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RELATED: NASCAR Fantasy Live

The NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series will head to Phoenix International Raceway while the Camping World Truck Series has it off. Check out the full weekend schedule below.


Note: All times are ET


SUNDAY, MARCH 13:

PRE-RACE

— 3:30 p.m.: Intro Presentation of Colors by: Luke AFB
— 3:30:20: Invocation by: PIR Chaplain Ken Bowers
— 3:31 p.m.: National Anthem: Jordan Fisher, Actor and Hollywood Records recording artist
— 3:32:30: Fly-over: Two F-35s from Luke Air Force Base (Turn 4 to Turn 1) 
— 3:38 p.m.: “Drivers, Start Your Engines” by: Mark Boggess, Good Sam Chief Operating Officer
— 3:45 p.m.: Green Flag



ON TRACK
— 3:30 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Good Sam 500 (312 laps, 312 miles), FOX (Results)



PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— Approx 6:30 p.m.: Post-NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race


DAILY ROUNDUP

— WATCH: Harvick beats Edwards in photo finish

— Edwards: ‘We made (Harvick) work for it’

— Closest finishes in NASCAR history


FRIDAY, MARCH 11:

ON TRACK
— 11:30 a.m.-12:25 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 12:30-1:55 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 3-4:25 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 5:30-6:25 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series final practice, FS2 (Results)
— 6:45 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS2 (Results)



GARAGECAM (Watch live)
— Noon: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
— 2:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series


PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 11:30 a.m.: Kevin Harvick
— 11:45 a.m.: Jimmie Johnson
— 2:05 p.m.: Carl Edwards
— 2:20 p.m.: Daniel Suarez
— 2:40 p.m.: Ryan Blaney
— 4:45 p.m.: Austin Dillon
— 7:45 p.m. (approx.): Post-NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying and Brad Keselowski


DAILY ROUNDUP

— Busch takes Coors Light Pole at Phoenix

— Johnson goes to backup car after qualifying crash

— See: At-track photos from Friday


SATURDAY, MARCH 12:

ON TRACK

— 10:30-11:25 a.m.:: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, FS1 (Results)
— 11:45 a.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS1 (Results)
— 1-1:50 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice, FS1 (Results)
— 2:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 (200 laps, 200 miles), FOX (Results)


PRESS CONFERENCES (Watch live)
— 4:30 p.m. (approx.): Post-NASCAR XFINITY Series race

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: NBC Sports Live Extra


All times ET

Monday, March 7
5:30 a.m., NASCAR Victory Lane (re-air), FS1
8 a.m., The 10: NASCAR’s Closest Calls (re-air), FS1
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Kobalt 400 (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS2
7 p.m., Beyond the Wheel (re-air), FS2
8:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Classic: The 1993 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS2

Tuesday, March 8
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
9 a.m., The 10: Biggest Bonehead Moves (re-air), FS1
9:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300 (re-air), FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m., Untold Stories: Daytona (re-air), FS1

Wednesday, March 9
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m., 100,000 Cameras: Daytona (re-air), FS1

Thursday, March 10
7 a.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Jeff Gordon (re-air), FS1

Friday, March 11
7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN
11 a.m., 100,000 Cameras: Daytona (re-air), FS1
11:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, FS1
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, FS1
2 p.m., Untold Stories: Daytona (re-air), FS1
3 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, FS1
4:30 p.m., 1979 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1
5:30 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series final practice, FS2
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS2

Saturday, March 12
9 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying (re-air), FS1
10:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, FS1
11:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, FS1
1 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice, FS1
2 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series FOX Pre-Race Show, FOX
2:30 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200, FOX
Midnight, NASCAR XFINITY Series Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 (re-air), FS1

Sunday, March 13
2 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
3 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series FOX Pre-Race Show, FOX
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Good Sam 500, FOX
10:30 p.m., NASCAR Victory Lane, FS1
2:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Good Sam 500 (re-air), FS1

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Miesha Tate won the UFC women’s Bantamweight Championship on Saturday night as NASCAR and UFC collided in Las Vegas.

Tate, the challenger, bested undefeated champ Holly Holm by submission in the fifth and final round. Tate is represented by Kevin Harvick‘s company, KHI Management, giving her a strong NASCAR connection. She attended the end-of-season NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards banquet — yes, also in Las Vegas — in 2014. She also dropped the green flag as honorary starter at Martinsville Speedway in October that same year.

 

Holm won the title from Ronda Rousey in November; Saturday night was her first title defense.

 

Several drivers competing in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) took in the fight, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon, Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Larson.

 

There was plenty of reaction after the thrilling conclusion.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Full results | Standings | Shop Keselowski merchandise

LAS VEGAS – Overcoming a pit road speeding penalty with daring late-race strategy, Brad Keselowski broke a 33-race drought with a victory in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

 

Keselowski passed Las Vegas native Kyle Busch with five laps left to win for the first time since the fifth race of 2015 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion beat Team Penske shopmate Joey Logano to the finish line by .675 seconds, as Busch lost ground over the closing laps.

 

Rain delayed the start of the race, and high winds and a late-race dust storm made visibility a challenge, but the bizarre conditions left Keselowski undeterred. Nor did a pit road speeding penalty under caution on Lap 180 prove catastrophic, thanks to a series of astute pit calls by crew chief Paul Wolfe.

 

“This is really, really great,” said Keselowski, who lauded the lower-downforce aerodynamic package in place for the 2016 season. “It seemed like there were plenty of challenges, whether it was pit road or the weather or cautions.

 

“They threw everything they had at us today but this Miller Lite Ford team was too strong, and we were able to fight them off and get to Victory Lane.”  

 

Relative to the field, Keselowski picked up speed toward the end of a run with a car that was eminently maneuverable. Busch’s car took off early but couldn’t maintain its pace late in a fuel run.

 

“He (Busch) had a really good short-run car, but it fell off on the long run,” Keselowski said. “That’s part of this new package. Some are good on short runs and some are good on long runs, and we had a really good long-run car today.”

 

Six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson beat Busch to the finish line by .016 seconds to secure third place. Austin Dillon ran fifth, and rookie Ryan Blaney came home sixth, posting a career-best finish on an open-motor race track.

 

The victory was Keselowski’s second at Las Vegas and the 18th of his career, but it wouldn’t have been possible if Wolfe hadn’t elected to keep the No. 2 Ford on the track on Lap 217 when all but Keselowski, Logano and Dillon pitted for tires and fuel under the fifth caution of the race.

 

It took 38 laps, however, for the benefits of the strategy to become apparent — thanks to Busch’s remarkable restart on Lap 224. From the sixth position, Busch powered his No. 18 Toyota to the outside of Johnson’s Chevrolet, picked up huge momentum off the second corner, dived to the inside and shot past both Logano and Keselowski entering Turn 3.

 

One lap later, a multi-car wreck in Turn 1 ended strong runs by Matt Kenseth and rookie Chase Elliott, but the seven laps run under the resulting sixth and final caution enabled Keselowski, Logano and Dillon to stretch their fuel supplies to the end of the race.

 

Busch streaked away on the Lap 233 restart but developed a pronounced vibration in the right front of this car, and the chase group of Keselowski, Logano and Johnson closed in. Keselowski passed Logano for the second spot on Lap 259 of 267 and steaked past Busch three laps later.

 

“I tried to hold him off as long as I could, but he showed how fast he was getting by me and Kyle and checking out,” Logano said after the 1-2 finish. “Congratulations to Team Penske. It’s something to be very proud of for our team.

 

“We have a lot of second-place finishes already this year. I know we’re only three races in, but I’m getting antsy. We have good speed in our cars — we’ll be all right.”

 

The call to stay out on Lap 217 proved decisive for the Penske Fords, but the decision to sacrifice track position for four tires on Lap 199 (when most others opted for right sides only), made the strategy possible.

 

“The way I look at it, if you’re going to do two tires, you got to get that clean air,” Wolfe said. “Otherwise, we’ll take four all day long. It gives you opportunities at the end to do some different strategies to get that track position back.

 

“Obviously we knew when the caution fell there, we were still short on fuel. At that point it was worth the risk to take the gamble and hope for the cautions. Obviously, we got those and were able to get to Victory Lane.”

 

Busch retained the top spot in the series standings and leads Johnson by six points and seventh-place finisher Kevin Harvick by seven. Logano is fourth, 12 points back.

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RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings

LAS VEGAS — Daniel Suarez experienced a first in his XFINITY Series career, and it wasn’t a win. But the Drive for Diversity product snagged the points standings lead from Elliott Sadler after finishing second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This is the first time Suarez has led in the XFINITY standings. In fact, it’s the first time a driver born outside the United States has been a series points leader, according to NASCAR statistical services. However, his position atop the standings is not weighing too heavy on his mind.

“I think it’s too early, we’re just three races into the season and with the new Chase format anything can happen,” Suarez said. “You need to win a race to be safe and lock yourself into the Chase.”

This is the first season of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase playoffs, similar to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. XFINITY drivers compete in an elimination-style format that begins with 12 eligible drivers at Kentucky in September and is whittled down to four for the final race of the season at Homestead. A win practically guarantees a driver’s position in the Chase, but runner-up finishes go a long way, too.

RELATED: Chase format explained

“We have to keep working because someone else out there is still faster than us,” Suarez said. “And it’s good because it’s our teammate (Kyle Busch) and we know he has the same stuff that we do.

“We need to keep working to be consistent … we need to keep working to get more speed and try to win a race to be more comfortable.”

Now it’s all about maintaining his lead, finding more speed and seeking out that first win, which could come just as early as next week at Phoenix International Raceway, where the No. 19 driver has a best finish of fourth last season.

Suarez has shown speed since the 2016 season started, with a eighth-place finish at Daytona and a seventh-place finish at Atlanta. The 24-year-old’s second-place finish on Saturday was his best showing since Bristol Motor Speedway in April of 2015, when he was a runner-up to Joey Logano.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Live weather updates | Saturday’s practice reports | Starting lineup


LAS VEGAS — The expectation of high winds for the NASCAR race weekend in Las Vegas has been, at the very least, a talking point if not a concern for drivers. Local weather forecasters are predicting winds as high as 20-30 mph in the area Sunday with gusts even higher.


There is actually a High Wind Advisory in the Las Vegas area lasting through the duration of the scheduled race time.


“We have talked about it some,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said after winning the outside pole position Friday evening for Sunday’s Kobalt 400.


“What we do hope is that it is a constant wind,” Logano said. “The gusts of wind are what crashes cars. … If it is constant it is OK. If you get big gusts, the car jumps out of the race track and leads you into the wall or spins you right out. It is going to be dangerous, treacherous for sure.”


Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski said he hadn’t been too worried about the winds, but offered an explanation for the effect that form of weather could have.


“I try not to worry about the things that affect everyone equally,” said Keselowski, who will roll off fourth on the starting grid. “Wind is one of those things. I haven’t thought about it.”


Pressed to explain his take on the forecast, however, Keselowski said: “The wind moves the car around dramatically, much like every aero force and the cars rely on three key aero forces: drag, downforce or side force.


“All three of those are three dimensional. … The wind, depending on where it strikes, where it blows you in what direction, can affect all three of those. Of course a headwind down the straightaway can add a lot of drag and make the motor feel a lot weaker.


“A crosswind in a corner can add or take away from the side force on the car, and a headwind into the corner can give you a lot of added downforce or vice versa, a tailwind can take it away.”


Pole-winner Kurt Busch, a Las Vegas native, conceded he was fully anticipating the wind being an extra factor in the race. It hadn’t picked up to the level anticipated for the weekend and showed no ill effects on speed Friday with four cars bettering the previous track record. Busch set the new track record of 196.378 mph in the first round of qualifying.


“I’m looking at the forecast,” Busch said. “It looks pretty gnarly for the wind. That’s a West Coast term, gnarly, but the speed of the wind will push us big time, from what I’m gathering, from a southwest direction into Turn 3. When you have a tailwind multiplied by 30 mph that is a headwind of 30 mph down the front straightaway. That is a swing of 60 mph. 


“That is a significant difference that these cars are going to feel. We have tested Nashville a few times way back in the day where there was a crosswind of 40 mph. The downforce increase and decrease is staggering. We are all going to be out there struggling, fighting and trying to gain that grip with the tailwind.”


The wind had already picked up some during final Saturday morning Cup practices with drivers left to anticipate the situation come race day.


“It is going to be just crazy to think about what that wind is going to do,” Logano said. “It is not like we know what direction it is going to be blowing on the race track. I don’t know at least. Maybe some weather guy can tell me.


“I just think it is definitely going to be moving cars around and I am sure cars will crash for that reason if it is that windy and you get a gust at the wrong time when you are under somebody. It could be big.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full starting lineup

Whirling around Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 182.698 mph, Kyle Busch swept all three rounds of XFINITY Series qualifying on Saturday, earning his 50th career Coors Light Pole Award. The Las Vegas native has never won an XFINITY race at his hometown track.

Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Erik Jones (182.642 mph) and Daniel Suarez (182.519 mph) will start in the second and third positions, respectively, in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 (4 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, PRN, SiriusXM). JR Motorsports’ Chase Elliott will roll off the grid fourth (181.702 mph), while Richard Childress Racing‘s Brandon Jones qualified fifth with a fast lap of 181.684 mph in his No. 33 ride.

Austin Dillon, last year’s winner at Las Vegas, failed to make the final round of qualifying and will start Saturday’s race from the 14th position.

Derrike Cope‘s No. 70 team hustled to prep a backup car for qualifying after a wreck during Friday practice. But the team wasn’t able to get the car on track before the Round 1 time clock expired and Cope’s No. 70 did not make the field. Todd Peck also failed to qualify for the event, the third of 33 races this season.

The first round was briefly halted with a caution due to fluid on the track.

The XFINITY Series is back on track at 4 p.m. ET for the Boyd Gaming 300 (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

Related: Final practice results | Practice 2 results

Matt Kenseth zipped to the top of final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kenseth piloted the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota to a fast lap of 189.460 mph around the 1.5-mile track in final preparation for Sunday’s Kobalt 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM). Kenseth, a three-time winner at Las Vegas, landed the third starting spot for the third race of the season in Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying.

Carl Edwards, a teammate to Kenseth in the JGR No. 19 Toyota, posted the second-fastest lap at 188.851 mph in a backup car. Kurt Busch, a Las Vegas native and Friday’s pole winner, turned the third-fastest lap at 188.706 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevy.

Richard Childress Racing teammates Paul Menard (188.679 mph) and Ryan Newman (188.547) completed the top five.

Jimmie Johnson, a four-time Vegas winner fresh from his victory last weekend at Atlanta, was sixth-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet. Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, driving a reserve Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota after a crash in Thursday testing, logged the ninth-fastest lap.

Defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch, the current series points leader, bolted to the 14th-fastest lap in the JGR No. 18 Toyota. Kevin Harvick, the defending race winner, was 22nd-fastest in another Stewart-Haas entry, the No. 4 Chevy.

Austin Dillon posted the 11th-fastest single lap in the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet, but was atop the heap for 10 consecutive lap average. Johnson, Kurt Busch, Kenseth and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top five in the 10-lap average category.

Brian Vickers, subbing for the injured Tony Stewart in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet, grazed the wall at Turn 4’s exit with roughly 20 minutes left in the 50-minute session. He wound up 26th-fastest in the 39-car field in final practice.

Edwards recovers from wreck, tops Saturday’s early practice

Carl Edwards seemed to have no repercussions from Friday’s qualifying crash, as he propelled his backup No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 191.564 mph to the top of the leaderboard in Saturday’s opening practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Because the No. 19 team switched to a backup car after wrecking during Coors Light Pole qualifying, Edwards will start Sunday’s Kobalt 400 from the rear of the field (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Edwards wrecks in qualifying, heads to backup car

Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Dillon — who won the 2015 XFINITY Series race at Las Vegas — was second-fastest, his No. 3 Chevrolet clocking in at 190.894 mph.

Casey Mears came up third on the speed charts, wheeling his No. 13 Germain Racing ride at 190.698 mph. Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kasey Kahne (190.355 mph) and Team Penske‘s Brad Keselowski (190.295 mph) completed the top five.

Kurt Busch, who earned the Coors Light Pole Award Friday evening in Las Vegas, was 10th-fastest in Saturday’s opening practice.

The 55-minute session was briefly delayed for fluid on the track. As a result, the session was extended by five minutes, until 12:30 p.m. ET.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings

LAS VEGAS – When Kyle Busch finally broke his home-court jinx at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he did it in style.
 
Leading 199 of 200 laps, Busch won Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series at the 1.5-mile track, pacing a 1-2-3 finish by Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. The Las Vegas native ended an 0-for-11 drought at his home track, beating teammate Daniel Suárez to the finish line by .817 seconds, with Erik Jones rolling across the stripe in third.
 
The victory was Busch’s second straight in as many starts this season and the 78th of his career, extending his own series record.
 
As dominant as the statistics may have appeared, however, Busch’s win was anything but easy. Suárez was closing fast over the final 20 laps, chopping a lead of nearly three seconds to less than one. And Jones’ No. 20 Toyota likely was the fastest car in the race, but back-to-back green-flag pit road speeding penalties squelched his chances for victory.
 
Busch was saving fuel over the final run, but that wasn’t his main concern.
 
“We were worried about fuel, but more so we were worried about Suárez,” Busch said in Victory Lane. “He was on me there at the end — he was really, really fast. I can’t say enough about all these guys. Everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing prepares some really fast Camrys and this NOS Energy Drink Camry was the best. It felt really, really good.
 
“Suárez was definitely faster than us when he got clean track. If roles were reversed, he would have been pulling away from me, and I wasn’t going to be able to catch him. All in all, just a great day for us in 1-2-3, and for me to get a victory here in my home town, check one off the list, that’s pretty awesome.”
 
Suárez, who took over the series lead, matched his career-best finish and posted his ninth straight top 10, dating to last season.
 
“I felt like it took me too long to figure out how to be fast in traffic,” said Suarez, who holds a three-point edge over Elliott Sadler in the series standings. “The team did an amazing job. The car was super fast — just a little short.”
 
Jones lost two laps when he was flagged for speeding on pit road and was busted again while serving the pass-through penalty for the first infraction, a pair of mistakes the driver attributed to a possible faulty calibration of the warning lights on his dashboard.
 
But Jones got both laps back – the first with a wave-around, the second as the highest-scored lapped car under the final caution – just in time to charge to third on the final green-flag run.
 
A chain-reaction wreck on Lap 136 ended strong runs by Darrell Wallace Jr. and Justin Marks. The crash started when Cody Ware spun his No. 25 Chevrolet, smacked the outside wall and stopped sideways on the track.
 
Unable to avoid Ware’s car, Wallace slid his No. 6 Ford into the left rear quarter of the No. 25 and drifted into the outside wall. Marks tried to avoid Ware’s Chevy to the high side but hit the wall and careened down the track into Wallace’s Ford.
 
“We were running our own race there,” said Wallace, who was running 12th when the collision occurred. “Kind of fell off late in the run and getting free, but we were making gains on our Ford Mustang all day and getting it better and better.”
 
Wallace led the only lap Busch didn’t lead, taking the top spot on Lap 55 during a cycle of green-flag pit stops. But that was small consolation for the way Wallace’s race ended.

MORE: Wallace involved in three-car wreck