(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography

By Aaron Bearden

After each NASCAR Cup Series race, Motorsports Beat will share a piece breaking down the stories and takeaways from the weekend. This is a report on the Pennzoil 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series 

Who Won? 

Kyle Larson. He returned to victory lane for a seventh time and first with Hendrick Motorsports after a dominant drive in Las Vegas.

Top Stories

Second chance success

Kyle Larson wasted no time making the most of his second opportunity in the NASCAR ranks. 

Larson looked like every bit of the breakout talent he’s been expected to be on Sunday, winning in just his fourth race with Hendrick Motorsports (HMS). The win was the first for the No. 5 since Kasey Kahne in 2017, crew chief Cliff Daniels’ maiden Cup triumph and the first points-paying win for what used to be the No. 48 team since Jimmie Johnson’s last Dover International Speedway victory in 2017. 

It thrust Larson into a likely playoff position alongside Homestead-Miami Speedway-winning teammate William Byron and added early value to Rick Hendrick’s investment in him at a key time for Larson’s career. 

The driver known as ‘Yung Money’ from his dirt track origins returned to the NASCAR Cup Series for 2021 with new life, joining a top-tier team in HMS where he would be equipped with all of the resources necessary to be a consistent threat for victories and playoff points. 

Gaining such a position was expected from Larson going into a year in which he was arguably the top free agent in 2020. But his path through last season and to this point has gone far different from expectation. 

It’s no secret that Larson came under intense scrutiny last spring when he uttered a racial slur during a streamed iRacing event. The mistake cost him his NASCAR ride, reputation and numerous sponsors. Had you asked 10 months ago, there would have been people unsure if he would ever return to any prominent racing series, never mind NASCAR. 

But over the spring and summer Larson did enough both behind the scenes and on-track in the dirt ranks — he won 46 times in multiple disciplines against some of the best dirt drivers in the world — to gain reinstatement by NASCAR and encourage Hendrick to take a chance on him with the opening created by the full-time retirement of Johnson. 

Whether Larson has done enough to atone for his transgression off-track isn’t up to me to decide. That redemption comes solely off-track and is up to individual interpretation. I’m frankly unqualified to speak on it. 

But on-track Larson has quickly expelled any concerns that he might be unqualified behind the wheel for a ride of Hendrick Motorsports’ caliber. After years of wondering what he could do in top-flight equipment, Larson has inspired early optimism that he may be able to achieve quite a bit. 

That’s not to knock his old home at Chip Ganassi Racing. The company is an NTT IndyCar Series power and has won NASCAR races nearly every year in recent times, including the Daytona 500 in 2010 and the prior Las Vegas Motor Speedway race with Kurt Busch last fall. But the organization tends to fall closer to the B-tier, contending on its best days but usually just outside of the battle for the win otherwise. 

Ganassi is strong, but Hendrick is on another level. It’s an organization known for breeding legends like seven-time champion Johnson and four-time title winner Jeff Gordon. The organization won the title last year with Chase Elliott and is among the early favorites this season, with two wins in the opening four races and strong performances in the other pair of events. 

Pairing Hendrick’s resources with Larson’s talent has already secured his first-ever race win on a 1.5-mile oval. Now we can all collectively watch to see just how high the dirt world’s superstar can rise. 

 

Kyle Busch keeps building

You’re never going to see Kyle Busch happy about a third-place finish. He’s a two-time Cup champion with a fiery persona on-and-off-track, never content to run anywhere worse than first. 

But after a 2020 season that was easily the worst of his tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing, the Nevadan found signs of progress in a third-place run at his home track. 

“It’s all about building blocks,” Busch said on Sunday. I felt like today was a good building process for us. I just always kept trying to give the best feedback I possibly could. Being able to tell (crew chief Ben Beshore) what the car was doing, where we were coming from with the adjustments we were making.

“He was making good adjustments all day. Seemed like the first two or three of them really didn’t do anything. We started taking swings with wrenches in the back window, stuff like that. Off on balance to start. Got way better towards the end. Still there was room for improvement there at the end. Overall, our speed was a little off.”

Busch came into 2021 prepared for change, trading title-winning crew chief Adam Stevens for Beshore, an Xfinity Series call-up that had worked with Harrison Burton last year. 

The pair have the added challenge of having to adapt to working together in one of the most difficult eras to do so, running without practice at most races and qualifying everywhere but the Daytona 500 to open the year. Busch has put in time in the simulator to try to compensate for it, but things don’t always translate perfectly to the track. 

Things started off well regardless of the new pairing, with a win the Busch Clash after leaders Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney crashed in the final corner. But the actual start to the year was filled with radio messages about the same struggles as Busch limped along to 18th in the standings after three events. 

Sunday’s race seemed poised to echo those same results, but Busch rose up over the final stage to score his first top-five of the season. The result lifted the pair into the current playoff field in 14th and will help Busch with an improved starting position this coming weekend at Phoenix Raceway. 

Busch hopes that and a good setup will help alleviate some of the issues his No. 18 team has faced thus far. 

“We kind of had a hole that we had to dig ourselves out of. We’ve been working on that each week, getting closer,” Busch said. “We keep starting these races too far back or too far off on balance with the race car, we miss points in the first stage, and that’s just been killing us.”

 

Going up, going down

Four races into the unique 2021 season and with one “normal” event in the bank at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the NASCAR field is starting to provide enough data to make some early observations about the 2021 season. 

This is particularly true at Vegas and Phoenix Raceway – tracks symbolic of the ones the field will visit in the playoffs and Championship 4. 

So… What have we learned thus far? 

First off, Hendrick Motorsports has came to play. The organization finished second with Chase Elliott in the Daytona 500, seemed to have the Daytona road course race won with the same driver before a late rain caution and then won back-to-back events with William Byron and Kyle Larson. 

The team’s early speed has caught the eye of its competitors. 

“Certainly the Hendrick guys have come to play,” Kyle Busch said of the team. “(Larson) was able to close the deal and finish it off (today). They certainly are pretty quick.” 

Team Penske has also showed competitive pace thus far, contending for wins in both Daytona races and placing Brad Keselowski second at Las Vegas. Ryan Blaney struggled before Las Vegas but ran well in Sin City, while Matt DiBenedetto has shown pace despite sitting 30th in points after a litany of issues. 

Joe Gibbs Racing secured an early victory with team newcomer Christopher Bell, but otherwise the organization seems to be a tick off of its usual form. This has also effected the new 23XI Racing, which dropped in the standings Sunday after a power steering issue dropped Bubba Wallace out of contention early. 

“We as JGR are definitely a little bit behind. We’ll continue to try to work on that and get better,” Busch admitted. “But as the perception seems to be, Hendrick and Penske are certainly ahead of us.”

One team completely off form so far is Stewart-Haas Racing. The team struggled heavily at Las Vegas, each finishing a lap down with no one among the company’s quartet of drivers finishing better than Kevin Harvick in 20th. 

That’s continued a trend of quiet performances from the entire company thus far, leaving drivers like Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe well below the current playoff cutline as the field begins to get into the rhythm of the season. 

It’s still too early to tell if these trends will continue thus far, but early on NASCAR seems to have found both its powers and organizations that have some gains to make. Given the early slate of surprise winners, those starting from behind will want to correct their course soon. 

Notes

• Ryan Preece continues to hang around. He finished a respectable 15th on Sunday to remain 12th in the point standings, keeping the JTG-Daugherty Racing ace ahead of the cut line for another week. 
• Erik Jones and Richard Petty Motorsports find their form this weekend, scoring the pairing’s first top-10 in 10th. That’s something to build on moving forward. 
• Chase Elliott showed pace early on and was in contention for a stage win in the opening stage, but suffered damage and then added to it with a spin by himself. He still finished 13th in the end. But after setting the fastest lap, the No. 9 team has to wonder what could have been. 
• Elliott was better off than teammate Alex Bowman, though. Bowman had a top-10 in sight when a late flat tire dropped him to 27th. It could have been worse, though – Bowman was inches away from being blasted at pace by Anthony Alfredo when he tried to make a late dive to pit road. 
• Things have not gone well for Aric Almirola so far. The Floridian has an average finish of 29.8 through four races in sits 28th in points after a last-place result in Las Vegas. 

Pennzoil 400 Results

1. Kyle Larson
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Kyle Busch
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Martin Truex Jr.
7. Christopher Bell
8. William Byron
9. Joey Logano
10. Erik Jones
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12. Austin Dillon
13. Chase Elliott
14. Chris Buescher
15. Ryan Preece
16. Matt DiBenedetto
17. Michael McDowell
18. Ryan Newman
19. Kurt Busch
20. Kevin Harvick
21. Chase Briscoe
22. Tyler Reddick
23. Ross Chastain
24. Anthony Alfredo
25. Cole Custer
26. Daniel Suarez
27. Alex Bowman
28. Bubba Wallace
29. Justin Haley
30. B.J. McLeod
31. Garrett Smithley
32. Cody Ware
33. Quin Houff
34. Joey Gase
35. Josh Bilicki
36. Timmy Hill
37. Corey LaJoie
38. Aric Almirola

Stage 1

1. Brad Keselowski
2. Chase Elliott
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Alex Bowman
6. Christopher Bell
7. William Byron
8. Matt DiBenedetto
9. Joey Logano
10. Martin Truex Jr.

Stage 2

1. Kyle Larson
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Denny Hamlin
4. William Byron
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Alex Bowman
7. Christopher Bell
8. Martin Truex Jr.
9. Kyle Busch
10. Chase Elliott