{"id":23951,"date":"2019-03-03T20:05:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T02:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=23951"},"modified":"2019-03-03T20:08:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T02:08:45","slug":"sunday-las-vegas-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/03\/sunday-las-vegas-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Las Vegas Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Speeding penalty KOs Kyle Busch\u2019s chance for weekend sweep<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

LAS VEGAS \u2013 It was Lap 129 of Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Kyle Busch had his car dialed in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, and Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota, lead the field to green for the start of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil Oil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 3, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

In the wake of Friday\u2019s victory in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and Saturday\u2019s win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, a three-event weekend sweep at his home track was well within his grasp.<\/p>\n

Nine laps earlier, Busch had wrested the lead from eventual race winner Joey Logano, before heading pit road on Lap 129. Busch came in hot, diving off the Turn 4 banking toward the curved entrance to pit road.<\/p>\n

Sensing that his speed might be excessive, Busch hammered the brakes in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and lit up his tires, which screamed as he slid past the commitment line. But the braking wasn\u2019t enough, and Busch was flagged for speeding in Sector 1.<\/p>\n

The infraction earned a pass-through penalty, but Busch managed to stay on the lead lap through the end of the race\u2019s second stage. Restarting 16th after the final caution, Busch worked his way forward, running the fastest lap times on the track.<\/p>\n

But Busch ran out of time after passing Kevin Harvick for third place five laps from the finish. Closing on Logano and runner-up Brad Keselowski with fewer than three laps left, Busch was held up by the lapped car of Corey Lajoie, and his winning chances \u2013 however remote at that point \u2013 were gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly screwed up our day,\u201d Busch lamented. \u201cComing to pit road there, we tried a different brake package for us this weekend, and trying to make up time, and in order to get a bigger jump on the guys behind me coming to pit road there, just ruined it for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we had to come from the back, and I think we passed the most cars today, so I think we were the most impressive today, but doesn’t matter because we don’t have a trophy. Whatever. Next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, leads during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil Oil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 3, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

KEVIN HARVICK\u2019S TEAM STILL TRYING TO DECIPHER NEW PACKAGE<\/b><\/p>\n

For the second straight week, Kevin Harvick looked dominant in the early stages of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.<\/p>\n

Harvick was the class of the field in the first stage of the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading Laps 1-43 from the pole and closing out the stage after green-flag pit stops by leading Laps 62-80.<\/p>\n

In the second half of the race, however, Harvick lost the handle on his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and fell to fourth at the finish. The arc of the Las Vegas event mirrored that of the Atlanta Cup race a week earlier, when Harvick won the second stage before fading to fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second half of the race, it\u2019s happened to us two weeks in a row,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cThe last two weeks, we\u2019ve just been way off to start practice, based on where everybody thought we should start. And we just weren\u2019t even in the ballpark, making huge changes to get in the ballpark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve done a great job of getting the car close. When we get some baseline stuff here, we can strt working on the details and not scrambling so much. But they\u2019re doing a great job, and we knew that was going to be a possibility, and we didn\u2019t know where we\u2019d be with our cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe qualified decent and had a good first half of the race two weeks in a row, but just got tighter as the race went on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ryan Preece, driver of the #47 Kroger Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil Oil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 3, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

KURT BUSCH RIDES CONTRARIAN STRATEGY TO TOP-FIVE FINISH<\/b><\/p>\n

Kurt Busch was struggling in dirty air early in Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

The solution? Trade the dirty air for clean air at the front of the pack.<\/p>\n

Busch and crew chief Matt McCall opted to stay on track as long as possible during the second stage of the race, pitting for tires and fuel with 15 laps left in the segment. That enable Busch to keep his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet on the track while others came to pit road for the stage break.<\/p>\n

Busch led the field to green on Lap 168 and held the top spot on older tires despite huge pressure from Kevin Harvick. It took 20 laps for Harvick to grab the lead from Busch, who held on for a fifth-place finish in his third race with his new team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got really tight in traffic, and our pit strategist was saying that, if we stayed long in the second stage, then we could stay out,\u201d Busch said. \u201cIt played out to where we got clean air, and it completely changed the complexion of the car\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave us a lot to learn from today, and I\u2019m really proud of everybody to get a top five. Now we\u2019ve got two top fives to year, but we know we\u2019ve got some more work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Speeding penalty KOs Kyle Busch\u2019s chance for weekend sweep LAS VEGAS \u2013 It was Lap 129 of Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Kyle Busch had his car dialed in. In the wake of Friday\u2019s victory in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and Saturday\u2019s win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":23954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[67,16,708],"class_list":["post-23951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-las-vegas-motor-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-pennzoil-400"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/MENCS_LVMS_HarvickHamlinBusch_030319.jpg?fit=3571%2C2207","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6ej","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23956,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23951\/revisions\/23956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}