Chris Buescher finished 14th in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Buescher’s result added 23 points to his season total.
Buescher started in 18th position. The seventh-year driver has one career victory, with six top-five finishes and 20 results inside the top 10.
Over the course of his career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Buescher has started nine races, completed all of them, and compiled one top-10 finish.
The Prosper, Texas native’s starting and finishing positions compared favorably to his career averages, starting six spots higher than his career mark of 24.3 and completing the race eight places ahead of his 21.6 career average finish.
Buescher took on 38 other drivers on the way to his 14th-place finish. The race endured six cautions and 30 caution laps. Prior to the checkered flag there were 27 lead changes.
Kyle Larson earned the checkered flag in the race, and Brad Keselowski finished second. Kyle Busch placed third, Denny Hamlin took fourth, and Ryan Blaney grabbed the No. 5 spot.
After Keselowski won the first stage, Larson grabbed control and won Stage 2 before driving to victory.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr finished 11th in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Stenhouse’s result added 26 points to his season total.
Stenhouse started in 17th position. The 11th-year driver has secured two career victories, with 18 top-five finishes and 38 results inside the top 10.
Over the course of his career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Stenhouse has put together one top-five finish and two top-10s.
The Olive Branch, Mississippi native’s starting and finishing positions compared favorably to his career averages, starting one spot higher than his career mark of 18 and completing the race nine places ahead of his 19.7 career average finish.
Stenhouse’s 11th-place finish came against 38 other drivers. The race endured six cautions and 30 caution laps. Prior to the checkered flag there were 27 lead changes.
Kyle Larson secured the win in the race, and Brad Keselowski finished second. Kyle Busch crossed the finish line third, Denny Hamlin secured fourth, and Ryan Blaney finished off the top five.
After Keselowski won the first stage, Larson grabbed control and won Stage 2 before taking the checkered flag.
Erik Jones rounded out the top 10 in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. The top-10 finish for Jones added 27 points to his season total.
Jones started in 29th position. The sixth-year driver has collected two career victories, with 33 top-five finishes and 63 results inside the top 10.
Over the course of his career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jones has started eight races, completed seven of them, and compiled three top-10 finishes.
The Byron, Michigan native began the race 13 spots behind his career mark of 15.8, but finished eight places ahead of his career average of 18.2.
Jones’ 10th-place finish was against a field of 38 drivers. The race endured six cautions and 30 caution laps. There were 27 lead changes.
Kyle Larson earned the win in the race, and Brad Keselowski finished second. Kyle Busch placed third, Denny Hamlin took fourth, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.
After Keselowski won the first stage, Larson seized control and won Stage 2 before taking the checkered flag.
Ryan Blaney finished fifth in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Blaney’s top-five finish added 46 points to his season total.
Blaney started in 26th position and led one lap in the race. The eighth-year driver has piled up four career victories, with 39 top-five finishes and 77 results inside the top 10.
In his career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Blaney has compiled four top-five finishes and his fifth-place result marks the seventh top-10.
The High Point, North Carolina native began the race 13 spots behind his career mark of 13.2, but finished 13 places ahead of his career average of 18.5.
Blaney’s fifth-place finish was against a field of 38 drivers. The race endured six cautions and 30 caution laps. There were 27 lead changes.
Kyle Larson brought home the win in the race, and Brad Keselowski finished second. Kyle Busch placed third, with Denny Hamlin bringing home fourth place. Blaney rounded out the top five.
After Keselowski won the first stage, Larson grabbed control and won Stage 2 before earning the checkered flag.
Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. The top-10 finish for Truex added 35 points to his season total.
Truex started in fourth position and led six laps in the race. The 18th-year driver has collected 27 career victories, with 117 top-five finishes and 230 results inside the top 10.
Victory Lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a familiar place for Truex, who has two career wins at the track. He has also compiled six top-five finishes at Las Vegas and his sixth-place result marks the 10th top-10.
The Mayetta, New Jersey native’s starting and finishing positions compared favorably to his career averages, starting 11 spots higher than his career mark of 15.4 and completing the race 11 places ahead of his 16.8 career average finish.
Truex’s sixth-place finish was against 38 other drivers. The race endured six cautions and 30 caution laps. Prior to the checkered flag there were 27 lead changes.
Kyle Larson earned the checkered flag in the race, and Brad Keselowski finished second. Kyle Busch placed third, Denny Hamlin secured fourth, and Ryan Blaney finished off the top five.
After Keselowski won the first stage, Larson took control and won Stage 2 before earning the checkered flag.
Cliff Daniels’ path to becoming a winning NASCAR Cup Series crew chief has been quite the journey, a trail that began as a promising race engineer for Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team. When Daniels took over, Johnson illustrated his new crew chief’s devotion to the team by saying that “he truly bleeds the 48.”
In a turnabout, that team is now the No. 5, and the suggestion that his circulatory system still courses with Ally purple may no longer apply. That team’s driver is now Kyle Larson, who brought the group back to Victory Lane for the first time since 2017 with his win Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“It’s been a hell of a journey for all of us,” Daniels told his crew over the team radio after Larson drove under the checkered flag. “Really proud of you guys. Great work. Long time coming.”
Daniels’ win came in his 55th start as a big-league crew chief, but even in that relatively brief time, he’s been through a gauntlet of changes. Suddenly thrust into calling the shots for Johnson midstream in the 2019 season, Daniels took over with the goal of revitalizing the playoff hopes of a seven-time series champion before his ride into semi-retirement.
No pressure, right? His midseason efforts two years ago weren’t quite enough to salvage an 11th-hour postseason spot, and the unusual 2020 campaign — when Johnson missed a race because of a COVID-19 diagnosis and was disqualified from the Coca-Cola 600 for a technical violation — also came up just short at the end of the regular season.
Through it all, Daniels remained largely unflappable as he led with his radio communications, but the feelings from those two seasons lingered, even as his pairing with Larson was about to connect.
“Kyle coming onboard has just been a nice spark for this team because it was tough to see Jimmie retire,” Daniels said after Sunday’s win. “We wanted to win with him so bad, and we had some great runs last year that just never materialized for one reason or another.
“So, yeah, I mean, it was tough on our team to learn those lessons and fight those battles and to have Jimmie go retire. A lot of us had won not just one race but a lot of races or even championships with Jimmie. To end without getting a win, to see him kind of move on was so bittersweet.”
Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images
So while the backbone of the team remained intact for 2021, Daniels entered a new chapter with a new driver and a new car number this season. Any doubts about how quickly the pairing might click might be understood, especially with pre-race on-track time limited this year as COVID protocols continue. But just four races into the Cup Series season, Hendrick Motorsports has a modest two-race win streak rolling, with both victories produced by its newest driver-crew chief combinations.
William Byron and crew chief Rudy Fugle set the tone with their first win together the previous week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Sunday, the time was primed for Larson and Daniels.
“Cliff has a really good team,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “I didn’t really expect for it to come this quick because I just thought it would take more time to jell. But our cars are fast. He’s a champion really. I’m so lucky to have him. Cliff is just a great young man. To win in the fourth race, especially when you don’t have any practice, you just show up and race, it’s really been awesome. I think they’re going to have a lot of success together this year.”
Credit the extra levels of preparations by both driver and crew chief, a foundation that began in the offseason and continues today, for offsetting the lack of practice and qualifying at a majority of the races so far.
“You have to be right when you unload for the race,” Daniels says. “We knew it was going to take a lot of prep work to get here. We’ve done that every week. Kyle is in the shop three days a week just poring through notes with us, looking at video, looking at data. Our guys have done a nice job to help get him prepared, and likewise he’s done a nice job of just giving us sensations he needs to feel, things he’s felt in the past and how he would like the car to respond in certain situations.”
Daniels had his own response down the stretch at Las Vegas, drawing on lessons from longtime team leader Chad Knaus, who has hung up his crew-chief headset to take the helm as vice president of competition at HMS this year.
Daniels says he learned long ago to always think ahead as the race progressed. To that end, he said he had two contingency plans in place in the event that a caution period interrupted the final stage and forced his hand with pit strategy. When the race went the final 83 laps under green-flag conditions, those alternate plans weren’t needed.
Even when Larson initially missed his pit entry ahead of his final stop, he was met with steady reassurance over the team radio. The pit-stop exchange cycled the revived No. 5 back to the lead and its 28-year-old driver did the rest.
“Kyle is so good and so confident in himself that he doesn’t need a lot of cheerleading,” Daniels says. “We’re just trying to make sure we have all the pieces around him set up the right way so he can go get the job done. He was on it today.”
Kyle Larson powered to his first victory of the NASCAR Cup Series season Sunday, pulling away during the final green-flag stretch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson became the fourth different winner in four Cup Series races this season, leading a race-high 103 of the 267 laps in the Pennzoil 400. The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet netted his first win at the 1.5-mile Nevada track and the seventh of his Cup Series career.
Brad Keselowski placed second with his No. 2 Team Penske Ford scored 3.156 seconds behind at the checkered flag. Las Vegas native Kyle Busch came home third with points leader Denny Hamlin fourth and Ryan Blaney closing up the top five.
Keselowski and Larson divided the stage wins, with Larson securing his first stage victory since September 2019 at the second break. Larson recovered after missing his pit entry 44 laps from the finish and wound up leading 50 of the last 62 laps.
“That was some fun racing on the restarts, so I hope everybody enjoyed it. I know I did,” Larson said. “I had fun racing Brad and Denny and everybody and tried to give it away there coming to a green-flag stop, but thankfully we were able to have a good enough car to hold them all off.”
The triumph — his first with team owner Rick Hendrick — also broke a dry spell dating back to his most recent win, October 2019 at Dover International Speedway. Larson competed in just four races last season before his suspension by NASCAR and firing by Chip Ganassi Racing for use of a racial slur during an iRacing event. He signed with Hendrick Motorsports last October and was officially reinstated effective Jan. 1.
The victory was the first in the Cup Series for crew chief Cliff Daniels, who made his 55th appearance atop the pit box. It also marked the first victory for car No. 5 since Kasey Kahne’s last Cup Series win, which came at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July 2017.
Keselowski led 27 laps as he registered his best finish of the season. Post-race, he ran across the infield grass to shake Larson’s hand and congratulate him.
“He was really fast – had a lot of speed in all the lanes which was really impressive, usually you have to make a compromise, but they were really good,” Keselowski said. “If Kyle Larson wasn’t here, we would have had a dominant day.”
It was a highly competitive race from green to checkered flag with 27 lead changes among 12 different drivers. Five drivers led at least 20 laps.
Kevin Harvick started from the Busch Pole, but lost the lead in Lap 1 and dropped further back after a fender rub and a flat tire near the Stage 1 midpoint. He battled the handling of his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and finished 20th, one lap down.
Defending series champion Chase Elliott led three times for 22 laps, but his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sustained damage in a spin exiting Turn 2 with 99 laps remaining. Elliott recovered to place 13th.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ next race is the Instacart 500, scheduled Sunday, March 14 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) at Phoenix Raceway.
Note: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was clear, with no major issues reported. The No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Cole Custer was found with two unsecured lug nuts, which will likely result in a one-race suspension for crew chief Mike Shiplett. In addition, the Nos. 4, 17, 18, 19, 21 all had one lug nut not safe and secure.
Kyle Busch has had plenty of his better moments in his hometown thanks to six NASCAR wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but if he gets to Victory Lane in Sunday’s Cup Series race, it will be with another Las Vegas native featured on his car. That’s because Ethel M Chocolates, the craft chocolate division of Mars Wrigley that is based in Nevada, is celebrating its 40-year anniversary with a primary paint scheme featured on Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Ethel M Chocolates is teaming up with Busch, the two-time Cup champion, in a campaign to create better moments and smiles. If Busch does get his first Cup win at his hometown track since 2009, then it would fit right in with the uplifting theme. The weekend already provided some big smiles when Kyle Busch Motorsports finished 1-2 in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. John Hunter Nemechek took home top honors, with owner/driver Busch coming in second place.
What might also put a smile on your face is Busch happens to have a personal connection to Ethel M Chocolates. When he was growing up in the area, he was a frequent visitor to its flagship store, factory and three-acre Cactus Garden in Henderson, Nevada, and his car was on display there Saturday before the Cup race in a socially distanced environment.
“When I was a kid, my grandma used to bring me out to the Ethel M Factory and Cactus Garden, and it was one of my favorite places to visit in Vegas,” Busch said. “Even during a difficult time, we’re glad to bring a better moment to fans by giving them a chance to connect with the new car in a safe way.”
These have been difficult times due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in addition to sponsoring the paint scheme, Ethel M Chocolates is donating 40,000 meals to Three Square Food Bank in Las Vegas, using its involvement in the race weekend to help those in the Las Vegas community who are most in need.
“We’re so excited to honor the Ethel M legacy by kicking off 40th-anniversary celebrations in our own backyard alongside fellow Las Vegas legend, Kyle Busch, during this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race,” said William Clements, vice president of Mars Wrigley sponsorships. “More importantly, we’re honored to be able to give back to those who need it most through a donation to the Three Square Food Bank, who do fantastic work across our community.”
Said Three Square Food Bank president and CEO Brian Burton: “In true Ethel M style, they are marking their 40th anniversary by giving an amazing gift to Southern Nevada — the gift of food!. As one in five individuals in our community are now struggling with hunger, we rely on gracious and ‘sweet’ partners like Ethel M to help us realize our vision that no one in our community should be hungry.”
Besides the flagship store, Ethel M Chocolates also has an establishment at Town Square, just south of the Las Vegas Strip and Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport, among its other store offerings. Therefore, race fans in the Las Vegas area should never be too far from their favorite chocolates.
However, if you aren’t in the Las Vegas area, you can purchase these unique Las Vegas made chocolates, such as Bourbon Liqueurs, Pecan Brittle and KONA Espresso Truffles, at ethelm.com and then tune in to FOX on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET for the race and enjoy watching Busch battle the top NASCAR competitors in his sweet ride. In 19 Cup Series races at Las Vegas, Busch has compiled 10 top-10 finishes with seven top fives.
Monday, March 8 Midnight, NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (re-air), FS1
3 a.m., NASCAR Race Classic: The 1987 Winston 500 (re-air), FS1
3:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub Best of Radioactive: Las Vegas (re-air), FS1
4:30 a.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
10:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Bucked Up 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Phoenix, FS1
Wednesday, March 10 2 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Las Vegas (re-air), FS2
3 a.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2
6 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Phoenix (re-air), FS2
Thursday, March 11 5 p.m., Dale Jr. Download: Jerry Punch (re-air), NBCSCN
6 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN
Friday, March 12 7:30 p.m., ARCA Menards Series: General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway, TrackPass/MAVTV On MRN: 7:30 p.m., ARCA Menards Series: General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway
Saturday, March 13 5 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Xfinity Series at Phoenix Raceway, FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway, FS1 (Canada: TSN 2)
8 p.m., Blink of an Eye, FS1
On MRN: 5 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway
Sunday, March 14 12:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway (re-air), FS2 3:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway (re-air), FS1
9 a.m., Blink of an Eye (re-air), FS1
Noon, NASCAR Xfinity Series: Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway (re-air), FS1
2 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Cup Series at Phoenix Raceway, FS1
3 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Cup Series at Phoenix Raceway, FOX
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway, FOX (Canada: TSN 5)
10 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway (re-air), FS1
On MRN: 2:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Instacart 500 at Phoenix Raceway
AJ Allmendinger took the lead and held off the field on a final race restart with 12 laps remaining to earn his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win in the last 16 races – taking the victory in the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in his first race at the track in three years.
Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet had to hold off the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Daniel Hemric, who led a race-best 74 of the 200 laps and came 0.978 seconds away from his first career victory.
It was an emotional win for the veteran Allmendinger, who climbed out of his car at the finish line and leaned against it, eyes closed for a moment before doing his live television interview.
This is the 39-year-old Californian’s first full-time season racing in NASCAR since 2018, when he competed in the NASCAR Cup Series ranks. He earned three wins driving part-time for Kaulig Racing the last two seasons.
“First of all, it’s awesome to have you all back in the grandstands,” a smiling Allmendinger said, motioning toward the cheering but socially distanced and limited-size crowd.
“It’s emotional because you don’t know when you’re going to do this again,” Allmendinger continued. “You never know. This could be the last one (win), you never know, I hope it’s not. I think we can do a lot more.”
“Even though I’m back full-time,” he added, “this is fun, but I want to win so bad for [team owner] Matt [Kaulig] every week. It’s hard to put into words what he means to me. Truly how bad I want to win for him … it means that much to me that he believes in me.”
For Hemric, who now has 11 career runner-up showings in NASCAR’s three national series, it was a tough final outcome considering the strong showing up front for his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota all race long. He led eight different times and won Stage 2. Tonight was Hemric’s eighth runner-up finish in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career. NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett holds the Xfinity Series record for the most runner-up finishes before his first victory with 10 second-place finishes.
“You hate to have one get away like that, but we came here and wanted to try to have more speed to lead laps and win stages and we did that today,” Hemric said. “We lined up with a shot there and just got beat. Congratulations to AJ. We just got beat.”
Hemric’s teammate Brandon Jones finished third followed by 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric, who led 43 laps and won Stage 1.
Cindric had a tire go down on his No. 22 Team Penske Ford just 55 laps into the race. A crash involving Ty Dillon and Riley Herbst one lap later prompted the race’s third yellow flag, allowing Cindric to regain his lost lap as the caution period’s beneficiary, though the misfortune dropped him to 36th in the 40-car field before his mid-race comeback.
With his inspired rally, he finished 10th in the second stage and broke into the top five by Lap 117. He made contact with Harrison Burton in the closing laps and his fourth-place showing is his fourth top five in as many races.
Las Vegas native Noah Gragson finished fifth – his best showing of the season. Michael Annett, Josh Berry, Justin Haley, Harrison Burton and Jeb Burton rounded out the top 10. The performances by Haley and Jeb Burton gave Kaulig Racing a top-10 sweep.
Cindric holds a 21-point lead over Hemric in the series driver standings entering next Saturday’s Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway (5:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was clear, with no major issues reported. The race-winning No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevy of Allmendinger was found with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check.
