Editor’s note: Projected finish has been updated as of Sunday:
It might be time for Hendrick Motorsports to break out the big victory hats again this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That’s because Racing Insights predicts William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, will be headed to Victory Lane on Sunday in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
In the advanced metrics updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying, Byron still comes out on top and ahead of teammate Kyle Larson. After that, there have been some changes in the projected finishing order since Thursday’s original post. Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick round out the new top five, with Wallace improving six spots over the weekend. Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher complete the top 10. Hamlin fell six spots after practice and qualifying.
Perhaps the biggest reason to expect Byron to top off the field this week was the dominance he showed on the 1.5-mile tracks throughout the 2023 season. He won the spring Las Vegas race last year and scored 44 more points than any other driver on 1.5-mile tracks in 2023.
If Byron can replicate last year’s superiority on 1.5-mile tracks, then that will be a significant obstacle for the rest of the field to overcome.
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
KYLE LARSON: Larson won the Las Vegas race in October and has finished inside the top 10 in 10 of his last 12 Las Vegas starts. If Byron doesn’t bust out the big hats, it could be Larson doing the honors instead.
MARTIN TRUEX JR.: The two-time Las Vegas winner is the only driver to finish in the top 10 there in every one of the four races in the Next Gen car. Clearly, he and the No. 19 team at Joe Gibbs Racing have hit on something that works well in the desert.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: He’s lurking beneath Larson and Byron in several of the key stats at Las Vegas and on 1.5-mile tracks, but one place where he leads is with his streak of four top-10 finishes on 1.5-mile tracks. Count on Christopher to be in the hunt.
ROSS CHASTAIN: He’s third behind Larson and Byron in laps led at Las Vegas in the Next Gen car. Look for the Trackhouse Racing star to do some more disrupting this week.
BUBBA WALLACE: He’s known more for his superspeedway racing, but Wallace is showing significant progress on 1.5-mile tracks with five top-10 finishes in the last seven races. Plus, he finished fourth at Las Vegas last spring.
Projections as of Sunday, March 3.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE PENNZOIL 400 PRESENTED BY JIFFY LUBE
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
LAS VEGAS – Chandler Smith entered his third NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with an optimism that carried over from last season, even with a switch of teams from one year to the next. The results were strikingly similar, but both were just shy of a convincing victory.
Smith placed third in Saturday afternoon’s The LiUNA! 300-miler, sweeping both stage wins but ending up with the same finish as last March after the handling of his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 81 Toyota soured during the final segment. JGR teammate John Hunter Nemechek sailed to his first victory of the season, with defending series champion and pole-starter Cole Custer slipping by Smith for the runner-up spot.
“Won both stages, had a good points day, led a lot of laps, felt like we maybe we put ourselves on the map for some people that were starting to write us off early on, but proud of the effort,” said Smith, who finished third and fourth at Las Vegas during his 2023 campaign with Kaulig Racing. “Sucks. I’ve been waiting on this race since Phoenix of last year when I knew I was coming over here. I was like, ‘man, I know we’re really good at Vegas in the Kaulig stuff and I know JGR is going to be good there and Toyota’s always been good there, too.’ ”
Smith was at his strongest early on, leading all 45 laps of the first stage. After a sluggish pit stop where he lost six positions during the stage break, the 21-year-old driver rallied to eke his way past Nemechek on the final lap of Stage 2 for that green-checkered flag.
From there, Smith’s handling took a downturn after a Lap 125 stop as he struggled to find lateral grip.
“I just got laterally super-free after we came in at the end of Stage 2,” Smith said, “but at the same time when I fired back off, there was a really loud pop, like something broke or something in the rear, and after that, I went to crap for the rest of the race. So I don’t know. I get out of the car, I feel it’s a lot cooler out here and this track’s super-sensitive to track temp changes as well. So I think it’s a combination. I definitely think we over-adjusted. I’m not gonna sit here and say we broke something for sure because we don’t know.”
Said No. 81 crew chief Jeff Meendering: “We’ll look over the car really good. He heard a strange popping noise there in the next-to-the-last run and seemed like we went really loose after that. So not really sure what caused that, but we’ll have to dig into it a little bit deeper.”
If there was some consolation to be had, it’s in Smith’s potent start to the season. Only one other driver – two-time winner Austin Hill — has opened the year with top-five finishes in all three races. His points bonanza for winning both stages moved Smith into second place behind Hill in the Xfinity Series standings.
“I’m disappointed but I shouldn’t be,” said Smith, who led 74 laps Saturday – second only to Nemechek’s 99. “Yeah, that’s cool, but I really felt like I let this one get away today. A part of the direction we went in was because I steered our team that direction, but win as a team, lose as a team.”
Said Meendering: “Obviously, a great points day. Winning those two stages was big. It was a great day, but I mean, disappointed we didn’t win. For so much of that race, it looked like we were going to. But kind of scratching our heads a little bit. We’ll get it figured out, though.”
LAS VEGAS — Chandler Smith won the battle. John Hunter Nemechek won the war.
The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates spent most of Saturday afternoon racing each other for the top spot in The LiUNA!, a 300-mile NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was Nemechek who proved superior in the long run.
After Smith won the first two stages of the race — the second with a deft last-lap pass of Nemechek’s No. 20 Toyota — Nemechek asserted his dominance.
By the time Nemechek crossed the finish line at the end of Lap 200, he held a 4.360-second lead over pole winner Cole Custer, who had charged into second place after a late cycle of green-flag pit stops.
“Hats off to all the guys on this 20 team for Joe Gibbs Racing, said Nemechek, who led a race-high 99 laps in securing his first victory of the season, his first at Las Vegas and the 10th of his career.
“Man, it’s awesome to come out here and win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a limited number of starts. Our goal is to come and win as many as we possibly could. Nothing else matters.
“Congrats to Tyler (Allen). He’s the crew chief this year on the 20 car; his first win as a crew chief. Our spotter, Ryan Blanchard — his first win as well… Man, it feels so good to win here in Las Vegas. Got to rest for tomorrow, so I’m excited.”
Now full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series with Legacy Motor Club, Nemechek will race in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Smith arguably had the best car in the race until he pitted with the rest of the field at the second stage break.
“We just over-adjusted a little bit,” said Smith, who led 74 laps, including the first 49, and came home third. “(We were) trying to stay ahead of the race track, and it feels actually like it might have gotten a little colder as well.
“It felt like track definitely freed up, and we went in that same direction, thinking it was going to tighten up. So you live and you learn… We were pretty dominant and we just over-adjusted, but I’m happy that a Joe Gibbs Racing car still won.”
Austin Hill, who triumphed in the first two races of the season, at Daytona and Atlanta, was fourth, with Riley Herbst finishing fifth after dominating the Las Vegas race last fall. AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier completed the top 10.
Hill retained his series lead by 22 points over Smith in second. Hailie Deegan was the top Sunoco rookie with a 15th-place finish.
For the second time in three races, ill fortune beset JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer, who completed just 22 of 120 laps in the season opener at Daytona.
Mayer was running 10th on Lap 8 on Saturday when the No. 31 Chevrolet of fifth-place qualifier Parker Retzlaff turned sideways in front of him and slammed into the right side of Mayer’s car, knocking him out of the race.
“It’s just the year from hell,” Mayer said. “Very frustrating and unfortunate and can’t wait to get to Phoenix (for next Saturday’s race).”
Another early casualty was New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, who took his Kaulig Racing Chevrolet behind the wall with overheating problems after completing 27 laps.
Van Gisbergen and Mayer finished 37th and 38th, respectively, in the 38-car field.
NOTE: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Xfinity Series was completed without issue; confirming Nemechek as the winner. The Nos. 9 and 42 each had one lug nut not safe and secure.
Joey Logano continued his front-row streak in Saturday’s Busch Light Pole qualifying, going 3-for-3 to start the season by putting his No. 22 Team Penske Ford atop the time chart with a 184.357 mph lap. He’ll be joined on the front row by Kyle Larson, the Las Vegas track’s most recent winner last October. Larson was also fastest in the consecutive 10-lap average category in Cup Series practice, which was topped by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain in single-lap speed. | Read practice, qualifying recap
Big story line
What does the Cup Series do for an encore after last week’s dazzler at Atlanta?
The brilliance of last Sunday’s three-wide photo finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway remains the talk of the tour, but it’s a far different intermediate-sized track that greets the Cup Series this weekend. Both the Atlanta tilt and the season-opening Daytona 500 were held with the superspeedway rules configuration, but the Cup Series’ baseline package will make its 2024 debut this weekend at Vegas, where the turns are banked 20 degrees vs. the 28-degree Atlanta curves. Sunday’s 400-miler should provide a truer test for the Cup Series’ early balance of power, in contrast to the sometimes-fickle brand of racing seen in the first two superspeedway-style events.
Las Vegas hasn’t had a race as close as Daniel Suárez’s 0.003-second win last weekend, but then again, few tracks have. Jimmie Johnson edged out Matt Kenseth in this race in 2006 by a 0.045-second margin in the closest Cup Series event in Vegas track history (32 races), but just last fall, Larson held off Christopher Bell here by a scant 0.082 seconds at the finish. Three of the four closest Las Vegas finishes have occurred in the last four years.
The event will also mark the first intermediate oval for the new Ford and Toyota bodies that made their Cup Series debut this year. Both manufacturers are looking for their first win of the season after a Chevrolet sweep of the first two Cup Series events. Fords have ruled qualifying so far, with three poles in three races.
And the weather deserves its own mention, with windy conditions prevailing all weekend long at Las Vegas. The buffeting breeze is forecast to subside slightly after the National Weather Service’s high-wind warning expires Sunday morning, but the gusty feel will be a factor for teams, drivers and fans in attendance to bundle up for.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
History tells us…
A pair of Ford pilots top the all-time win list among active drivers, with Team Penske’s Logano and RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski each prevailing three times at Las Vegas. Both of those drivers are currently experiencing dry spells, with Logano riding a 33-race winless skid and Keselowski’s drought at an even 100 races.
More recently, Hendrick Motorsports drivers have ruled the Las Vegas roost, winning three of the last four races with three different drivers and finishing 1-2-3 in this race last year with William Byron outlasting teammates Larson and Alex Bowman at the checkered flag. The only non-Hendrick driver to win at Las Vegas during that two-year span is Logano, who reached the 30-win mark in his Cup Series career here in 2022 on the way to his second Cup championship.
He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…
Alex Bowman. Going off as a 22-1 shot, Bowman heads to the site of the most recent of his seven Cup Series victories (March 2022) with reason for optimism. The No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports driver has been a top-three finisher in two of his last three Vegas starts. The small sample size of the 2024 campaign has been a mixed lot for Bowman, who was runner-up to teammate William Byron in the Daytona 500, then placed a crash-hampered 27th at Atlanta last week. Worth an honorable mention among potential underdogs is Todd Gilliland, who has yet to crack the top 20 at Vegas in four starts but is the Cup Series’ current chart-topper in laps led. He’s a 250-1 long shot. | Las Vegas odds
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Turning Point: Trends from Atlanta, heading to Vegas | Read article
• Trackhouse’s triumph: Giving NASCAR’s disruptors their due | Read article
• Worldwide win: Suárez keeps celebration rolling with Pitbull | Read article • Glove fits: Logano, Stewart-Haas penalties in focus at Vegas | Read article
• Front Row’s upswing: McDowell, Gilliland impress early on| Read article • NASCAR Classics: Picks to click from our video library for Vegas viewing | Read article
• 36 for 36: NASCAR survivor pool selections for Las Vegas | Read article •Memory lane: Through the years with Las Vegas’ biggest moments | See the photos • Inside the numbers: Racing Insights projects the final race results | Read article • At-track photos: Scenes, sights from the city that never sleeps | Photo gallery • Fantasy Fastlane: Lineup advice for Las Vegas | See fantasy tips • Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs with Las Vegas style | Pick a favorite • Power Rankings: Suárez makes statement in Top 20 | Latest driver rankings
Fast facts ⏩
Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• Martin Truex Jr. has registered seven consecutive top-10 finishes at Vegas, the longest active streak among Cup Series drivers. He is a two-time Las Vegas winner (2017, 2019).
• Hendrick Motorsports swept all four stages in last year’s Las Vegas races. The organization’s next Cup Series stage win will be its 100th. • Chevrolet has won five of the last seven Cup Series events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The consensus going into the Pennzoil 400 race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was that Hendrick Motorsports would rank toward the top of the speed charts. The team has won the previous three spring races at Las Vegas with three different drivers. There are plenty of unknowns surrounding how the new Toyota and Ford bodies will race, though Joey Logano won the pole in a Ford, and four Toyotas made the final round of qualifying.
RISING: The first two races of the 2024 season didn’t go as planned for Reddick. The No. 45 team is buried 24th in the championship standings with a best finish of 29th. Fortunately for Reddick, NASCAR is at its first intermediate track of the season, a layout he’s seen recent success at with winning the Kansas playoff race last season. The No. 45 car ranked fourth in practice on single-lap speed and third on 10-lap averages.
With just one top-10 finish in 14 starts, Chris Buescher was labeled to stay away from entering the weekend. However, the No. 17 Ford was the quickest car in Group A qualifying, directly in front of four Toyotas. I would lean toward not putting Buescher in your lineup, but his trajectory is trending upward.
FALLING: Alex Bowman entered the race weekend with a bright outlook, posting a trio of top-five finishes across his last six starts in Sin City. The No. 48 team’s most recent victory came in this race two years ago. However, he tracked the slowest of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers in practice and ranked 19th out of 24 drivers on 10-lap averages. I’ve dropped Bowman from my lineup this weekend.
The majority of what could be said for Bowman can be restated for Ross Chastain. The No. 1 team ranked fastest in single-lap speed during the 20-minute practice session but fell off considerably on the long run, sitting 22nd out of 24 cars. It wouldn’t be surprising if the No. 1 team found its footing and has another solid Vegas race, but he’s also dropped from my lineup.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Daniel Suárez vs. Chase Briscoe
It’s reasonable to label Briscoe as someone who is also rising. In fact, possibly more considerably than either Reddick or Buescher. Briscoe said on Saturday that his team spent 12-15 hours over the offseason on the simulator to prepare for Las Vegas, knowing that 1.5-mile tracks was the team’s weak point last season. Fresh off a victory, Suárez was middle of the pack in both practice and qualifying. We still don’t know what to expect from the new Ford body, but I’ll give Briscoe a slight advantage entering Sunday’s race.
Martin Truex Jr. vs. Joey Logano
Logano said just as much after winning the pole. The No. 22 Ford team doesn’t yet know what to expect on the long run in race conditions. Meanwhile, that’s where Truex thrives and has won plenty of races by having the fastest car in the long haul. Keeping the No. 19 team as my pick.
Ty Gibbs vs. Bubba Wallace
This might be the most interesting matchup of the weekend, given how evenly matched these two teams are. Both made the final round of qualifying, and Wallace has stood out in recent years on intermediate tracks, including his Kansas victory in 2022. Gibbs has gotten much more consistent at unloading off the hauler fast, but Wallace is a driver that I think could win on Sunday. I’ve moved him to my garage pick.
Ross Chastain vs. Brad Keselowski
Short run speed means something, right? Chastain has it in spades, as he was nearly a tenth of a second quicker than the field on single-lap speed in practice. Three-time Las Vegas winner Keselowski struggled mightily in practice and qualifying, as he will take the green flag from 25th position on Sunday. As much as Chastain dropped from my lineup, he is still pacing better than the No. 6 car.
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
LAS VEGAS – From the drop of the green flag in last week’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Cup Series field was on the chip. The instant intensity led to a 16-car pileup – the biggest melee of wreckage in track history – on just the second lap of the race.
From start to finish, the entire field was on the edge of surpassing the limits of their respective race cars. Some drivers boiled the fast-and-furiousness down to being able to maximize the limit of the tire provided while still being able to control their chassis enough to make aggressive moves. Compared to the Daytona 500 just one week prior, there wasn’t much fuel saving going on, which allowed drivers to maneuver through the field like an old-school superspeedway race.
“I was saying, ‘I don’t know what was in everyone’s cereal that morning that decided to be so intense racing the whole time,’” 2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney said on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “It was fun.”
Even all-around superstar Kyle Larson, who wouldn’t list superspeedway racing among his stronger skills, had a blast. The No. 5 car led 17 laps prior to getting involved in a lap 220 incident that also collected Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie.
Afterwards, he was still smiling from ear-to-ear despite it being the fourth time he’s wrecked out at Atlanta in the five races since it’s been reconfigured.
“It was fun, to me, because we were up front for a lot of it and battling,” Larson said. “There was no real fuel-saving stuff, so you were just going at it and never settled in line – you were always trying to pass, which was fun. It’s kind of like all the drivers had the same mindset of not riding around.”
That aggressiveness over the course of 400 miles resulted in seven multi-car incidents. The race also set a track record with a whopping 48 lead changes. And despite just three of the 37 starters not having any sort of crash-related damage, 29 cars saw the checkered flag.
“Everyone is talking about the finish and the finish was spectacular, but the whole race was great,” Blaney added. “We had the big wreck on lap one-and-a-half, but the whole race, we were going at it.
“We were dicing it up; the cars were a handful. You saw guys spin out on their own and it shows how on edge you were and if you got a wrong sniff of air at some point, you just turn around. It was a blast. Hopefully, as that track keeps aging, it keeps getting better and better. The whole 400 miles was a great show.”
LaJoie had high praise of the race, saying: “Everybody was quick to judge Atlanta, but you give it two years of aging and it gives us the most entertaining race we’ve ever seen.”
Despite the fierce battles throughout the field, the Atlanta race will be remembered for the finish. Daniel Suárez, Blaney and Kyle Busch crossed the finish line three abreast, separated by .007 of a second. Suárez squeaked out the win by .003 seconds over Blaney, making it the third-closest finish in NASCAR history. It trails only Darlington in 2003 in a classic battle between Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch and a nailbiter in Talladega in 2011 with Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer, both of which were .002 seconds.
“The entire race, I felt behind the seat and you guys probably felt from the media center, a lot of fans from home and at the race track, the intensity of the race was very high,” Suárez stated. “Probably one of the most intense races I’ve been a part of.”
Even on re-watch, drivers were giddy over the race. LaJoie explained that while studying film and watching the race on Monday, he was on the edge of his seat, which was similar to how it felt inside his cockpit.
“That [expletive] was electric,” LaJoie added, who rebounded to finish 13th with a battered No. 7 Chevrolet. “I go back and watch it and my heart was beating and I’m sitting on the couch on a Monday afternoon, saying, ‘Oh my goodness, this is wild.’”
Without a doubt, drivers and their spotters were left mentally fatigued at Atlanta. Battling that personal exhaustion is a true test, making it only more rewarding when a team is successful.
“Every lap, I was reaching up and tugging the belts, ‘Holy [expletive], this is wild,” LaJoie said. “It’s a mental battle of a fast-paced chess game.”
LAS VEGAS— For the second NASCAR Cup Series race this young season, Joey Logano will start on the pole.
After speeding around windswept Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 184.357 mph in the final round of Saturday’s time trials, Logano will occupy the top spot on the grid for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
A three-time winner at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway — tied with Brad Keselowski for most among full-time active drivers — Logano beat Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson (184.225 mph) for the pole position by 0.021 seconds.
The Busch Light Pole Award was Logano’s third at Las Vegas and the 30th of his Cup Series career. It was also unexpected, based on Logano’s performance in practice.
“I didn’t expect it when I saw our short-run speed in practice,” Logano said. “We showed that we had great long-run speed. Our second run, we made an adjustment and went back out and like, ‘Oh, wow, we’re really competitive.’ The car was driving pretty good.
“So I felt really good about that, but our short run, our fire-off, we weren’t real fast… and I barely made it through the first round (of qualifying) by the skin of our teeth.”
Logano said the wind, which stiffened between rounds, was a significant factor in his pole-winning run in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
“I’ve got to think it’s wind that made the difference,” Logano said. “The first run, I was pretty slow through (Turns) 1 and 2 all the way through the corner… we (must have) had a big gust the first run, or something that held us back a little bit.
“That doesn’t seem to make sense. We were really good through 1 and 2 the second time. The first time we were horrible through there.”
Logano’s Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric (184.093 mph) qualified third, followed by Daytona 500 winner William Byron (183.911 mph), as Fords and Chevrolets split the top four grid positions.
Bubba Wallace (183.648 mph) was fifth in the fastest Toyota. Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher and Christopher Bell will start sixth through 10th, respectively, in Sunday’s race.
Logano, who won the pole for the Daytona 500, qualified second for last Sunday’s race at Atlanta using a webbed glove on his left hand, presumably for an aerodynamic advantage by blocking more airflow through the car.
But the glove did not conform to mandated safety standards. For the violation, he lost his starting spot and incurred a fine of $10,000.
“I’m going to take a portion of the responsibility for that, too,” said Logano. “I didn’t build the glove. I didn’t make it on my own — I can’t sew, OK? That’s what it was, and we had a conversation about it.
“What I’m proud about is that, as a team, even though it was a tough situation to us and hard to go through, embarrassing for sure, but the fact that we got through it and just move on and focus on the next week. We showed we have speed in our race car and put it on the pole.
“To me, it’s a statement-type lap.”
Practice
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain set the fastest time in practice at 184.269 mph. The No. 1 Chevrolet bested Noah Gragson (183.661 mph), Ty Gibbs (182.859 mph), Tyler Reddick (182.846 mph) and Denny Hamlin (182.723 mph), who all rounded out the top five.
Bubba Wallace (182.673 mph), Chase Briscoe (182.439 mph), William Byron (182.346 mph), Kyle Larson (182.328 mph) and Chris Buescher (182.094 mph) completed the top 10.
Practice only had one pause in the action when Ryan Preece spun and hit the Turn 2 wall with the left side of his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford during Group A.
LAS VEGAS — NASCAR show-and-tell was in session Saturday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with two different examples of aerodynamic gamesmanship shown in the Cup Series’ officials hauler. One device was from the top portions of two cars; the other came from a champion driver’s hands, in what Cup Series director Brad Moran admitted, “for me, this is a one-off.”
The confiscated and unapproved gloves used by Joey Logano in his qualifying lap last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway were shown by competition officials Saturday, along with the seized roof rails from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Nos. 10 and 41 Fords. The gloves — which were not compliant with SFI-approved standards — had all five fingers connected by webbed fabric, resembling something a middle infielder would use to snag one-hoppers on the baseball diamond.
Logano was fined $10,000 for the unapproved gloves, in addition to the two-part competition penalty on race day — forking over his second starting spot to drop to the tail of the field and a pass-through on pit road after the green flag for his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Stewart-Haas was docked 35 points in each of the driver and team standings for the L1-level violation, with those penalties affecting Noah Gragson’s No. 10 team and Ryan Preece’s No. 41 group.
Moran said that Logano’s infraction was discovered in a random check of roughly five cars flagged for further inspection at Atlanta; in-car camera replays verified and informed those initial concerns. The NASCAR Rule Book states that driver gloves must meet SFI specifications without being modified in any way.
“The reason for that is obviously you can block more air,” Moran said. “The drivers do put their hand up against the (window) opening, which we’ve never really had a rule against it, but this obviously goes one step further and this becomes not only a competition problem, it becomes a safety violation because that glove is no longer SFI approved. Regardless of what the material is made of, regardless of who put it on there, it’s not as-delivered, it’s not as-tested and it’s an unapproved SFI piece of safety equipment.”
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com
Moran said the fabric – flame-retardant or not – also posed a safety risk since the material could impede a driver’s exit from the race car in case of a crash, potentially posing a hindrance in unbuckling seat belts or unfastening window nets.
Logano served his in-race penalty last week as a Lap 2 pileup slowed the early action at Atlanta, mitigating the severity of the punishment. Logano was able to remain on the lead lap and work back into contention before another wreck halted his progress.
“We felt comfortable with the at-track penalty. We were comfortable with it,” Moran said. “You know, their team got a little lucky, which can happen. The penalty is the penalty, the drive-through is the drive-through and the caution came out on Lap 1. That probably helped them, but no, the penalty fit the crime.”
With approved gloves this weekend at Las Vegas, Logano was still the fastest of the bunch in Saturday’s qualifying, winning the pole position for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Though he admitted that he’s no tailor when it comes to glove preparation, Logano said he bore at least a share of the blame for the Atlanta penalty.
“As a driver, you work with the team, and, hey, I’m gonna take a portion of responsibility of that too, obviously,” Logano said. “I should. I put the glove on. I didn’t build the glove or make it on my own. I can’t sew, but that’s what it was. We had conversations about it. What I’m proud about with this team is, yeah, that was a tough situation for us. It was hard to go through and embarrassing for sure, but the fact we got through it and just move on and focus on the next week. We showed that we have some speed in our race car, and to be able to put it on the pole here, to me, is a statement-type lap, so I’m proud of that.”
Logano also addressed the safety concerns, saying he did not feel that his well-being was compromised during Atlanta time trials.
“I personally did not. I would never have put myself in a situation where I feel unsafe,” Logano said. “I have kids. I have a wife. I have a family that I care way more about than race cars, so, no, I didn’t feel concerned about what we did. I didn’t race with it. Qualifying on speedways is pretty simple.”
A sampling of drivers downplayed the violation and impact of the unapproved gloves, with Bubba Wallace calling it “small potatoes” in terms of any potential performance advantage that might have been achieved.
“I didn’t really put a ton of thought into it, to be honest,” said Brad Keselowski, a former teammate of Logano’s at Team Penske. “I don’t think there’s a lot of performance (gain) there, but I think a lot of times as drivers, you get caught up in doing things so that the team feels like everybody’s all-in – whether they matter or not, and I think that probably falls into that category.”
That all-in feeling of contributing to the team effort only went so far for Logano.
“I didn’t feel better after it, I can tell you that much,” he said. “Directionally better, how much better? Probably nothing. That’s the part that hurts the most. It isn’t even worth it. It didn’t do anything to speak of. It’s directionally an area that everybody goes to try to block that hole. You see everyone put their hand there. We just tried to cover more space.”
SHR’s penalty stemmed from roof air deflectors that did not meet the computer-aided design (CAD) specs in the NASCAR Rule Book. Officials indicated that the penalty was slightly less strict because the roof rails in question are a team-produced part and not a single-source component for the Next Gen platform, which has tighter restrictions on modifications.
Moran said that the rails were meant to sit flush or flat against the roof surface but that the right-side rails on both SHR cars had raised, pressed marks at the fastener holes instead of flat openings. Those roof rails sat higher, and NASCAR inspectors discovered them in a visual check.
“That’s not done from tightening any bolts or anything else,” Moran said. “The head of the bolt is not that big, so these are pressed so they stand proud on top of the greenhouse, which is a problem. We don’t get into why they’re like that. They were only on the right side of those two vehicles, but they certainly don’t meet the CAD files, so that’s what the penalty was for.”
LAS VEGAS – Samantha Caruth was beaming. As a self-proclaimed hugger, she took the moment to embrace seemingly everyone who visited Victory Lane late Saturday night to congratulate her and her son, Rajah, on his first trip there in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Roger Caruth sat close by, checkered cloth in hand while fielding calls from well-wishers who were still awake back home, thousands of miles from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval. His notifications for missed calls and unread texts had already surged past two dozen in the short walk from pit road to the trophy presentation in the center of the fan-friendly garage. That figure was expected to multiply as word of his son’s accomplishment spread.
“Some people are sleeping on the East Coast, so they’re probably going to find out in the morning,” Roger Caruth told NASCAR.com. “So that’s when my phone’s going to really start blowing up.”
It was a good problem to have.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “I mean, that’s what racing is about.”
Rajah Caruth celebrated a historic night by becoming the third Black driver to win a NASCAR national series race, etching his name alongside Hall of Fame trailblazer Wendell Scott and current-day Cup Series star Bubba Wallace. The 21-year-old driver punctuated the moment with a professional-grade smoky burnout that made him look like a seasoned veteran, far removed from his earlier Late Model triumphs at Hickory and Tri-County in the North Carolina foothills and light-years away from his iRacing roots.
History intersected with family Friday night at Las Vegas, and Roger Caruth was among the first to cross the tri-oval’s infield grass to embrace his son after the checkered flag unfurled.
“I’m pretty speechless. It’s been a tough journey so far,” said Rajah Caruth, now in his second full season of Truck Series competition. His first truck win arrived in his 30th start. “A lot of people have helped me get to this point. Thank you to every single one of y’all. Definitely ups and downs, but this journey has been fruitful at times and testing at times. … This winter was a lot of uncertainty about where I’d be driving, not having a bunch of funding behind me at the time. I just stayed true to my faith and my family. Fortunately, a lot of people put a lot of stuff together for me to be in this spot.”
Even before Friday night’s triumph, the week had been a banner one for Caruth. His Spire Motorsports No. 71 Chevrolet team received extra backing from HendrickCars.com just two days earlier, increasing its primary sponsorship from a previously announced 10-race deal to a secure, full-season run for 2024.
That vote of confidence was rewarded in short order in Friday’s qualifying session when Caruth rocketed to his first career Truck Series pole position. The FOX Sports crew that interviewed him after his qualifying effort had perceived an uncharacteristic show of emotion. Caruth blamed his would-be tears on catching some dust in his eyes — a trope of an excuse right up there with cutting onions. He explained later that because of the intense, swirling wind in the Nevada desert, the dust was the actual culprit and not a convenient, hackneyed scapegoat.
The extra support was rewarded again in Friday night’s race, where Caruth ran consistently among the top five with finishes of second and third at the stage breaks. The final stage is where the No. 71 group nailed the final pit stop – the Spire team with the strategy piece and Caruth on the execution – when his closest challengers stumbled with penalties or other shortcomings in the sequence.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com
The week had already been a win for Caruth & Co., but when the pit-stop exchange netted out and the race went clean and green for the final stretch, a breakthrough seemed well within reach.
“Wherever he placed, I would have been celebrating,” Samantha Caruth said in between hugs later. “This is just extra on top of extra. He’s living his dream in real-time.”
The pinch-me dream state from Las Vegas was shared by the Spire Motorsports group that’s grown in big leaps in recent months. Spire’s Craftsman Truck Series operation is continuing the legacy of the Kyle Busch Motorsports team that it absorbed, now with four allied full-time trucks making a run of it alongside its expanded three-car Cup Series effort.
Doug Duchardt, a longtime NASCAR executive with a wide breadth of racing experience, was a key component to Spire’s recent moves. He’s been on the job as Spire Motorsports team president for all of three months now. Duchardt has experienced plenty of wins and championships from his earlier management roles with Hendrick Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing, but his post with Spire represents part of a ground-up build from an organization that first hit the track just five years ago.
Caruth’s victory – which made Spire-affiliated teams 3-for-3 in the Truck Series win column so far this season – was a big step in the organization’s growth.
“I think every first win is special for anyone. I think for Rajah and for Spire and then for HendrickCars who just came on, it’s just … it’s extremely, it’s hard to state how special just for everyone,” Duchardt told NASCAR.com. “Rajah has a pretty cool demeanor, he doesn’t show a lot of emotion, but I know it’s been a lot of work, and a lot of work by him and all of his support system with his family. So I’m just really happy and proud — of him and for him.
“But then our team, it was a huge lift for the whole team to put four truck teams and three Cup teams together in one shop and work together to get through all that and get through this first bit of the season. And so I’m just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports for getting through that. And I think what makes it special is, of course, it’s three in a row in the Truck Series with three different drivers, and it just shows the depth of the team and how much those guys on that truck side work together.”
The celebration rolled on into the night, with Victory Lane team photos, another trophy pic with Caruth’s group-chat besties and other commemorations of a career first. “Aw, I’m so happy for you guys,” said Cup Series standout Ross Chastain after finding his way to Victory Lane for one of Samantha Caruth’s hugs.
Among the rotation in the hat dance of Victory Lane photos was a family portrait worth savoring.
“I’m really glad both my parents are here,” Rajah Caruth said. “Especially my dad. I know my sister’s watching, too. They’ve been my rock. My dad took me to my first race. Both my parents did, with my late granddad. Got me that first experience. Really enabled me to put in the work and chase the dreams, like I said, of living by myself in North Carolina. I can’t imagine for a mom, for a dad, to send their 18-year-old kid to a completely different culture, a completely different lifestyle, to live on his own, work at a race shop, and be in a completely different environment.
“I’m glad they’re here. They’ve been with me every step of the way. That’s honestly a blessing I’ve really had, is having my parents, my sister, a lot of really good close friends and others that have helped elevate me, helped me during the tough times and helped me celebrate for the good ones.”
“This is a beginning of a bright future, I think,” Roger Caruth said. “It’s been kind of a struggle to get here, but that’s the nature of the game. We just took full advantage of the opportunities that we had, knowing that he had to potentially do what he did tonight.”
What better place to savor a career-defining triumph than Las Vegas, with the nearby glitz, the neon lights, the cheeky nightlife, the long-ingrained gambling culture and the high-roller swagger. Gaming media scribes at the Vegas speedway pointed out to Caruth that his accomplishment was also a big win Friday night for bullish bettors. At the suggestion that he stay awhile to share in the party atmosphere, Caruth politely but firmly declined.
“I’m going home, bro,” Caruth laughed. “I am flying back, yeah. I am a homebody. I stay inside.”
Which all makes sense. Home, after all, is where family is.
