{"id":55026,"date":"2025-10-09T11:50:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T16:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=55026"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:50:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T16:50:25","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-las-vegas-motor-speedway-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/09\/nascar-weekend-preview-las-vegas-motor-speedway-8\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Las Vegas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

NASCAR Playoffs’ Round of 8 will roll the dice in Las Vegas<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

LAS VEGAS, Nev. \u2013 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\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Pennzoil Ford, takes the checkered flag to win 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

And while Team Penske\u2019s Joey Logano may have been the \u201clast\u201d 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 \u201cfirst\u201d 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 \u2013 two in the Fall Playoff portion of the schedule and two in the springtime visit \u2013 most among the championship group.<\/p>\n

The last four Fall races have been won by current Playoff drivers, including Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Going into the weekend, Hamlin \u2013 who is competing in a record 19th Playoff – holds an eight-point advantage atop the standings. He leads Team Penske\u2019s Ryan Blaney by two points. Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 teammates, Larson and Regular Season Champion William Byron are four points above the cutoff line.<\/p>\n

JGR\u2019s Christopher Bell (-4), Hendrick\u2019s Chase Elliott (-14), JGR\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Of note, Kansas winner Elliott, his teammate Larson and JGR\u2019s Bell are the only drivers among the Playoff eight to finish top-10 in all three races of the most recent round. Bell\u2019s 4.0 average finish in the round was tops in the series. In the last three seasons, Hendrick\u2019s Byron has the most top-five (11) and top-10 (15) finishes on 1.5-mile tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next round is the one we\u2019ve put our focus on, it\u2019s what determines if you race for a championship,” said Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. \u201cEveryone especially is going to put a lot of focus on this weekend\u2019s race. It\u2019s the easiest way to lock yourself in. Talladega is a bit of a crap shoot, and honestly, Martinsville hasn\u2019t been our strongest in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the opportunity we\u2019ve been waiting for though and hopefully we\u2019re one of the four racing for a championship in Phoenix.\u201d<\/p>\n

This spring\u2019s Vegas 400-miler \u2013 won by Wood Brothers Racing\u2019s Josh Berry (a satellite team for Team Penske) \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 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 \u2013 Larson (2021, \u201923, \u201924), Byron (spring, 2023) and Alex Bowman (spring, 2023).<\/p>\n

Toyota has only a single win in the last 11 races there \u2013 Hamlin\u2019s 2021 Playoff victory. Current Playoff drivers have hoisted seven of the last 10 Vegas trophies.<\/p>\n

Practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying are at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday (truTV, PRN, SiriusXM).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Connor Zilisch leads the NASCAR Xfinity Series to Las Vegas<\/b><\/p>\n

The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs’ Round of 8 begins the with Saturday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Zilisch has either won or finished runner-up in 10 of the last 12 series races \u2013 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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Aric Almirola. Zilisch finished ninth in his debut at the track.<\/p>\n

Allgaier and Richard Childress Racing\u2019s 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\u2019s Brandon Jones and Haas Factory Team\u2019s Sam Mayer four points and two points \u2013 respectively \u2013 to the good heading into the Vegas 200-lapper.<\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Jesse Love (-2), JR Motorsports\u2019 teammates Sammy Smith (-7) and Carson Kvapil (-11) and Haas\u2019s Sheldon Creed (-13) round out the Playoff eight in a much tighter contest for the final two championship positions beyond Zilisch and Allgaier.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service NASCAR Playoffs’ Round of 8 will roll the dice in Las Vegas LAS VEGAS, Nev. \u2013 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\u2019s South Point 400 at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":48762,"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-55026","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-2179846809-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-ejw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55026","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=55026"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55029,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55026\/revisions\/55029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}