{"id":15057,"date":"2018-03-02T18:10:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T00:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15057"},"modified":"2018-03-03T09:25:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T15:25:20","slug":"drivers-feel-las-vegas-performance-crucial-for-playoff-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/02\/drivers-feel-las-vegas-performance-crucial-for-playoff-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Drivers feel Las Vegas performance crucial for Playoff run"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Conceding the weather conditions may vary between this week\u2019s spring race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway<\/a> and the track\u2019s inaugural Playoff race date coming in September 16, Monster Energy NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series drivers still remained confident Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM) would serve as a good reference point for the all-important return trip this Fall.<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson, driver of the #42 DC Solar Chevrolet, practices for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 2, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking with the media Friday morning prior to opening Monster Energy Series practice, Kyle Larson was confident and optimistic that this #NASCARGoesWest stop would absolutely benefit the playoff drivers down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anytime you race at a track whether it\u2019s cool or hot it relates,” the Chip Ganassi Racing driver said, noting he didn\u2019t expect the different seasons to be a huge factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean there is definitely some added importance to this race with it being in the Playoffs. I mean hopefully we have a strong race and if not, you know what you need to go back and work on to be better when you come back here later in the year to benefit your Playoff run.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that this race when it was just a stand-alone event or one race wasn\u2019t important, but anytime you can race at a track that you are going to come back at in the final 10 it\u2019s got some added importance to it.\u201d <\/p>\n

As was Larson, veteran Kevin Harvick was a playoff driver in 2017 and has qualified for NASCAR\u2019s Championship 4, in three of the last four years resulting in a series championship in 2014. This season\u2019s Playoff slate has a decidedly new look including for the first time, that vital Playoff opener at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

It will be the first time the Monster Energy Series teams have competed in Vegas later than the March springtime date. And the veteran Harvick said he expects the additional race date to affect the importance of this weekend for his Stewart-Haas Racing organization and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the thought process of knowing you are coming back here for a second-time is definitely a good thing, and definitely something that is relevant for us as we go through the weekend,” said Harvick, who won last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe progression of the year is always so drastic. By the time we come back in September and you look at the downforce and things the car makes at that time compared to the beginning of the year, if you look at what we raced here last year compared to what we will race today is all progression of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing back here, I think that direction will still stand and you will do some things different. Every track has its own trends and quirks about it that you want to have written down and noted. It is an important weekend to make sure you have a firm understanding of the direction of this particular race track knowing you are coming back for the Playoffs. It will be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ryan Blaney, driver of the #22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Ford, practices for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 2, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Driver Ryan Blaney agreed, saying his No. 12 Team Penske Ford team would definitely consider this race a good reference point for the Fall event. But, he said that\u2019s really true anywhere the series races twice \u2013 postseason implications or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try to learn every bit you can,” Blaney said. \u201cYou put it in your notebook. Even if the track is different you learn something or you don\u2019t. The more and more you can build up your notebook and knowledge of things the better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay attention to every track whether we go there once or twice, Playoff or non-Playoff race. You try to get more knowledge. It is a little different coming back here but I think it won\u2019t change that much. It will be fairly similar to how it is now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might not be 30 mph winds,” he said. \u201cBut we will pay close attention to it like we do every week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Conceding the weather conditions may vary between this week\u2019s spring race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the track\u2019s inaugural Playoff race date coming in September 16, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers still remained confident Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[67,16],"class_list":["post-15057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-las-vegas-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/LVMS_NXS_Larson_030218.jpg?fit=3801%2C2534&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3UR","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15061,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15057\/revisions\/15061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}