By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
NASCAR Playoffs’ Round of 8 will roll the dice in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – After another dramatic NASCAR Cup Series Playoff elimination race last week, eight drivers move on to vie for the championship as the title chase moves forward with Sunday’s South Point 400 at the always thrilling 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
And while Team Penske’s Joey Logano may have been the “last” to dramatically transfer into that group of eight still racing for the 2025 title, the three-time and reigning series champion is more often the “first” when it comes to the Las Vegas high banks. Not only is driver of the No. 22 Ford the defending race winner of this Playoff race, but he also has four wins at the track – two in the Fall Playoff portion of the schedule and two in the springtime visit – most among the championship group.
The last four Fall races have been won by current Playoff drivers, including Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson who has three wins here including the 2023 Playoff race and joins Logano as the only other multi-time Las Vegas winner in the last 15 races at the track.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who now leads the championship standings following the re-set for this penultimate three-race portion of the schedule, scored his only win at the track in the 2021 Playoff race.
Going into the weekend, Hamlin – who is competing in a record 19th Playoff – holds an eight-point advantage atop the standings. He leads Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney by two points. Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates, Larson and Regular Season Champion William Byron are four points above the cutoff line.
JGR’s Christopher Bell (-4), Hendrick’s Chase Elliott (-14), JGR’s Chase Briscoe (-14) and Logano (-24) are all below the elimination line heading into this three-race stretch with races at Vegas, the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway next week and the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway the following weekend.
Of note, Kansas winner Elliott, his teammate Larson and JGR’s Bell are the only drivers among the Playoff eight to finish top-10 in all three races of the most recent round. Bell’s 4.0 average finish in the round was tops in the series. In the last three seasons, Hendrick’s Byron has the most top-five (11) and top-10 (15) finishes on 1.5-mile tracks.
“The next round is the one we’ve put our focus on, it’s what determines if you race for a championship,” said Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “Everyone especially is going to put a lot of focus on this weekend’s race. It’s the easiest way to lock yourself in. Talladega is a bit of a crap shoot, and honestly, Martinsville hasn’t been our strongest in the fall.
“This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for though and hopefully we’re one of the four racing for a championship in Phoenix.”
This spring’s Vegas 400-miler – won by Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry (a satellite team for Team Penske) – included a track record 32 lead changes and marked the fourth time in the last seven races that the pass for the victory came in the final six laps.
It’s Hendrick Motorsports’ Chevrolet team, however, who has been especially trophy-prone of late at the track, its drivers winning five of the last nine races at the Las Vegas – Larson (2021, ’23, ’24), Byron (spring, 2023) and Alex Bowman (spring, 2023).
Toyota has only a single win in the last 11 races there – Hamlin’s 2021 Playoff victory. Current Playoff drivers have hoisted seven of the last 10 Vegas trophies.
Practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying are at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday (truTV, PRN, SiriusXM).
Bell is the defending race pole winner. The last time this race was won from pole position was 2009 with Vegas native Kyle Busch claiming the win at his hometown track. Three of the last five races have been won from the outside pole position.
Connor Zilisch leads the NASCAR Xfinity Series to Las Vegas
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs’ Round of 8 begins the with Saturday’s Focused Health 302 (7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and if the current run of races is any indication, it may well come down to who can beat championship leader Connor Zilisch, a 10-race winner who has simply dominated the season.
The 19-year-old Zilisch has either won or finished runner-up in 10 of the last 12 series races – eight victories and a pair of runner-up finishes. Although he came to NASCAR with a road-racing pedigree (with class wins in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Series’ Rolex 24 at Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring), the driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has won convincingly on ovals of various sizes and certainly shows up in Las Vegas an odds-on favorite. He starts the Playoffs with a dominating 57-point advantage on the field atop the championship standings.
He will, however, start this Round of 8 with very legitimate competition from his own JR Motorsports teammate, reigning series champion Justin Allgaier, who won the March race at Las Vegas by a second over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola. Zilisch finished ninth in his debut at the track.
Allgaier and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill are the only current series drivers to ever win at Las Vegas. Allgaier comes into this impactful Playoff round 24 points above the cutoff line with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones and Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer four points and two points – respectively – to the good heading into the Vegas 200-lapper.
Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love (-2), JR Motorsports’ teammates Sammy Smith (-7) and Carson Kvapil (-11) and Haas’s Sheldon Creed (-13) round out the Playoff eight in a much tighter contest for the final two championship positions beyond Zilisch and Allgaier.
Practice and Kennametal Pole Qualifying for the race is at 2 p.m. Saturday (CW App). Kvapil won the pole position this spring and Mayer started on pole in this race last Fall. NASCAR Cup Series regular A.J. Allmendinger is the defending race winner.
