{"id":50328,"date":"2025-03-14T15:09:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=50328"},"modified":"2025-03-14T15:09:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:09:34","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-las-vegas-motor-speedway-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/nascar-weekend-preview-las-vegas-motor-speedway-7\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Las Vegas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Christopher Bell goes for historic NASCAR Cup win at Las Vegas<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Understandably, much of the focus during NASCAR\u2019s tripleheader weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will fall squarely on Christopher Bell.<\/p>\n

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Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Rheem Toyota, leads the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four straight NASCAR Cup Series races, if he\u2019s first to the finish line in Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Bell feels his team, headed by crew chief Adam Stevens, can win at any race track. True enough, the 30-year-old from Norman, Oklahoma, has claimed victory in the last three Cup Series races\u2014on a drafting track (Atlanta Motor Speedway), a road course (Circuit of the Americas) and a one-mile flat track (Phoenix Raceway).<\/p>\n

With those triumphs, Bell became the first driver to win three consecutive Cup Series races since NASCAR introduced the Next Gen car into its top division in 2022.<\/p>\n

Bell is one of only four drivers to win three of the first races in a Cup Series season. The only driver to win four of the first five was Bill Elliott in 1992. Bell also is responsible for Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s last five victories.<\/p>\n

The Pennzoil 400 is the first race of the season on a 1.5-mile intermediate speedway. In last year\u2019s Playoff race in Sin City, Bell led a race-high 155 laps before finishing second to Joey Logano by 0.662-second.<\/p>\n

\u201cVegas is a true barometer of the intermediates,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like the last style of track that we haven\u2019t been to yet this season. It\u2019s an important race because you have a lot of points to be gained or lost on the intermediate-style tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what makes Vegas even more important is that it\u2019s in the Round of 8 (of the Playoffs). That race, when you come back in the fall, is super important to have a really solid points day and contend for a win. That fall Vegas race is everything, and there\u2019s no better tune-up for it than the spring Vegas race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Logano won last year\u2019s Playoff race at Las Vegas and used that as a springboard to his third series championship. It\u2019s also safe to say that Logano could be a major impediment to Bell\u2019s quest for a fourth straight win.<\/p>\n

Logano has won three of the last 10 races at LVMS. Another serious contender, Kyle Larson, has won three of the last eight. Only one Toyota driver has been to Victory Lane in the last 10 events at the track\u2014Bell\u2019s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin in the fall race of 2021.<\/p>\n

Larson won the two Las Vegas races before Logano triumphed last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cLas Vegas has been a great track for us since I joined the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team,\u201d Larson said. \u201cWe got our first win here together, and we have added a couple more since then.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Bell has been living at the front of the field, there are three drivers in particular who could use strong performances at Las Vegas to turn their seasons around.<\/p>\n

After four races, Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs and Cole Custer are 33rd, 34th and 35th in the Cup Series standings, respectively. By way of contrast, Johnson who finished third in his only start of the season (the Daytona 500), is 36th, just 13 points behind Keselowski.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas should suit the co-owner\/driver of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. Keselowski has three victories at LVMS, along with nine top fives, and 13 top 10s in 23 starts, with an average finish of 12.7.<\/p>\n

Gibbs also has reason for hope, having finished fifth in last year\u2019s spring race at Las Vegas. Gibbs is facing a busy weekend. He\u2019ll make his High Limit Racing debut in a 410 winged sprint car at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, as will Bell.<\/p>\n

The High Limit series, owned by Larson and brother-in-law Brad Sweet, races at the Dirt Track on Thursday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Having returned to the Cup Series after a two-year hiatus in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Custer has never scored a top 10 in seven Las Vegas starts. His best finish at the track is 16th.<\/p>\n

Austin Hill hopes to rebound from misfortune at Phoenix Raceway<\/b><\/p>\n

A race-ending mistake last Saturday at Phoenix Raceway cost Austin Hill the NASCAR Xfinity Series lead.<\/p>\n

Just 61 laps into the fourth event of the season, Hill bounced off the inside wall in Turn 3 and collected the cars of Sheldon Creed and Dean Thompson. Hill finished 37th and fell to fourth in the standings as Richard Childress Racing teammate Jesse Love took over the points lead with a ninth-place finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was right behind the No. 8 (Sammy Smith) and just messed up,\u201d Hill said ruefully. \u201cI misjudged the inside wall, and that may be the dumbest move I\u2019ve had happen to me in racing\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll rebuild for Las Vegas and try to have a good outcome there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill will look to regain the form that earned a victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the series lead in Saturday\u2019s The Liuna! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Hill is the only former Las Vegas winner in the field for Saturday\u2019s race, but he\u2019ll have plenty of competition from perennial contender Justin Allgaier. The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has more second-place finishes (4), top fives (11), stage wins (3) and laps led (330) than the rest of the field combined, despite being winless at the track.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s winner, Aric Almirola, will make his third start of the season in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, seeking his first top-10 finish at LVMS in his seventh start there.<\/p>\n

Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski come to Vegas in tight Truck Series points battle<\/b><\/p>\n

Former Las Vegas winner Grant Enfinger holds a one-point lead over reigning champion Ty Majeski in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series standings entering Friday night\u2019s Ecosave 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Driving a Ford for owner Mike Curb, Enfinger took the checkered flag in 2018, before Toyota ran off a string of seven straight victories at the 1.5-mile intermediate track. Kyle Busch and Rajah Caruth have won the two most recent races at LVMS in Chevrolets, both from the pole.<\/p>\n

If Caruth can win on Friday in the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Silverado, he\u2019ll be the first driver to go back-to-back at the track. Caruth currently is 30th in the series standings after crashing out at Daytona and Atlanta to start the season, and he\u2019s happy to get back on the track after a two-week hiatus in the schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to go back to Las Vegas,\u201d Caruth said. \u201cIt will be my first time on the grounds since the win. That night was obviously such a milestone for myself, and from a confidence standpoint, I know I can get the job done at that facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing off a couple bad weeks, it sticks in your mind when you have multiple weekends between races. My motivation for the weekend is definitely at a heightened level since I know I run well at Vegas. But in terms of preparation, it\u2019s just another race.”<\/p>\n

ThorSport Racing\u2019s Matt Crafton will make his 200th start in the series on a 1.5-mile intermediate track. Only one other active Truck Series driver\u2014ThorSport teammate Ben Rhodes\u2014has made 200 or more starts in the series at all tracks combined.<\/p>\n

Rhodes will make his 213th start in the series on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Christopher Bell goes for historic NASCAR Cup win at Las Vegas LAS VEGAS \u2014 Understandably, much of the focus during NASCAR\u2019s tripleheader weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will fall squarely on Christopher Bell. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will become the first driver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48752,"comment_status":"closed","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],"class_list":["post-50328","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\/10\/GettyImages-2179825902-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1780&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-d5K","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50328","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=50328"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50331,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50328\/revisions\/50331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}