Christopher Bell, in search of his fourth consecutive win in the NASCAR Cup Series, will start Sunday’s race from the rear after a mechanical issue on his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after qualifying, a team spokesperson confirmed.
John Hunter Nemechek will also start from the rear for a mechanical change on his No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota, a team spokesperson confirmed. FOX Sports first reported the news. NASCAR updated the list of those set to start at the rear during pre-race on Sunday, with Ryan Blaney (DNQ), Riley Herbst and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (unapproved adjustments) also being sent to the back.
The two Toyota teams indicated trouble with the throttle body during their respective qualifying efforts. Bell had time-trialed the 13th-best lap, while Nemechek was scheduled to start 30th.
Because of the change, both will be forced to start from the rear for unapproved adjustments.
Bell, who sits second in points, has won each of the past three Cup races with victories at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix Raceway. He will attempt to score a fourth straight win on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The last driver to accomplish the feat was seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson in 2007.
Nemechek ranks 13th in the points standings through four races with one top five and two top 10s in the opening quartet of events.
LAS VEGAS — One pit-road penalty could have tanked Jesse Love’s day. A loose wheel on Austin Hill’s car could have derailed his efforts.
Instead, the Richard Childress Racing teammates both rebounded for excellent days in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with Love wheeling the No. 2 Chevrolet to a third-place finish and Hill driving the No. 21 back to fourth.
Love’s crew incurred a penalty for a tire violation at Lap 49 after the conclusion of Stage 1, sending Love to the tail of the field for the start of Stage 2. Though Love didn’t agree with the penalty — assessed for an uncontrolled tire into the next pit stall, which was unoccupied — the sophomore Xfinity driver centered on the positives after struggling to find the feel he needed in Friday’s practice session.
“It was good because we really struggled on practice day here and even qualifying, I was swatting flies,” Love said. “And I was swatting flies all day today as well. But, man, I was nervous leaving the race track yesterday because we were making so many adjustments. I wasn’t giving bad feedback or something because, I mean, we changed everything.
“I’m glad that we made the right decisions because I told Danny (Stockman, crew chief), I was like, dude, just trust your instincts. I’ll trust mine. And if it’s wrong, then it’s wrong. But we’ve got to go with what we think is right. So we changed a lot of stuff overnight balance-wise and got a lot better.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Love entered Saturday’s 200-lapper as the Xfinity Series points leader but left second thanks to race winner Justin Allgaier’s 59-point day, two markers shy of scoring the maximum points available. Now 19 points back, Love isn’t concerned and believes he and his RCR group are poised for success next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But even through five races, the 20-year-old is keeping close tabs on the points tally.
“Even though we didn’t get points that we wanted to today, we still, I thought, maximized the finish,” he said. “Obviously, we have to kind of blow out (the points) next week at Homestead.”
On Lap 72, Hill was forced to hit pit road for a loose wheel, his No. 21 team changing all four tires to ensure each was tightened the second time around. That trapped Hill a lap down for the rest of the second stage, but he remained in position to earn the free pass at the end of the frame to get back onto the lead lap.
“I was just being cool, calm, collected,” Hill explained of his demeanor after the pit stop. “And as soon as the caution came out, Derek (Kneeland, spotter) did a really good job just saying, ‘Hey, man, look, we still have 102 laps to go. We’re not out of this thing yet. We can still go race for a win.’ And it just kind of reset the race for us. It was almost like a new race for us.
“And when we had that restart, just had to get up on top of the wheel and make some things happen early, had a really good green-flag pit stop there, jumped some cars and ended up with a top five. So for us to rebound like we did, it shows a lot about this organization.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Hill has two DNFs through the opening five races, but his finishes in the other three races are all top fives: a win at Atlanta and fourth-place runs at Circuit of The Americas and Vegas. A 60-point day at Atlanta and a second-best 49 stage points through five events has Hill sitting fourth in the standings, 40 marks behind Allgaier and 21 behind teammate Love.
“I think if we would have finished those two races that you’re talking about, you probably would have seen us just as consistent as (Love),” Hill said. “We’re just having a little hiccups at the start of the year, but it’s still early. I’m fine with getting the hiccups out of here early. That way, when the playoffs start, we don’t have those type of issues.”
Next is Homestead on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Hill is the defending winner, and Love placed fourth in his debut effort. As two of the four highest-finishing Xfinity regulars at Vegas, the duo also joins Allgaier and Sam Mayer to fight for the first iteration of the Dash 4 Cash of 2025 next weekend.
LAS VEGAS — On Friday night, Justin Allgaier saw the Eagles in concert. On Saturday, he was flying.
Holding off Aric Almirola over a 102-lap green-flag run, Allgaier finally claimed victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after finishing second four times at the 1.5-mile track.
Allgaier’s victory in The LiUNA! was his first of the season, the 26th of his career and the 90th for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The reigning series champion crossed the finish line 1.067 seconds ahead of Almirola, who lost ground trying to run the outside lane with just over three laps left.
The decisive moment in the race, however, may have come much earlier. Allgaier lost the lead to Almirola during an exchange of pit stops midway through the final stage, but he regained it in traffic on Lap 152 and remained out front the rest of the way.
With the victory, Allgaier qualified for the first Dash 4 Cash race next Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, along with third-place finisher Jesse Love, fourth-place Austin Hill and fifth-place Sam Mayer. The highest finisher among the four earns a $100,000 bonus.
Almirola isn’t scheduled to run the Homestead race.
“It was amazing,” said Allgaier. “This whole team — I just can’t say enough. Aric and I were going at it. Hats off to him; he ran a heck of a race…
“Rick Brandt (of sponsor Brandt) was here last night. He took us to a great concert, Eagles concert … Everyone at JR Motorsports, I can’t say enough about how proud I am of what we have here. It’s been special.”
After Allgaier took the lead on Lap 152, he opened an advantage of more than two seconds over Almirola, who spent the next 40 laps whittling the margin down to a car length. But Almirola couldn’t find a way past Allgaier in the closing laps.
“You always hate to finish second, but Justin and that team was I felt like the class of the field today,” Almirola said. “We were close, but they could just take off so much faster than I could. I think that’s really the difference.
“I thought my only hope was to cycle in front of him on the green-flag stop, and we did, but I just got caught up behind some lapped traffic there that I misjudged. I wasn’t sure which way they were going, and he got by me and built such a big gap that I used my stuff up trying to get back to him.”
The green-flag stops in the final stage proved costly to Sunoco rookie Connor Zilisch, who streaked into the lead on Lap 100 and held it until Allgaier nosed ahead at the start/finish line on Lap 127.
During the stops on Lap 145, however, Zilisch drew a speeding penalty and served a pass-through that dropped him to the back of the lead lap. He rallied to finish ninth, the last driver on the lead lap.
Allgaier led 102 of the 200 laps, followed by Almirola (51) and Zilisch (28). Brandon Jones, Ryan Sieg, Harrison Burton, Zilisch and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10.
The No. 7 JRM Chevrolet driver, who won the first stage by 8.262 seconds and finished second in Stage 2, took over the series lead by 19 points over Love.
After the conclusion of Stage 1, there was a driver change at Kaulig Racing. Josh Williams was feeling under the weather, so he was replaced by the team’s Cup Series driver Ty Dillon in the No. 11 Chevrolet for the remainder of the race. Dillon finished the race in 29th.
Rookie William Sawalich’s race ended before the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota completed a single lap, finishing the contest in 38th. On the exit of Turn 2 on Lap 1, Sawalich got loose and snapped around, backing the rear of the car into the outside wall. Parker Retzlaff was also involved in this incident after spinning, but the Alpha Prime Racing driver continued, battling back to finish 21st.
The Xfinity Series will return to action next Saturday at Homestead-Miami for the Hard Rock Bet 300 at 4 p.m. ET (The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Justin Allgaier as the winner. The Nos. 11, 19, 26 and 88 cars were found with one lugnut not secure, which will result in a monetary fine.
Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway Location: Las Vegas, Nevada Track length: 1.5 miles When: Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET Where to tune in: FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,055,250 Race distance: 267 laps | 400 miles Stages: 80 | 165 | 267 Defending winner:Kyle Larson, March 2024 Starting lineup:Michael McDowell wins Busch Light Pole
Bringing a good poker face to Las Vegas
While Christopher Bell hopes a four-of-a-kind is in the cards this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the return to the first 1.5-mile track of 2025 signifies a world of opportunity for others to lay down a strong hand.
Gambling puns aside, the first intermediate race of the season will unveil which teams maintained their edge on the high-speed ovals over the offseason, which fell behind and which improved by leaps and bounds since last fall.
“It’s really important,” 2023 Cup champion Ryan Blaney said. “There’s a lot of things you can take away from here that kind of go into other mile-and-a-halves. Maybe not so much comparing here to Homestead next week, but this place really helps you for Charlotte and Texas and things like that and Kansas a little bit. So yeah, it’s really important just to see where you’re at, right? What improvements have you made over the offseason? What improvements have your competitors made in the offseason? See where you stack up.”
Bell has as good a shot as ever to score his first career Vegas win, which would also mark his fourth straight win in the NASCAR Cup Series — something nobody has done since Jimmie Johnson in 2007. The red-hot driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has finished runner-up twice at the Nevada race track in his past three Vegas starts. But now, in his sixth full-time Cup Series season, he knows nothing is guaranteed Sunday.
Bell will have to deal with adversity Sunday as the No. 20 team swapped a throttle body after qualifying and will drop to the rear of the field before the green flag.
“One thing’s for sure: Nothing that has happened the last three weeks means anything for this week,” Bell said Friday. “I am optimistic about how we’re going to perform because this has been a strong track for us in the past. But I’m just trying very hard to not get ahead of myself and understand that it’s a new week, it’s another race, and everybody is going to be bringing their best stuff and trying to beat me.”
One of those other competitors will be Joey Logano, the most recent race winner at Las Vegas, who used an alternate fuel strategy to stave off a hard-charging Bell in October. Logano used that victory to propel him into the Championship 4 and eventually score the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship, the third of Logano’s career.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
In one sense, the No. 22 Team Penske group has begun its title defense well by leading a series-best 207 laps through four races. The other side of that proverbial coin, however, shows the reality of his results: According to Racing Insights, Logano is the first defending champion to fail to score a top 10 within the first four races of the following season — and his 207 laps led are the most ever through four races without a top-10 result in that stretch.
“Frustrating, I guess is probably the one word that comes to mind,” Logano said Saturday. “I think I’ve left the race track every single weekend mad at something, which is just part of racing sometimes. But you’ve gotta also move on quickly, and you’ve also got to look at what have done well. And as a team, we’ve done great at leading laps. We’ve been towards the front. We’re tied for seventh in points, which shows that we’ve scored a lot of stage points.
“So even though the finishes aren’t there, we’ve been able to run up front enough to score stage points and to be able to be in contention, leading the laps. So there’s some positives there. It’s not like we’re just slow. It’s just that something has happened every race so far. So that part’s frustrating in a way because it also feels like you’re not taking full advantage of the opportunity that’s ahead of you because you’ve had fast race cars and you really haven’t been able to convert.”
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Though it is a standard 1.5-mile oval in size, Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s nuances make it an enjoyable challenge for the crew chiefs attempting to tackle its progressive banking and aggressive mid-corner bumps.
Cliff Daniels, the defending winning crew chief of the Vegas spring race with driver Kyle Larson, lit up in the Vegas garage Saturday, describing the unique complexities of the desert gem.
“This track offers really everything you can imagine, which honestly it’s why we love coming here,” Daniels told NASCAR.com. “You know, the on-track stuff is a bit a trade-off of (lift) over (drag). It’s fun and exciting just in how you have your car configured. Mechanical grip is a big deal. The track is bumpy, so you’ve got to ride the bumps as well. You’ve got to be able to move around, run high, run low. And then you’ve got to know how to execute your day, and a lot of that happens on pit road.”
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Part of that process involves selecting the right pit stall. The concrete stalls at Las Vegas are notoriously slick — so much so that the first pit stall isn’t always the most preferable. After winning the pole in October, Christopher Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, selected pit stall No. 6 because of the delay triggered by the lack of traction.
“There’s a lot of really slick pit stalls here where you can’t get a lot of grip leaving,” Daniels said. “If you have a good pit stop, you can just have a hard time getting going out of your pit stall and lose spots that way.”
As No. 22 Team Penske crew chief Paul Wolfe proved in October, an alternative fuel plan can also pay significant dividends if cautions fall a certain way. Those options must be considered in race preparation.
“The way the race plays out sometimes really does offer gambles on fuel mileage,” Daniels said, “or even with tire selection, whether you take four, take rights, whatever the case may be. So it’s enjoyable and it’s a lot of fun from our seat and all those factors you have to take in.”
Another wrench to factor is that Goodyear brought a new left-side tire code to Las Vegas this weekend, a change made in hopes of more tire wear and lap-time fall-off, according to a Goodyear press release. Teams do have experience with this tire setup, however, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway oval, Darlington Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2024.
“Generally speaking, the track surface at Las Vegas does not produce a lot of tire wear on its own,” Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of global race tires, said in a release. “We have worked over the past several seasons at designing our tires to wear more, and we have made a change to the left side for this weekend’s Cup race to do just that. Wear is an important part of racing in that it allows the tires to run ‘cooler’ and produce more fall-off over the course of a run.”
Jonathan Hassler, crew chief for Blaney, believes that will play a role in Sunday’s outcome.
“I think the biggest thing here (is) you don’t have a lot of tires in the race, but tires are certainly advantageous,” Hassler told NASCAR.com. “So just managing the sets that you have in the race. At times, you have to actually use your scuffed tires here. Some places, we have a big enough allotment where we don’t have to do that. But this place is one of the ones where you really have to manage the whole budget.”
History tells us …
Stick around for the finish. According to Racing Insights, four of the last six Cup Series races at Las Vegas have had a pass for the lead within the final six laps.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
ROSS CHASTAIN. Yes, his name appeared here one week ago at Phoenix as well, but Chastain’s numbers at Las Vegas are too good to ignore. He has yet to win in Sin City, but the Trackhouse No. 1 car has finished seventh or better in five of the last six Vegas races — the one anomaly being a 12th-place showing in 2023. Chastain’s 5.5 average finish in that span is also the best of all drivers, according to Racing Insights.
Fantasy update
Las Vegas is known for green-flag runs, and seeing that all six of my picks from earlier in the week cracked the top nine in 10-lap averages, there are no changes this weekend. Chastain set a blistering pace on the long run. One driver to keep an eye on is Bubba Wallace, who believes the No. 23 team has some of its mojo back from pre-2024 on intermediate tracks. Team Penske also had a strong showing in qualifying, putting three of its cars inside the top 10 (including Josh Berry for Wood Brothers Racing).
Lineup: Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 | Read more
• Blaney crashes in Vegas practice: No. 12 team repairs car after flat tire causes spin, wall contact | Read more
• Bell, Nemechek to drop to rear Sunday: Toyota teams swap throttle bodies after qualifying | Read more
• No. 54 team looks to turn results around: In midst of poor results, team believes Ty Gibbs is ready to rebound | Read more
• Larson seeking Las Vegas luster: No. 5 team striving for more speed in 2025 start | Read more
• Busch on grit, determination of No. 8 team: Two-time Cup champ on hot start, Vegas expectations | Read more
• Turning Point en route to Vegas: Who can stop Bell, and who should be worried after four races | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind the tape on past Cup races at Las Vegas | Watch races
• Paint Scheme Preview: Glitz and glam for the Las Vegas scenes | View gallery
LAS VEGAS — Lingering effects from an illness drew Josh Williams out of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday.
Williams pulled the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to pit road on Lap 46 after the conclusion of Stage 1 to step out of the vehicle as Ty Dillon, driver of Kaulig’s No. 10 car in the Cup Series, substituted for him. On his radio communications before exiting the car, Williams said: “Thank you, guys. I’m sorry. I just can’t do you a good job today.”
The illness stems from two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas, and the effects carried over to Las Vegas.
“I’ve been sick since COTA,” Williams told NASCAR.com after the end of Stage 2. “It was just super hard to breathe in the car, so I couldn’t ever catch my breath, and it just wasn’t safe to stay out there. So thanks to Ty for jumping in for me and everybody at Kaulig being supportive about it. I’d rather race all the races instead of trying to make it through one and not make it.
“I’ve never felt like this my entire life. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever felt before. It’s like you’re almost drowning.”
Williams said doctors have told him there is fluid in his lungs as part of the illness, creating the complications he faced in the car Saturday.
“I mean, I’ve taken medicine. I’m doing what I need to do,” Williams said. “But they said it could take a while, so I wish it would hurry up.”
Williams opted against going to the infield care center and watched the conclusion of the second stage from atop the No. 11 team’s pit box. While the circumstances are still developing, he expects to be back in action next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Forced to watch his car race around the track with Dillon in his place, Williams wasn’t fond of the experience but knew it was the right decision.
“That part sucks, right? But I’m still standing here talking to you,” Williams said with a laugh. “I’m not passed out, so that’s a good thing. But I mean, it sucks, but I think it was the safest thing to do.”
Dillon wheeled the No. 11 Chevrolet to a 29th-place finish, six laps down after stepping in on short notice. The veteran voiced his support for Williams following the contest and explained how such short notice could impact the nuances of a substitute role.
“We knew there was a potential to have to get in the car today, but I know Josh wanted to battle and be a warrior there,” Dillon said. “I think he was just too sick, so hopefully, he gets better. I got a text for me to get to the pit box pretty quick. I hate I couldn’t make more out of it, but it was a tough seat to fit in. It was pretty tight, but I’m glad I was able to step in and finish it enough for these guys. I know anybody else would do the same thing for me, too.”
Because he started the race, Williams still earned points, tallying eight to his season total.
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Pennzoil 400 on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
LAS VEGAS — A change of scene did nothing to diminish Michael McDowell’s qualifying prowess.
After winning the first six pole positions of his NASCAR Cup Series career with Front Row Motorsports last season, McDowell moved to Spire Motorsports in 2025 and apparently retained the speed he found last year.
Turning a lap at 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 28.883 seconds (186.961 mph) in Saturday’s time trials, McDowell claimed the top starting spot for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — his first Busch Light Pole Award at Las Vegas, his first of the season, the seventh of his Cup Series career and Spire’s first Cup Series pole in team history.
The 28.883-second circuit was the fastest qualifying lap at Las Vegas since the fall 2018 race.
Turns 3 and 4 were the key to McDowell’s blistering lap. When his No. 71 Chevrolet stuck firmly in the first two corners, McDowell took full advantage during the balance of the run.
“When my car went through (Turns) 1 and 2 and had a lot of grip, I didn’t think I had used it all up,” said McDowell, who beat reigning series champion Joey Logano (186.864 mph) for the pole by 0.015 seconds. “I knew that I had an opportunity to potentially do that (run the final two corners) without scrubbing speed and without putting myself in a bad spot.
“That’s the chance you take, right? You put wheel into it, get loose and you start tracking up. The car had a lot of speed, obviously, and a lot of grip, and just from studying and seeing how (Christopher) Bell was able to do that last year in Round 2 … I felt like that was the right move to make.
In Saturday’s session, which featured a single lap from each car, Austin Cindric qualified third at 186.793 mph, followed by Kyle Busch (186.638 mph) and Erik Jones (186.632 mph).
Alex Bowman, Josh Berry, William Byron, Zane Smith and Kyle Larson claimed positions sixth through 10th on the starting grid, respectively.
Christopher Bell, seeking a fourth straight Cup Series victory, claimed the 13th starting spot but will drop to the rear at the start of the race as the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team elected to change a throttle body. John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 42 Legacy Motor Club team also made the change and will join Bell at the rear of the field when the green flag drops Sunday afternoon.
Chastain fastest in practice
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain topped the leaderboard in practice at 187.846 mph, besting Bubba Wallace (186.290 mph) and William Byron (186.175 mph).
Kyle Larson (185.982 mph) and Austin Dillon (185.695 mph) rounded out the top five.
Noah Gragson (185.459 mph), Chase Elliott (185.433 mph), Christopher Bell (185.350 mph), Michael McDowell (185.236 mph) and Chris Buescher (185.008 mph) completed the top 10.
The only caution of practice occurred in Group 1 when Ryan Blaney had a right-rear tire go down, causing him to spin and back the No. 12 Ford into the Turn 2 wall. Blaney brought the car back to the garage for his Team Penske crew to evaluate the damage to the rear of the car.
Blaney did not post a qualifying lap as his team decided to repair his primary car instead of going to a backup for Sunday’s race.
LAS VEGAS – Since Kyle Larson joined Hendrick Motorsports ahead of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, the No. 5 team has been the standard. No team has won more races (23) or led more laps (6,055).
For most Cup Series teams, scoring a pair of podium finishes through the opening four races of the season, featuring a pair of superspeedways and a road course, would be pleased to have escaped with minimal damage. Not Larson, who has led a mere 12 laps through the opening month of the 2025 campaign.
Admittedly, Larson’s biggest struggle since moving to stock cars has been figuring out superspeedways. He remains winless in 49 starts but finally earned a top-five finish last month at the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway in his seventh attempt. That followed the season-opening Daytona 500, where the No. 5 car was mired toward the rear of the field, signaling Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, to say the poor results on superspeedways were getting to Larson’s head.
But with one decent finish through the first two races of the year on superspeedways, Larson felt as though he was off to a better start than 2024, which was the first season to start with consecutive drafting tracks.
“I think, like, Daytona just was rough,” Larson said on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “We just were buried in the back the whole time. So, that was frustrating to start your season off like that. I would have rather been up front and got crashed but never got to see the front. Atlanta was good. You know, I was happy. You know, I expected to go there and crash, and we got a good finish. So, I felt like we were a week ahead of schedule.”
When the series picked up at Circuit of The Americas, Larson had multiple issues throughout the event, despite the No. 5 team believing it had a Chevrolet capable of contending inside the top five. The biggest hindrance was losing his right-front wheel after exiting the pits, resulting in a two-week suspension for two crew members. The No. 5 team plucked two members from Justin Haley’s No. 7 team — a Hendrick Motorsports developmental pit crew — to fill in through this weekend at Las Vegas. The No. 5 car left COTA with a 32nd-place finish.
In a crucial race at Phoenix Raceway last weekend, William Byron was the lone Hendrick car that stood above the rest. Yet when the checkered flag flew, it was Larson who was the best in the finishing order, ranking third.
“Phoenix last week, we just weren’t fast,” Larson stated. “We weren’t very good. But our team did an amazing job executing: pit stops, restarts, all of that stuff kept us in the hunt.
“I just feel like we haven’t had consistency really to start, whether that be kind of everything coming together. So, I’m hoping that this week, a track that we have success at in the past, you know, we can kind of put it all together and you have a solid weekend. And then go to another track next week where I’m really confident at and try and just put a few good races in a row together.”
Since the formation of the No. 5 bunch, Larson has won at least one race through the opening month of the season in three of his four seasons with HMS (2023). And while Larson is still looking to secure a playoff ticket, Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5, has actually been enthused with where his team sits.
“I think we would have wanted to show a little bit more strength at times,” Daniels told NASCAR.com of the team’s start to 2025. “Last week was a big team day for us because we had somewhere between an eighth- and 11th-place car, call it a 10th-place car. It wasn’t our best showing for what we wanted. And the way the race played out, we had to hang tough and make a couple of strategy calls here and there.
“But I think there’s been a lot of valuable learning situations for our team, areas to get stronger and improve, which you’ve got to take those in stride and accept those when they come. I think our team is going to be a lot better off down the stretch for it. Certainly not discouraged. If anything, the opposite, encouraged that we’ve had those moments and those opportunities where we’ve had to show a little bit of grit and toughness and be ready to keep moving forward.”
Larson has won three of the eight races at Las Vegas that he’s driven for Hendrick, with two additional runner-up finishes. The No. 5 team swept all three stages of last year’s spring Las Vegas race, leading 181 of 267 laps.
LAS VEGAS — Ryan Blaney went for a spin during Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, creating a significant setback for the No. 12 Team Penske operation.
Blaney incurred a flat right-rear tire exiting Turn 2, sending his Ford Dark Horse Mustang into a slide and backing the rear of the car into the outside SAFER barrier. The 2023 Cup champion was evaluated and released from the infield care center. The team plans to repair the primary car that crashed rather than opting for a backup vehicle but didn’t post a qualifying lap.
The tire failure came as a surprise to Blaney, who was unsure whether he ran over debris or if the tire was blown for another reason.
“It ran 18, 20 laps or something like that, so I thought it was no problem,” Blaney said. “So yeah, I don’t know. We’ll have to look at the tire and see.”
Blaney affirmed he felt OK upon leaving the care center but was quick to add: “I hate blowing tires.”
Crew chief Jonathan Hassler told Performance Racing Network Radio that he doesn’t believe Blaney ran over debris.
“Unfortunate it happened, but happy it happened in practice and not the race,” Hassler told PRN. “I think some of our setup parameters didn’t help, but we’ll be fine on Sunday.”
Like last fall, the No. 12 car will need to start Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 from the rear of the field. The team was faced with similar challenges when the Cup Series raced at Vegas in October, when Blaney suffered a flat left-rear tire and spun into the SAFER barrier in Turns 1 and 2, necessitating a backup car.
“Unfortunately, same problem, a blown tire in practice,” Blaney said. “I thought our car was really good before that. Just an unfortunate part of it, but they (the team) have got a lot of work cut out for them.”
Despite the setback, Blaney maintains full confidence in his group and how they respond to complications.
“They respond well. It’s something I’m really proud of them responding well from adversity or unfortunate things happening,” Blaney said. “So I’m sure we’ll bounce back from it like we always do.”
Within 40 minutes of the incident, the team determined it would be replacing both the rear bumper and the diffuser on the primary car while work continued in the Las Vegas garage. The Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube is set for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Chris Gabehart, the newly minted competition director at Joe Gibbs Racing, knows the results are all anyone will look at — whether that is today or a decade down the road. But ahead of Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he also sees a significant contrast between the end of 2024 (with finishes of 35th, 30th, 36th, 32nd and 40th) with that iteration of the No. 54 team versus the new group around him in 2025 (with finishes of 16th, 32nd, 34th and 25th).
“It looks very similar to last year, but it is quite different,” Gabehart told NASCAR.com during Friday’s technical inspection. “And I need to go no further back than one weekend ago to Phoenix where they missed it. Ty was struggling. They weren’t running good, but with 15 to go, they were running 10th. That’s not what they were going to do six months ago. They weren’t made of that same moxie. They weren’t going to wake up and find that opportunity to catch a break and have a shot at a top 10.
“Now, ultimately, ‘bad luck’ bit him again. They broke the brake rotor and didn’t get the finish. But the key is they found a way to get to the end of the day with a shot to salvage their day and that is really what is foundationally important of any good team.”
Ivy Daniel | NASCAR Digital Media
Crew chief Tyler Allen has taken the reins of the No. 54 JGR Toyota in 2025, resulting from several internal JGR changes over the offseason. Former No. 54 crew chief Chris Gayle moved to replace Gabehart as the crew chief of Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 car. Allen is an experienced engineer, serving as Adam Stevens’ engineer from 2017-2023 before pivoting to the crew chief role in 2024 in the Xfinity Series. There, he won eight of 33 races with four different drivers — two each with Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Truex.
His transition to the Cup Series has been a learning experience made more complex by the addition of a new front mechanic, a new rear mechanic and two engineers that Allen described as “green.” Additionally, car chief Ryan Towles was a front mechanic in 2024 before his ascension in 2025.
“A lot of change,” Allen told NASCAR.com in a Wednesday phone interview. “Especially through these first four (races), we’re kind of feeling it. But as we get in a rhythm and everyone settles into their roles and get the roster sorted out how we need to have it, I envision it working very smoothly. But there’s hiccups along the way, as you would expect with such a new group. So that’s kind of why I’m looking forward to getting a little deeper into the season and getting into a rhythm with these guys.”
What Allen and Gabehart have both seen — and commended — is Gibbs’ demeanor amid consistent adversity. In the Daytona 500, Gibbs was 10th on the final lap before collecting damage in the last-lap melee but still crossed the line 16th for his best finish since Oct. 6 at Talladega Superspeedway (13th). Atlanta resulted in a crash as he dove for a three-wide hole down the frontstretch, wrecking out. Circuit of The Americas brought first-lap damage as his car climbed Hamlin’s in Turn 1, and his Phoenix effort was cut short by a failed brake rotor. Nonetheless, Gibbs has responded appropriately to the tasks at hand, according to the leaders around his team.
“Honestly, it’s been great,” Allen said. “I feel like we’re working together really well, communicating well. We have meetings post-race on Mondays and obviously, we’re both disappointed in the results, but I think we’ve both done a good job of looking at the positives from the weekend and the things that we could control and what we did well versus the things we couldn’t control. So his attitude’s been great.
“He’s a fierce competitor and wants to win just like me. But you know, the Cup Series is hard, and you’ve got to focus on all the details. So I think if you asked both of us, we feel like things are going to turn around. No negativity. Disappointed in the results, but we’re both ready to go have some good results.”
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As the competition director and only months removed from the No. 11 team’s pit box, Gabehart can provide “broad-stroke generalizations” to help Allen through his rookie year as a crew chief while also contributing to the success of the teams of Bell, Hamlin and newcomer Chase Briscoe. His approach to the No. 54 team specifically is to provide the big-picture thought process and accelerate learning curves. What he’s seen through Gibbs is an apparent shift in mindset.
“While I wasn’t in this role last year, it was evident that he (Gibbs) wasn’t responding the way he did just last week,” Gabehart said. “But really, last week is how he’s been the entire time. I don’t expect anyone to like the results. He definitely doesn’t like it, but he responds in a professional manner of: ‘It’s part of it. We just got to keep digging.’ And it’s really been a lot of work by a lot of people to help turn that corner for him, but none bigger than himself and just maturing into understanding the pressures of the Cup season’s schedule.”
Bell — NASCAR’s hottest driver on the heels of three consecutive Cup wins, on the verge of four straight, and Gibbs’ teammate — can attest both to Gibbs’ maturation and how difficult adapting to life at the Cup level can be.
“It’s been interesting following along with his Cup career,” Bell said. “And last year, he started off really strong, and I think he was in the top five in points after the first couple of races and was contending for wins, leading laps. And then it did seem like whenever the spring ended and summer came along, they just started kind of falling apart for him. And it’s really easy to get down on yourself and start to allow these negative weeks to impact the future weeks.
“And it seems like he’s been able to turn that around to where, even if things don’t go right, whether it was last week or early on in the race, he’s able to rebound from it and put himself in position to have a good finish and a good week. So I think it just comes with time. And I struggled with that exact same thing throughout the early part of my Cup career.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
The long runaway ahead of Gibbs is Gabehart’s current focus. Though 2024 was a career year for Gibbs with eight top fives and 12 top 10s, it was also just his second full-time season. Las Vegas will mark the 92nd race of Gibbs’ Cup tenure — a good plenty to be sure, but yet early in his still-blossoming career.
“The reality is, with a 22-year-old Ty Gibbs, while you want to win today and you want to be the point leader today, that’s really not what it’s about for him and this team,” Gabehart said. “Him and Tyler Allen and this team can be together for a decade-plus of success easily. And you don’t have to look any further back than last year’s champion Joey Logano to understand, if you zoom out enough, what it’s really about — and that is building the foundation of a championship team. And Tyler and Ty definitely have the performance capability of being that.
“So I really choose not to look at the 54 that way. Some people might — even within our walls — but I think that’s too shortsighted. I think we have to realize that, as a 22-year-old driver, this is about a long-term project, not a short one.”
Perhaps Vegas is where Gibbs and rekindle some familiar spring success. One year ago, Gibbs finished fifth at the 1.5-mile oval, his first of those eight top fives in 2024.
“He did great at Vegas in both events last year (and) showed a lot of speed,” Allen said. “JGR as a whole did, so I feel really confident going to a place like Las Vegas.”
Gabehart shares that enthusiasm and believes this is the track where Gibbs can curb his results-based slide.
“That team can run top 10 any week. I expect this week will actually be a week that will get us started and start getting that monkey off your back, so to speak,” Gabehart said. “And at that point, I really do think the wins are around the corner. They’ve got to get back into the groove of understanding and believing that they can do it. A nice top-10 finish or two will do that. But their capability is certainly high enough that any given week, it wouldn’t surprise me — at that point, once they get that confidence back — that they could win.”
