By Aaron Bearden

Takeaways from NASCAR’s spring trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Main Takeaway

Kyle Larson and Hendrick Motorsports picked up where they left off in the NASCAR Cup Series return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The 2021 champ had won at the facility five months earlier, leading 133 laps en route to a victory that clinched his spot in the Championship 4. No one knew how Sunday might shake out, given the new bodies for both Ford and Toyota. But in the end it was Larson reigning supreme again. 

Larson led 181 of Sunday’s 267 laps, sweeping the stages and earning a playoff-clinching win in the first ‘normal’ race of the NASCAR season. 

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the No. 5 team. Larson had to fend off a hard-charging Tyler Reddick at the end of every stage. 

“I knew it was going to be cat and mouse,” Larson said of the battle at the end. “I knew I was going to have to kind of catch him off guard with a late kind of block.”

Larson did so with ease, fending off a late challenge to win by .441 seconds. In doing so he secured his playoff berth and took the maximum seven playoff points on offer. 

It was a similar Vegas win in 2021 that kickstarted Larson’s dominant championship run. But he was hesitant to expect similar results this year. 

“Next Gen racing is so much different than 2021,” Larson said. “Who knows. Yes, I think we have the potential within our team to do that. I think it will be much harder. When we won here in 2021, we killed them at the end. This, we had to fight really hard for it.

“As Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) mentioned, the field is much tighter, so that’s going to make winning much tougher than back then. Again, I think out team is well capable of it. I feel like we’ve done a really good job of executing to start the year.” 

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Good, Bad and Ugly

Good: Noah Gragson’s strong run

Noah Gragson entered Sunday worse off than everyone watching at home in the point standings. 

He left the day with perhaps the best run of his Cup career. 

The Stewart-Haas Racing newcomer was one of two company teams hit with penalties for pre-race inspection failures at Atlanta. The penalty, paired with an early DNF in Atlanta, left Gragson with -6 points entering Sin City. 

Gragson flipped the script with Sunday’s run. He qualified a disappointing 30th, but rallied to sixth for his first Cup top-10 in a non-superspeedway race. 

The Nevadan was still hard on himself after the race, but acknowledged the significance of a strong early-season run. 

“We definitely need to be better, and I need to clean some stuff up,” Gragson said. “Really, other than that last restart, I don’t think I had any net gains on restarts, so I need to keep working on that. I’m still trying to figure it all out, but overall it’s a good stepping stone to where we’re at right now. 

“We’re going to take this and get back into the positives in points and just keep on working, keep on learning and becoming better than we were yesterday and just keep that attitude. I think we’ve got the tightest group in the garage. They’re awesome to work with and I love every one of them.”

Bad: Reddick falls just short

Had he ever gotten clean air, there’s a chance that Reddick would be the one basking in the glow of a stage-sweeping win. 

The 23XI Racing star had the best long-run car on the day. In each stage he chased Larson down in the closing laps, running just behind the No. 5 Chevrolet all three times. 

But Reddick could never find a way past Larson when it counted. The 2021 champ was able to block Reddick, trapping him in dirty air. The No. 45’s closest call came with two to go, when he streaked across the line just behind Larson. But Larson was again able to trap him in his wake.

“There with two to go, he expected I think me to run the middle or top or something, and I was able to do kind of a nice lazy arc to the bottom and take his air away in the center of 3 and 4 and got him tight,” Larson said. “That killed his run down the front stretch, and thankfully that was the white flag. I knew as long as I hit my marks I was going to be safe to the checkered.” 

Reddick did everything in his power, but felt there was no way past Larson at the end of the day, 

“I kept trying to run higher and higher,” Reddick said. “(Larson’s) running in the middle of the race track, which is pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I sort of got close, we’re running just wide open enough in turn one and two, you can kind of defend pretty well.”

Ugly: William Byron takes out the trash

Sometimes in NASCAR everything works out, and you can win on the grandest stage. That’s what happened to William Byron just two weeks ago in the Daytona 500. 

Then there are days like Sunday. 

Byron had one of the fastest cars on the weekend in Les Vegas. He led early and was considered one of the biggest threats to topple Larson and go to victory lane. But last year’s winningest driver caught an unfortunate early break when he ran over a large trash bag. 

It covered the grille on Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet, causing it to overheat almost instantaneously. 

“My temps went from 250 to 350 (degrees) in like 10 seconds, Byron told FOX Sports. ”I’ve never had that happen.” 

The North Carolinian stayed in the race and went on to salvage a top-10 finish. But he never quite rose into contention. Afterward crew chief Rudy Fugle told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Monday that the team discovered a surprise. 

“I’m pretty positive (the bag) had a beer can in it because that beer can got stuck in our air filter,” Fugle said. “So after the race, there was a Silver Bullet in our air filter somehow.”  

That probably wasn’t the only beer the team went in search of after a winning opportunity was thrown in the trash. 

Bad: Buescher busts the wall

Chris Buescher was the surprise of the 2023 Cup season, making a deep playoff run after scoring a trio of regular season wins. 

He made an impact in Sunday’s race, too. But it wasn’t a positive one. 

A lost right-front wheel led the Texan into a crash just 28 laps into the Pennzoil 400. Buescher slapped the wall hard in Turn 1, bringing out an early caution. It quickly turned to a 10-minute red flag when NASCAR officials realized the wall required repairs. 

It wasn’t the first time Buescher has endured a tire-related impact in the Next Gen era, which provides little indication that a wheel issue is coming. 

“I’ve probably had three of these now through the last couple of years and haven’t had a warning on any of them,” Buescher said. “It’s nothing like the old five lug stuff where you’d get a vibration or a shimmy or have some kind of clue. It just happens all of a sudden.

Good: Chastain salvages his day, throws a little shade

Las Vegas has been a good track for Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing. The group had three top-fives in four starts together at the track heading into Sunday’s race. 

They left with another one—but the road to it wasn’t as smooth as the end result would suggest. 

Chastain started the weekend with a loose wrap in qualifying that necessitated a trip to the tail for unapproved adjustments on Sunday. The Floridian added another hurdle when he got a speeding penalty on pit road in stage two. A timely caution late in the stage allowed Chastain to take the wave-around and rejoin the lead lap, but he had to fight back up the order. 

The chance to salvage the team’s day came with 33 to go, when a Corey LaJoie spin brought out a caution. Everyone pitted for fresh tires, but crew chief Phil Surgen elected for a two-tire stop to give Chastain track position. 

Chastain leapt up to the front row with the call. He held on with a spirited drive from there, finishing fourth at race’s end. 

It was a bittersweet result given the run that preceded it. 

“This speed,” Chastain said. “I mean the handling of the car is incredible for our Kubota Chevy. It’s everything that I wanted, dream about, and wake up and train for is to drive cars like this. That’s what makes it hurt so much worse. 

“When we finish fourth and we were legitimately an eighth-place car, it’s something we’re high-fiving. You all have seen me in my career, I’d jump up and down for a fourth-place finish. If someone is just glancing at my interviews, they’re going to say, ‘Well, Ross is changing,’ but I’m not. 

“When I have a car capable of fighting for the win, and I take ourselves out, that’s what I can get down about right now, but excited about because I know how good the car was and how much speed it has.”

Chastain’s late scramble also contributed to playful banter with defending champion Ryan Blaney. Chastain had earned Blaney’s ire in the Phoenix Raceway finale when he aero-blocked the eventual champion to deny him the race win. 

Chastain was behind Blaney in the closing laps of Sunday’s race. He joked afterward about Blaney air blocking him. “I was proud of him,” Chastain said. 

Blaney chimed in on social media afterward. 

Good: Carson Hocevar, Spire salvage a long day

I’ll just let Hocevar explain this one. 

Notes

  • Ross Chastain’s had three speeding penalties in as many races this year. He might want to save the speed for the racing surface if he wants to join teammate Daniel Suarez in the playoffs. 
  • Remember when Kyle Larson used to be ‘Two-Mile Kyle’? Well perhaps he should be known as ‘Las Vegas Larson’ now. He has three wins in the past seven races at the track, including two in a row. 
  • Ty Gibbs was continually impressive on Sunday. He notched a fifth-place finish to score his first top-five on an intermediate oval. 
  • Veterans Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano each secured their first top-10s of the year in Las Vegas. Truex (third) and Logano (24th) jumped seven spots in points as a result, while Hamlin moved up nine spots to 10th. 
  • Daniel Hemric has quietly finished in the top-20 in all three of his starts for Kaulig Racing this year, elevating the 2021 Xfinity Series champ to 19th in points. 
  • Legacy Motor Club quietly has both full-time drivers above the playoff cutline early in the year. Can they keep this early momentum rolling? 

Race Results

  1. Kyle Larson
  2. Tyler Reddick
  3. Ryan Blaney
  4. Ross Chastain
  5. Ty Gibbs
  6. Noah Gragson
  7. Martin Truex Jr.
  8. Denny Hamlin
  9. Joey Logano
  10. William Byron
  11. Daniel Suarez
  12. Chase Elliott
  13. Brad Keselowski
  14. Erik Jones
  15. Carson Hocevar
  16. Austin Dillon
  17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  18. Alex Bowman
  19. Daniel Hemric
  20. Josh Berry
  21. Chase Briscoe
  22. John Hunter Nemechek
  23. Ryan Preece
  24. Todd Gilliland
  25. Michael McDowell
  26. Kyle Busch
  27. Justin Haley
  28. Derek Kraus
  29. Austin Cindric
  30. Harrison Burton
  31. Kaz Grala
  32. Corey LaJoie
  33. Christopher Bell
  34. JJ Yeley
  35. Bubba Wallace
  36. Zane Smith
  37. Chris Buescher

Stage 1

  1. Kyle Larson
  2. Tyler Reddick
  3. Martin Truex Jr.
  4. Kyle Busch
  5. Denny Hamlin
  6. Ty Gibbs
  7. Corey LaJoie
  8. Ross Chastain
  9. Austin Cindric
  10. Christopher Bell

Stage 2

  1. Kyle Larson
  2. Tyler Reddick
  3. Denny Hamlin
  4. Ryan Blaney
  5. Martin Truex Jr.
  6. Chase Elliott
  7. Austin Dillon
  8. Alex Bowman
  9. Joey Logano
  10. Erik Jones

Playoff Picture

In with a win

William Byron

Daniel Suarez

Kyle Larson

 

Above the Cutline

Ryan Blaney (+44)

Martin Truex Jr. (+38)

Ross Chastain (+32)

Kyle Busch(+29)

Chase Elliott (+29)

Ty Gibbs (+21)

Denny Hamlin (+21)

Austin Cindric (+20)

Tyler Reddick (+18)

Alex Bowman (+16)

Bubba Wallace (+10)

Erik Jones (+5)

John Hunter Nemechek (+2)

 

Within Reach

Corey LaJoie (-2)

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-4) 

Daniel Hemric (-10)

Chase Briscoe (-15)

Christopher Bell (-16)

Michael McDowell (-16)

Chris Buescher (-18)

Joey Logano (-20)

Carson Hocevar (-20)

Harrison Burton (-25)

Austin Dillon (-27))

Brad Keselowski (-28)

Justin Haley (-29)

Josh Berry (-31)

Zane Smith (-36)

Todd Gilliland (-36)

Kaz Grala (-38)

Noah Gragson (-43)

Ryan Preece (-54)

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Next Up: Shriners Children’s 300 at Phoenix Raceway (March 10, 3:30 p.m. ET) 

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Las Vegas Motor Speedway NASCAR Cup Series