Posted on by @KESELOWSKI

PLAY NOW: Set your Fantasy Live lineup | How the new Fantasy Live works

Ryan Blaney will start on the pole for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). With three practice sessions for this race in the books, we’ve dissected the numbers and 10-lap averages to offer a look at three drivers worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you go to make roster decisions for the third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of 2018.

1. Ryan Blaney. It’s not exactly a hot take to come out and say that the pole winner is a smart choice to include in your Fantasy Live lineup, but the Team Penske driver can’t be ignored Sunday. Second thus far in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition in the laps-led column, Blaney will likely pace the field for a good chunk of the race and could add a stage win to his credit. Saturday’s final practice winner has a 10.7 average finish at Vegas and has finished in the top seven the last two times out.

RELATED: Fantasy analysis for Las Vegas | Full lineup | 10-lap averages

2. Kyle Larson. If there’s one driver you absolutely must start — especially if you’ve yet to use him — it’s Larson. Saturday’s Xfinity Series winner also tested at Las Vegas earlier this year, leading the second session during the event. Safe to say he knows his way around the Nevada track pretty well. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver also paced the first two practices of the weekend, was second-best in the third session, and had the fastest 10-lap average in the final tune-up. As long as he can keep it clean, the No. 42 — last year’s race runner-up — will have plenty of speed.

3. Kevin Harvick. You already know Harvick is among the best — if not the best — at the intermediate tracks over the past few years, and last week’s Atlanta winner should find his way to the front again on Sunday. (It shouldn’t take too long, as he’s starting second.) Harvick also put together the fastest 10-lap string in the second practice, was second on that chart in the final session and won this race in 2015. Get him in your lineup, but remember — you’re likely going to want him next week at Phoenix, as well, so keep an eye on his starts meter.

Pat DeCola’s revised Fantasy Live lineup following practices and qualifying:
1: Joey Logano
2: Ryan Blaney
3: Kevin Harvick
4: Martin Truex Jr.
5: Kyle Larson
Garage: Kurt Busch

Analysis: I’m going heavy with this one. The fastest cars seem to be pretty clear this weekend, with the Fords showing their early season speed might be for real (Blaney, Harvick, Logano) and usual suspects Larson and Truex acting like themselves when it comes to intermediate tracks out west.

Based on their speed and past track history, I suspect all three Team Penske cars will be among those vying for the lead/win at some point, so I have two of them in there but seriously considered the full trio. Logano has finished in the top four in three of the past four Vegas races and is due for a win. Good time to capitalize on his quick start to the season.

Busch — another Ford guy — has been shut out of a win at his home track in 16 attempts and doesn’t have a tremendously favorable history at Vegas, but he did test there and could be fast like he was at Atlanta. He’s a good garage pick because of his high ceiling, moderate floor.

Remember to set your roster and bonus picks ahead of Sunday’s 3:30 p.m. ET start time and to keep tabs on your team during the race with the ability to go to the garage locking at the completion of Stage 2.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Race results | Stage 1 results | Stage 2 results

LAS VEGAS – Kyle Larson pulled away from pole winner Christopher Bell after a restart with seven laps left and took the checkered flag in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300, winning for the first time at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Larson beat Bell to the finish line by .881 seconds. The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet led 142 of the 200 laps and overcame a pit road snafu that dropped him to eighth for a restart on Lap 139 after a caution for Austin Cindric’s crash in Turn 2.

The victory was Larson’s first of the season and the ninth of his career.

“It was an awesome day,” Larson said in Victory Lane. “This car was so fast. It was really fast last year, but you really never know, and this was my first time racing with this new (composite) body, and it performed well.”

Nor did it take him long to recover after the slow pit stop on Lap 135 that set him back.

“Normally my guys are some of the best on pit road,” Larson said. “They said the left-rear (tire) just wouldn’t come out (of the wheel well). I had been fighting a tight issue all day and then finally we got our car to turn better.

“It allowed me to get to the lead fairly easily, and then I was saving fuel in case the race stayed green.”

Larson and Bell are frequent rivals in dirt-track racing, and Bell had the upper hand in last November’s Turkey Night Classic and January’s Chili Bowl, the marquee midget race of the season. Bell was happy to see the friendly rivalry extend to pavement.

“That was really cool, and there will be a lot more of that,” promised Bell, who outdueled Larson at the end of Stage 1 but fell short after the final restart. “We were close, running second to Kyle – if I’m going to run second to anyone, I guess I would rather it be him.

“Special day, we were able to win a stage and get a Playoff point. We need to keep racking those up and get some race wins here.”

WATCH: Larson and Bell battle to end Stage 1

Justin Allgaier ran third in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney was fourth, followed by Elliott Sadler.

But the show at the beginning and at the end was Larson vs. Bell.

“It’s always fun to get to race Bell,” Larson said. “He seems to beat me all the time in the dirt stuff, and he edged me out there in qualifying. We were pretty equal there… It was cool to race, though.

“That first stage kind of felt like we were dirt-track racing there, swapping lanes and stuff. I was trying to take the air off him, and he got by, and yeah, it was fun… Anytime I get to race in the Xfinity Series, I’m sure we’ll be up front, battling each other.”

Trying for a weekend sweep after winning Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event, Kyle Busch fought an ill-handling Toyota throughout the race and finished 14th after his fueler drew a penalty for handling a tire during a green-flag stop on Lap 166.

Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Las Vegas native Spencer Gallagher completed the top 10. Reddick and Sadler leave Las Vegas tied for the series lead, 23 points ahead of Bell in third.

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

RELATED: Vegas starting lineup

LAS VEGAS – Respect is earned, not given.

That’s the perspective William Byron has adopted as he tackles his rookie season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

The 20-year-old doesn’t believe that just because he is piloting the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports he automatically has credibility. He wants to earn admiration from fans and his fellow drivers when he finds his way to Victory Lane – and he knows it won’t be an easy road either.

“It’s hard to mentally prepare to know that it’s going to be difficult,” Byron said at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the first stop on the three-race NASCAR Goes West swing. “Once it clicks, it’s going to be the same as any other series. Once it clicks, and you know what you need in the car and you know how to produce results it doesn’t matter whether there (are) 30 good cars or 20 good cars.

“I think that once it does click for us and we show up each week — and we are very close — we are going to rack up those successful finishes.”

Byron also acknowledged that he had no choice but to grow up quickly when he accepted the offer from Rick Hendrick to jump into the car that former driver Jeff Gordon made a household name. He quickly understood the responsibility that comes with driving the No. 24 Chevrolet – and from being a part of the youth movement that is taking the sport by storm.

“You just try to interact with them (fans),” he said. “You try to still get where you’re going if you have to be at practice; you can’t just stop for each person. But you’ve got to walk with them and try to understand how to manage that.

“You want to make sure they get the right impression from the weekend because I know from me going to races that one impression I would get from a driver … that interaction is crucial. You want to make sure they have a good time.”

RELATED: How life has changed for Byron

Sunday marks the third race of the 2018 season, and the 2017 Xfinity champion and his team have felt the growing pains early. A 23rd-place finish at Daytona was followed with what he described as the “hardest” 18th-place finish of his career at Atlanta. He’ll start 17th at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where his team is still working on pit-stop strategies and adjusting to the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Byron tries not to let a tough practice or qualifying keep him from looking forward.

“The biggest pressure you can put on yourself is seeing what other people say and seeing what other people think about what’s going on,” he said. “Sometimes they actually know exactly what’s going on which is funny to read some comments and I’m like, ‘Yeah that’s pretty much what’s happening.’ … You have to be honest with yourself and just know what you have to work on.”

Byron’s rise through the ranks has put the spotlight as bright as it comes – and along with the notoriety comes the nicknames. “Willy B.” has become the trademark for fans and broadcasters, but he hopes that it doesn’t become the norm.

“It’s better than Billy,” he said. “If I start winning hopefully it’ll be William. I gotta win first though.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Fantasy NASCAR: Play now

A look at the drivers with the top speeds over 10 consecutive laps during practice for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Note: No drivers ran 10 consecutive laps in Friday’s first practice)

FINAL PRACTICE: Results

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 42 Kyle Larson 1 10 183.935
2 4 Kevin Harvick 1 10 183.881
3 78 Martin Truex Jr. 1 10 183.623
4 2 Brad Keselowski 1 10 183.499
5 9 Chase Elliott 1 10 183.256
6 18 Kyle Busch 1 10 183.222
7 10 Aric Almirola 1 10 183.167
8 20 Erik Jones 1 10 183.076
9 11 Denny Hamlin 1 10 183.025
10 14 Clint Bowyer 1 10 182.889
11 31 Ryan Newman 1 10 182.622
12 21 Paul Menard 1 10 182.177
13 1 Jamie McMurray 1 10 182.101
14 22 Joey Logano 23 32 182.073
15 48 Jimmie Johnson 14 23 182.050
16 51 Cole Custer (i) 1 10 181.944
17 41 Kurt Busch 17 26 181.895
18 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. # 1 10 181.679
19 24 William Byron # 21 30 181.635
20 12 Ryan Blaney 20 29 181.555
21 19 Daniel Suarez 19 28 181.409
22 34 Michael McDowell 20 29 181.059
23 38 David Ragan 1 10 180.238
24 6 Trevor Bayne 17 26 180.128
25 95 Kasey Kahne 24 33 179.789
26 13 Ty Dillon 27 36 179.259
27 47 AJ Allmendinger 15 24 179.139
28 3 Austin Dillon 15 24 178.698

Car must run 10 consecutive laps on the track to be included in the above chart.
# Indicates driver is running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors; (i) Indicates ineligible for driver points in this series

PRACTICE 2: Results

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed
1 4 Kevin Harvick 1 10 184.663
2 48 Jimmie Johnson 1 10 183.783
3 78 Martin Truex Jr. 1 10 183.672
4 2 Brad Keselowski 13 22 183.567
5 18 Kyle Busch 11 20 183.352
6 20 Erik Jones 1 10 183.094
7 13 Ty Dillon 1 10 183.018
8 14 Clint Bowyer 16 25 182.903
9 22 Joey Logano 1 10 182.829
10 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 14 23 182.394
11 21 Paul Menard 21 30 182.198
12 31 Ryan Newman 19 28 182.145
13 1 Jamie McMurray 19 28 181.870
14 24 William Byron # 16 25 181.558
15 19 Daniel Suarez 20 29 181.223
16 34 Michael McDowell 13 22 181.053
17 95 Kasey Kahne 18 27 180.795
18 38 David Ragan 22 31 180.651
19 88 Alex Bowman 22 31 179.675

Car must run 10 consecutive laps on the track to be included in the above chart.
# Indicates driver is running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Final practice results | Full schedule for Vegas

Pole-starter Ryan Blaney backed up his speed from Friday’s qualifying by setting the pace in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Blaney powered to a lap of 186.445 mph around the 1.5-mile track in the Team Penske No. 12 Ford. He’ll start first in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM).

Kyle Larson, the fastest in Saturday’s earlier practice, was second-best in the final tune-up, landing a lap of 186.136 mph in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr., the defending series champ and last year’s Vegas winner, clocked the third-fastest lap at 186.091 mph in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott (186.059 mph) and William Byron (186.002) completed the top five in the 50-minute session.

Cole Custer, a NASCAR Xfinity Series regular gearing up for his premier-series debut, was 25th-fastest at 183.974 mph in the Rick Ware Racing No. 51 Ford.

Larson was fastest in the category of consecutive 10-lap averages, which is often a forecasting factor for long-run speed on race day. He was followed by Harvick, Truex, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott in the top five on that chart.

RELATED: Consecutive 10-lap averages

Three teams served 15-minute penalties at the end of Saturday’s final practice for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice:

  • No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Aric Almirola
  • No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch
  • No. 37 JTG-Daugherty Racing Chevrolet of Chris Buescher

Sunday’s 400.5-mile event is the third of 36 points-paying races for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. It’s also the first event in the three-race West Coast swing, with Las Vegas, Phoenix and Fontana, California, on the schedule in consecutive weekends.

Larson fastest in early Saturday practice

Kyle Larson led the way in Saturday’s opening practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

MORE: Practice 2 results

Larson placed the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet atop the leaderboard with a lap of 187.559 mph on the 1.5-mile Nevada track. Larson, the runner-up at Las Vegas last season, is scheduled to start fifth in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM).

“The car is really good,” Larson said. “We tested here about a month ago and were fast and got a good balance on our car. I think this practice we were just kind of chasing the track a little bit. I was loose the first few runs we did and worked on tightening it up and then we put a set of stickers on there a few laps there at the end, ran a fast lap, but I built tight really fast. So, I think if we would have just waited to practice and left the same set-up on there to start we would have been fine. The track just went through a lot of changes, transition I think.”

Ryan Newman was second-fastest in the 55-minute session, notching a 187.454 mph lap in the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevy. Jimmie Johnson claimed the third spot on the leaderboard (186.587) for Hendrick Motorsports, completing a 1-2-3 practice sweep for Chevrolet drivers.

Kevin Harvick, last weekend’s winner at Atlanta, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five in preparation for the third Monster Energy Series race of the season.

Ryan Blaney, who won the pole Friday during qualifying for Sunday’s event, was sixth-fastest (185.325 mph) in the Team Penske No. 12 Ford. Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr., who won this race last year, was 10th-fastest (185.096 mph) in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota.

Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota slowed with an apparent parts failure, prompting a caution period 18 minutes into the session for debris. He pulled into the garage to the attention of his Joe Gibbs Racing crew, which returned him to the track later in practice.

Three teams were docked 15 minutes of practice at the end of the session because they were late to Friday’s pre-qualifying inspection. Those teams were:

  • No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of driver Austin Dillon
  • No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet of Kyle Larson
  • No. 55 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet of Joey Gase
Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Race results | Stage 1 results | Stage 2 results

LAS VEGAS – Holding off a hard-charging Johnny Sauter and Brett Moffitt in the closing laps of a thrilling NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, Kyle Busch claimed a milestone victory at his home track and kept alive the possibility of a three-race sweep at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Busch crossed the finish line .437 seconds ahead of Sauter, who outdueled Moffitt for the runner-up position. Last week’s winner at Atlanta, Moffitt held the lead until contact of his No. 16 Toyota with the lapped truck of Michel Disdier gave Busch the opportunity to charge to the outside and pass for the top spot.

Busch maintained the lead the rest of the way, except for two laps under caution for Disdier’s spin off Turn 4 on Lap 119. Busch won for the first time this season, the first time in a truck at Las Vegas and the 50th time in his career, leaving him one win short of the record held by NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr.

Busch has now won at LVMS in each of NASCAR’s top three touring series, and he has won a Truck Series race at every active track at which he has competed.

“It means a lot,” said Busch, who will race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday. “We’ve had some great runs in the races that we’ve had at Kyle Busch Motorsports. We’ve raced and won all across the country, but I’ve just never been able to get back to Las Vegas to run a race.

“This one’s pretty cool to be able to win in my hometown and finish my list of Truck Series facilities that I’ve raced at and I’ve won at. I couldn’t be prouder to do it with this Cessna Beechcraft Toyota Tundra – just a phenomenal race truck.”

Failure to launch on the restarts cost Sauter a chance to battle for the victory after the final restart on Lap 124 of 134.

RELATED: Sauter disappointed with second

“Tonight I was frustrated when I got out of the truck because of the restarts,” Sauter said. “My best one was the last one, so that was good.”

Just not quite good enough for the driver of the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet, who felt he could have caught the race winner given five or six more laps.

Sauter, however, was no more frustrated than Moffitt, whose issue wasn’t with Disdier. Moffitt was seething because the lapped truck of Myatt Snider raced him tenaciously after coming off pit road with fresh tires in the late stages of the race.

RELATED: Moffitt is miffed

“When the 13 (Snider) pulled out from the pits a couple laps down and side drafted us for the lead, and it allowed Kyle to close in, I tried to go to the bottom of a lapped car (Disdier) and he turned down into us,” Moffitt said.

“It’s just frustrating, because when you’re out of the race, you shouldn’t get in the way of the leaders. … It’s just a bittersweet race.”

Sauter added to his series lead, outpacing second-place Moffitt by 39 points. Fourth-place finisher Grant Enfinger is 40 points behind in third, one ahead of Noah Gragson, who ran 12th on Friday night.

Stewart Friesen led 31 laps — second only to Busch’s 55 — and placed fifth. Gragson and Friesen won the first and second stages of the race, respectively.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Starting lineup for Vegas | Weekend schedule

Clint Bowyer is a man of high energy and high expectation.

And the veteran driver is hopeful that now two years into his tenure with the championship winning Stewart-Haas Racing organization, that keen spirit will continue to translate into high performance, too.

Bowyer, 39, arrived at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM) feeling optimistic after a third-place showing in Atlanta last Sunday. His fifth-place ranking in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup standings is his highest points position entering the Las Vegas race in five seasons.

It’s indicative of Bowyer’s absolute commitment to do something he hasn’t in six seasons: win a Cup race.

“Yeah, it was a good weekend for Ford and for our team, Stewart-Haas Racing and our 14 team in general,” Bowyer said of last week’s race in Atlanta – won by his SHR teammate Kevin Harvick.

“You can use races like that for confidence and momentum for this West Coast swing. It is taxing on everyone, a lot of fun but also a lot of work to come out here. To get the year started with a good run at Atlanta feels good.

“I am looking forward to being out here in Vegas. Hell, who doesn’t like being in Vegas?”

Bowyer, who’s driving the No. 14 Ford Fusion this week, is hoping Vegas deals him another good hand.

Last year he finished 10th after qualifying 13th in his Vegas debut for Stewart-Haas Racing – his first top-10 at the track in five years and his first with his new team.

It was the start of a nice spring run for Bowyer who had only one finish worse than 15th in the next nine races – highlighted by a third-place finish in California and a runner-up in the Bristol, Tennessee, night race three weeks after that.

He was ranked eighth overall after Bristol – his highest ranking of the season and his highest ranking since a seventh-place finish in the 2015 season opening Daytona 500.

It was a promising start for Bowyer’s tenure at SHR and he capped it with back-to-back runner-up finishes later in the season at the Sonoma, California, road course and then the Daytona International Speedway high banks.

His last Monster Energy Series win was the Charlotte night race in October 2012 – the third of three victories he had that year propelling him to a career-best runner-up final ranking in the series’ championship points.

Bowyer hasn’t forgotten what it feels like to win or to chase a season title and he is both genuinely hopeful and reasonably optimistic that this will be the season when he hoists a race trophy high again.

He is with a championship-caliber team, driving a competitive car. And personal motivation has never been an issue. In fact, it has propelled him in a career of both great triumph and great challenge.

So while other drivers may be gradually rolling into the third race of the 2018 season — easy on expectation – Bowyer couldn’t be more ready to put it into high gear. The green flag has dropped and he’s got races to win, a title to contend.

“It is funny,” Bowyer said. “We say after Daytona, ‘That isn’t the real season.’ Then if you have a bad run in Atlanta, ‘Well, that isn’t really the regular season either.’ If you run good at Atlanta you are going to say, ‘Hell yes, that is what you will see all year long.’

“This repave out here [at Las Vegas], the grip level and the tire that we run is similar to the feel I guess in the car that you will have at a lot of tracks. It is a lot different. Atlanta, you are slipping and sliding around. You come here and the car is instantly a lot faster.

“The grip level and comfort in the sidewall of the tire and stiffness of the tire is a whole different animal. Throw in the wind aspect of it and even going to that short track at Phoenix next week, you will have that same type of feel with the tire.

“There is a little bit of truth to that. But it still feels good to run good though.”

Posted on by Brad Norman

RELATED: Las Vegas paint schemes | Weekend schedule

LAS VEGAS — At 25 years old, Chris Buescher isn’t quite sure where fans categorize him on NASCAR’s age scale. But the 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion knows talented young drivers will occupy hauler spots for quite some time.

“I would say I’m barely in it at this point,” Buescher jokingly told NASCAR.com of the sport’s current youth movement. “I’m getting older in a hurry, but when we talk about the youth movement and everyone coming up, it’s the people that I’ve been racing with growing up. It’s all the same groups between ARCA, legends cars, late models … we’ve raced with (Ryan) Blaney and Chase (Elliott) and (Darrell) Wallace.

“We’ve all been a part of similar racing backgrounds. It’s pretty neat to say that many of us have made it to this point. … You look at the different generations of it and to say that we are the next group coming in is pretty neat.”

The driver of the No. 37 Chevrolet is in his second year with JTG Daugherty Racing and teammate AJ Allmendinger, an opportunity years in the marking. Kick-starting the 2018 season with a top-five finish (the third of his Monster Energy Series career) in the Daytona 500 is one way to remind those watching that he still has a lot he wants to accomplish in his career.

MORE: At the shop with JTG Daugherty

However, Buescher also understands it’s important for the sport to continue to develop drivers, because without the opportunities given to him, he may not be piloting a car in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

“I think we all hope that we can get to that point and say that we’ve stuck around for 10 or 20 years,” Buescher said. “At the same time, you’re always going to have some movements. It did get to a point for a couple years where it did just get locked down. It became a full house and it was rolling. It’s changed in a hurry. With as many people as we’ve had retire and getting out, it’s really opened up a lot of opportunities. That’s what has made it easier to find our way here … the goal is to get our fans in the same age category as we are and bring them through the next 10 or 20 years as well.” 

If you look around Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, these aren’t the same faces you saw getting behind the wheel a decade ago … or five years ago. A self-proclaimed “anti-change” agent, Buescher believes what’s happening on and off the track is something fans are — and should be — excited for.

Buescher is embracing the change with enthusiasm. It’s surprising to him, too.

“I think we’ve seen some great things on track and some initiatives that have brought back some excitement to the sport,” Buescher said. “Like stage racing has really been a positive; fans have really embraced that including a lot of hardcore, old-school fans.

“You’re still going to have the people that would typically be (like) me and just can’t stand the changes, but I think overall it’s been a really good thing to try and get people rejuvenated.”

RELATED: At last, Buescher feels at home

Buescher is further embracing his age and fan base by running Natural Light as the primary sponsor on his Camaro ZL1 this weekend. This year’s sponsorship comes with a twist — Natural Light is giving away $1 million to help pay down college loans to 25 people who post a photo to social media holding a green “$” tab found in marked Natural Light packs.

“When you talk about a NASCAR weekend and what it’s about, it’s for people to come out and hang out. They tailgate and party and camp,” Buescher said. “It’s something that Natty Light obviously is a huge part of and people can get on board with that. Especially with college students being able to come out for three or four days on a weekend. I think it’s just a good matchup and where we think that we are headed in the next several years. If we can bring those people in now and try to get excited about what we have going on the race track every weekend.

“It’s an exciting sport. There’s a lot going on.”