998.
Following the departure of previous tyre supplier - and title sponsor - Dunlop, the French-based Tech 3 team had a clean canvas with which to work and has opted to keep the yellow of recent seasons, but mix it with blue, France's traditional racing colour.
By Peter McLaren Yamaha caught some by surprise when its 2008 YZR-M1 appeared with the option of a pneumatic-valve engine at Sepang - but at present that development is only available to the factory Fiat team of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.
Having had a lead of more than 850 points over his nearest rival at one point during the season there was no doubt that Carl Edwards would be crowned the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Champion in the final year of the series with Busch as the title sponsor.
Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi maintained Yamaha's current pre-season domination by holding their one-two at the top of the Qatar timesheets during the second day of desert action.
Despite Nicky Hayden's decision to re-sign with Honda, the factory Yamaha team has politely told Crash.net that it can't comment on whether Colin Edwards is now likely to remain alongside Valentino Rossi in 2007 - or if Camel will stay for a second season as title sponsor.
After a nightmare start to the 2006 season, Colin Edwards was relieved to stand on the Shanghai podium, following a hard fought third in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix.
Gauloises Yamaha rider Colin Edwards continued to make headway with the development of his YZR-M1 machine today throughout a very humid second day of a three-day test at Sepang.
After a podium at Qatar and then a difficult weekend in Malaysia, Colin Edwards is eager to return to the front in this weekend's Australian Grand Prix - a 'home race' at a track the Texan knows well.
In a bid to close the gap to the front of the MotoGP field - and championship leading team-mate Sete Gibernau - Colin Edwards has switched away from his World Superbike winning front forks.
Aprilia have officially announced that riders' Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga will both leave the team after this Sunday's season ending Valencia Grand Prix.