{"id":48696,"date":"2024-10-17T10:58:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T15:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=48696"},"modified":"2024-10-21T15:00:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T20:00:44","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-las-vegas-motor-speedway-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/17\/nascar-weekend-preview-las-vegas-motor-speedway-6\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Las Vegas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Cup Playoffs’ Round of 8 gets underway this weekend at Las Vegas<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

The penultimate round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begins this week with the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a shake-up atop the standings and an important three-race slate in front of the Playoff competitors.<\/p>\n

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A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 03, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The last four NASCAR Cup Series champions are among the eight-driver group vying for a position in the Championship Four that will compete for the title Nov. 10 at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson, the 2021 series champion, won his series\u2019 best sixth race of the year at the Charlotte ROVAL road course Sunday and now leads the standings by a healthy 33 points over defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, who enters this round in fifth place, just below the cutoff line.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor myself and I think our team it’s no statements that we’re trying to send to the field, I think the field knows that we’re strong. I think the field knows that we could win at any track,” Larson said after his win Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is nice to win and really more than anything just gain five more points that rolls into the next round. We’ve won stages. We’ve won a couple of races since the Playoffs have started, and that really helps. I’m just excited to kind of get ourselves to the next three great tracks for us and hopefully we can make that final four.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just behind Larson in the standings \u2013 13 points back – is Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Christopher Bell. Regular Season Champion, 23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick is third, 10 points back and Larson\u2019s Hendrick teammate William Byron holds that all-important fourth position, a mere four points ahead of Blaney.<\/p>\n

JGR\u2019s Denny Hamlin is sixth, eight points behind Byron with Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Chase Elliott, the 2020 series champ, nine points off the line. And the final Playoff driver, Joey Logano is 11 points off the title pace after a dramatic day at Charlotte.<\/p>\n

The two-time series champion Logano initially missed out on the final transfer position by a mere four-points – only to receive news a couple hours after Sunday\u2019s checkered flag that his No. 22 Team Penske Ford team was \u201cin\u201d after the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team and driver Alex Bowman \u2013 who had initially clinched the eighth Playoff position – were disqualified for failing post-race inspection.<\/p>\n

Logano insisted this week he will race no differently going forward now as a championship contender versus how he would have raced if he was eliminated, as he initially thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same way we would have if we\u2019d made it any other way,” Logano said of the mindset. \u201cYou go out there and you attack. The positives, I feel like we\u2019ve been steadily getting better and improving throughout the season to where we are now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stats may not look like it – it may look like we\u2019re underdogs from the outset looking in, but internally we feel very confident in our race team that we can make a run at this thing and get ourselves into the Championship Four,” Logano continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it in the past where you get in there and anything can happen at Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal right now is to look at the next three races and how do we maximize that. We can point our way in. We\u2019re only 11 out, so it\u2019s not a lot of points by no means. It can happen very quickly, so one race at a time. Right now, the focus is Vegas and we\u2019ll try to maximize the day there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to Vegas, Larson has been a high-roller, winning the last two NASCAR Cup Series races there \u2013 three in all. In just the last two races, his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has led 314 of 534 combined laps \u2013 58 percent of the total laps.<\/p>\n

Playoff drivers have won eight of the last 11 Las Vegas races \u2013 including Larson (three wins), Logano (three wins), Hamlin and Byron. Larson (2018) and Logano (2017) also have NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at the track.<\/p>\n

Six of the eight current Playoff drivers finished in the top-10 in March at the track. Reddick was runner-up to Larson. Blaney was third, followed by Hamlin (eighth), Logano (ninth) and Byron (10th).<\/p>\n

Logano\u2019s 9.9 average finish in 22 Vegas starts is his best mark at tracks he\u2019s raced at least 10 times. Larson\u2019s 9.3 average finish in 16 races there is tops among the Playoff eight.<\/p>\n

Logano and Larson are two of four Playoff contenders to have past victories at all four of the upcoming tracks to close the season \u2013 also including Byron and Hamlin.<\/p>\n

Among those added to the race entry list this week are Legacy Motor Club\u2019s owner-driver, seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson and Kaulig Racing\u2019s Shane van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n

Practice is Saturday at 4:35 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 5:20 p.m. ET, – both sessions are available on USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the NBC Sports App. Bell, who finished runner-up to Larson in last year\u2019s Playoff race, is the defending race polesitter. Logano started on pole in the March race this year.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas is the first chance for Xfinity Playoff contenders to lock into the Championship Four<\/b><\/p>\n

A week after the NASCAR Xfinity Series first thrilling Playoff elimination race, the series moves to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 1.5-miler for Saturday\u2019s Ambetter Health 302 (7 p.m. ET on the CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier, who claimed the final Playoff transfer position a week ago at the Charlotte ROVAL, now leads the newly reseeded eight-driver standings by 18 points over the Championship 4 Round’s cut line with races at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville, Va. to ultimately decide which four drivers will compete for the season trophy in the Nov. 9 Phoenix finale.<\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Austin Hill and Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Chandler Smith are nine and eight points \u2013 respectively \u2013 above the cutoff line entering this round.<\/p>\n

Challenging those four are last weekend\u2019s ultimate clutch race winner, JR Motorsports\u2019 Sam Mayer (-8), RCR rookie Jesse Love (-12), Kaulig Racing\u2019s A.J. Allmendinger (-18) and a third JR Motorsports driver, Sammy Smith (-19), who won the Talladega, Ala. Playoff race two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe win last week was a true testament to how hard this team works,” said Mayer, who had to win at the Charlotte ROVAL to advance in the Playoffs. \u201cWe knew we had one job and we did just that to keep ourselves in contention for the championship. Vegas has been hit or miss for me in the past, but it is a fun track to run at and I think we have great momentum to keep up the speed and effort to have a solid finish in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this is a re-set for the Playoff drivers such as Mayer, there remains major motivation for the entire race field to change a strong trend at the track. However, the Vegas high-banks have historically been kind to the championship contenders since it became a part of the Playoffs seven years ago.<\/p>\n

Five of the six previous Fall Vegas races have been won by Playoff drivers. Last Fall is the lone exception with SHR\u2019s Riley Herbst claiming an emotional first career victory at his home track. He was one of four drivers just eliminated from 2024 Playoff contention at the ROVAL.<\/p>\n

Among the Playoff drivers, Hill has celebrated the most in Las Vegas\u2019s flashy Victory Lane with a NASCAR Xfinity Series win there last February and a pair of NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series wins in the spring of 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Allmendinger won the 2021 Spring NASCAR Xfinity Series race and Chandler Smith won the 2022 Spring Truck race at Vegas.<\/p>\n

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series fulltime drivers Daniel Dye, Taylor Gray and Corey Heim join former NASCAR Cup Series regular Aric Almirola on the entry list this weekend.<\/p>\n

Practice for the Ambetter Health 302 is Friday afternoon at 6:35 p.m. ET followed by qualifying at 7:05 p.m. ET \u2013 both sessions will be on USA Network and the NBC Sports App.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Cup Playoffs’ Round of 8 gets underway this weekend at Las Vegas The penultimate round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begins this week with the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a shake-up atop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":44777,"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-48696","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\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-2056464370-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-cFq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48696","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48699,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48696\/revisions\/48699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}