Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team can breathe easily after winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

That victory propels him to the Championship 4 for the second time in three years. And while the stress of advancing is eradicated, Larson doesn’t anticipate taking his foot off the gas pedal in either of the races at Homestead-Miami Speedway or Martinsville Speedway that precede the Nov. 5 title fight at Phoenix Raceway.

MORE: Full rundown from Sunday’s Round of 8 opener | Latest playoff standings

“Obviously, it’s nice to win and lock in. You can focus on Phoenix,” Larson said. “At the same point, you really can’t look too far ahead of yourself. There’s still two other races before then.”

First on the docket is Homestead-Miami (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), where Larson dominated a year ago to lead 199 of 267 laps en route to the victory. Larson has long excelled at the South Florida 1.5-mile oval, but last season marks his only trip to its Victory Lane.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself going to Homestead,” Larson said. “I want to have a great run there. I want to dominate, honestly. I want to win both stages by 15 seconds and win the race by 30. That’s my goal.

“I’m not thinking really ahead of Homestead yet. Martinsville, as well. I want to go there and have another good run like we had earlier this year, go into Phoenix with a lot of confidence and momentum.”

That perspective is shared by crew chief Cliff Daniels, who helped guide Larson to the 2021 Cup Series title with a season-long stomp of the competition that resulted in 10 wins in addition to a triumph in the exhibition All-Star Race. Daniels, a fifth-year crew chief, knows the formula that leads to championships. He served as a race engineer for Hendrick’s No. 48 team beginning in 2015, working alongside NASCAR Hall-of-Fame-elect driver Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus en route to the 2016 championship — a record-tying seventh for the driver/crew chief combo.

Any opportunity to let the seven other drivers in the Round of 8 build momentum, Daniels believes, is an opportunity lost for the No. 5 program.

“To me, just from the team exercise dynamic of things, if we say we’re just going to cruise for the next two weeks, then you’re not operating with the edge that I think you’re going to need to win it in Phoenix,” Daniels said. “There’s two more races to win. So now the way I see it is this: Now that we’re in the position that we’re in, we get to play those races to win — a late call, flipping a stage if a caution comes out, whatever it may be — versus having to play the race for points. I think that’s the position it puts us in the next two weeks.

“From a team exercise, all those other guys are so good. They’re going to be pushing hard to win the next two weeks. I think we have to match that intensity, so we’re going into Phoenix with the right level of intensity ourselves, get there with strength.”

The tone is inherently different than that spoken by the No. 22 Team Penske program in 2022 when Joey Logano won to open the Round of 8 at Las Vegas. He and crew chief Paul Wolfe remained adamant all focus ahead was on Phoenix — a strategy that proved fruitful as Logano earned his second Cup championship.

Larson, Daniels and Co. have their own flow, however. Much of that, of course, stems from how Daniels operates. Jeff Gordon, the Hall of Fame four-time champion driver and vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports, has seen the evolution of the duo since Larson’s welcome to the organization in 2021 and how Daniels has bettered Larson.

WATCH: Gordon on if Larson is a better driver than he was: ‘Uh, yes!’ 

“You take a guy like Kyle and his capabilities, his talent — he’s impressed me with his work ethic too,” Gordon said Sunday. “I wasn’t sure how he approached the Cup Series, especially with Cliff and all the data, all the homework that Cliff gives him, the meetings they have. Cliff is an intense guy, and he brings a lot to the table. It’s a lot of information that you have to absorb.

“He stepped up to the plate and has done everything that the organization can possibly ask out of him and then some. It’s been a great relationship.”

It was just another day in the life of Larson, whose extraordinary week could only be ordinary for him. On Oct. 10, Larson earned the High Limits Sprint Car Series championship just two days before a Thursday rookie orientation to prepare for the 2024 Indianapolis 500. Three days later, he’s in Las Vegas, scoring the victory that launches him toward another chance to win a Cup championship.

“It’s been a memorable week,” Larson said. “A little bit, maybe crazier than normal, but my weeks stay pretty crazy. So it felt pretty normal in a way.”

Such is the superheroic nature of what Larson brings to the track, where he frequently teeters on the edge of control. Larson’s willingness to take risks has resulted in four victories this year and a series-best 14 top-five finishes. But those same daring moves have also resulted in seven DNFs — second-most of anyone this season and all due to crash damage.

Gordon acknowledged those ups and downs and particularly pointed to Texas Motor Speedway, the opening race of the Round of 12, where Larson wrecked while racing for the lead with Bubba Wallace. Two weeks later, Larson crashed during practice at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, relegating the team to a backup car for an elimination race.

For now, those mistakes are in the rear-view mirror with a sealed path to Phoenix. The only question that remains is how bold Larson will be as he chases his second NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Corey Heim will return to Tricon Garage to drive the No. 11 Safelite Toyota in the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, he and the team announced Monday.

Heim is locked into this year’s Championship 4 in his first full-time campaign in the series, with three of his five career victories coming in 2023, his inaugural season with Tricon Garage.

“It’s all good things,” Heim told NASCAR.com in a phone interview. “I think with the progress we’ve made throughout the organization at Tricon this year and the partnership between Toyota Racing, we started off a little bit slow but once we got rolling in the early summertime, I really feel like we were right in the mix pretty early.”

MORE: Truck Series Playoffs standings | Homestead-Miami schedule

Indeed, Tricon Garage previously operated as David Gilliland Racing before 2023 running Fords. The operation transitioned to Toyota Racing Development this year as the manufacturer’s top team, and Heim delivered.

In addition to his three wins, Heim netted the Regular Season Championship despite missing a race at World Wide Technology Raceway, and he has collected 11 top fives and 18 top 10s in 20 starts this year.

“We kind of got on a roll quicker than expected,” Heim said. “I really feel like we’re still growing to this day, and now that we have a full offseason to work on it and improve for 2024, it’s gonna be really good, I think.”

The success Heim has found translated from a successful stint at Kyle Busch Motorsports, where he ran 16 of 23 races in 2022 on the way to two victories, six top fives and 10 top-10 finishes. Those stats would seem to favor a promotion to the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the next rung on the proverbial national series ladder and where Heim has made four starts for Sam Hunt Racing.

The 21-year-old will instead stay put for more seasoning in the Truck Series, where he could be a champion in less than three weeks’ time.

“I feel like it’s just what’s gonna set me up best for my future,” Heim said of returning to Tricon. “And the other side of that is I do want to go out and have immediate success and win races, contend for wins, so on and so forth. So for me, I think it was just being in such a good spot, I really felt like the best bet for me was to return to Tricon and return to my team. They have everyone coming back for me, and I feel like we’re gonna really be in a really good position to have success going forward.

“As I mentioned earlier, we’re making so much progress every week that I feel like we’ll be in really good shape next year. I feel like timing is kind of everything in racing and I feel like the timing for me is just to stick with that team. They’ve brought me so much success, so I feel like it would almost be crazy to not stick with them.”

MORE: 2023 Truck Series winners

The spread of the Truck Series schedule, combined with his Sept. 14 triumph at Bristol, means that Heim has already been locked into the Championship 4 for more than a month. That time has allowed the No. 11 team led by crew chief Scott Zipadelli a healthy amount of time to prepare for the title race at Phoenix. The series’ penultimate race of the year is set for Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway at noon ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It really is a big advantage. I mean, we’ve really just focused on that race specifically,” Heim said of the long breaks between races. “Of course we want to win the races in between – Talladega and Homestead. Had a good run at Talladega and want to run good at Homestead as well.

“But of course, all the marbles are in for Phoenix and that’s our priority, so we were able to really dive deep into that. We started doing simulator work basically immediately after Bristol. Of course, you can only prepare so much until you just go there and you got to do it or don’t kind of thing. But I really feel like we’ve been able to use this time off just to improve and make sure we’re as prepared as we possibly can be.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — An old-fashioned Las Vegas gamble cost Martin Truex Jr. big in Sin City on Sunday afternoon.

During the caution period separating Stages 1 and 2 in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, crew chief James Small made the decision to leave Truex and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on track after a 14-lap stint on fresh tires.

The rest of the field took fresh rubber behind him, and the once-competitive No. 19 car quickly plummeted through the leaderboard before rallying to a ninth-place finish — Truex’s first top-15 finish since Watkins Glen International in August.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Truex questioned the initial call under the yellow flag but ultimately followed the order. But after a stronger start for the 2017 champion, the No. 19 car struggled mightily in traffic and never truly rebounded from that deficit.

“He told me that (decision) pretty late around the corner in (Turns) 3 and 4, and my gut reaction was don’t do it. Don’t stay out,” Truex said. “And I just, I like to listen to my crew chief and do whatever they say no matter what because they know more of what’s going on than you do. And usually, the driver’s 90% of the time wrong if they make their own decision or go against the crew chief. So I went with it, but I didn’t feel good about it.

“And then, you know, nine laps, 10 laps or whatever here is a lot on tires, so you know, if we could have got a quick caution, it would have worked out great because we had the lead for whatever a few laps, but you know, once I got back to third or fourth, it just dropped like a rock.”

When the next yellow flag flew 25 laps later, Truex radioed the car was “terrible.”

“Sorry. We completely (expletive) that up,” Small responded.

“I almost didn’t listen to you, but I’m not really good at that,” Truex said.

“Yeah, you should not have listened clearly,” Small said. “We have no idea what we’re doing.”

The brunt of the damage from that moment forward occurred on restarts, where Truex lost ground before eventually passing others back during the course of a long run.

“It was just trying to figure out how to minimize the damage and hope that we could get a longer run,” Truex said. “We did at the end, which was really helpful. I don’t know what we had going on. Restarting up front, we were pretty good, and then on the long runs, really good – I thought – probably a third-place car, but once we got back there – 16th, 18th, whatever it was – it was just really bad on the restart.

“I would lose three, four, five spots every time, and then once we got strung out and got going, I would pick them off and work our way forward, but then we would get another caution, and I would lose a couple more. It was an uphill battle, but luckily, at the end, we were able to have a couple of better restarts and at least maintain, and then work our way forward from there. All-in-all, it was OK. The pit call obviously really killed us in Stage 2.”

The frustrations were palpable post-race after Truex entered with confidence. The New Jersey native entered the postseason tied for the No. 1 seed after scoring the Regular Season Championship, but mistakes and poor luck have battered the No. 19 team on the results sheets. As he bled positions on restarts, Truex tried to focus on the job at hand and put that disappointment aside.

“All I can do is drive the damn thing as hard as I can and get all the lap time I can get out of it and, you know, not worry about where we’re at or what’s going on,” Truex said. “Just drive as hard as I can and get everything I can and be as smart as I can and then hopefully try to just make it up later.”

Posted on by Staff Report

EDITOR’S NOTE: After further review, NASCAR officials rescinded the disqualification of Team Penske’s No. 12 and restored Ryan Blaney’s finishing position.

The No. 12 Team Penske Ford driven by Ryan Blaney has been disqualified following the vehicle’s failed post-race technical inspection at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR officials deemed the left-front damper on the No. 12 car did not meet the overall specified length outlined in Section 14.11.3.5 of the NASCAR Rule Book. Blaney is relegated to a last-place finish, forfeiting the eight stage points he collected throughout the 267-lap event.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Las Vegas

Blaney is a competitor in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and took the checkered flag in sixth place to conclude Sunday’s South Point 400, the opening race of the postseason’s penultimate round.

The postseason continues on Oct. 16 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Round of 8 off to a scorching start in Las Vegas opener

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — Christopher Bell rocketed to the rear bumper of race leader Kyle Larson off the final corner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

That was as close as he would get.

After erasing a near two-second deficit, Bell was 0.082 seconds shy of Victory Lane in Sunday’s South Point 400, the Round of 8 opener as the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs reaches its climax. Larson’s win seals his spot into the Championship 4, locking him into title contention in the Nov. 5 season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Bell, meanwhile, sits two points outside the provisional elimination line with two more chances ahead to return to the championship fight.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I really feel like that was our chance,” Bell said. “That was our chance to make Phoenix this year, and it slipped away from us. So I don’t know. We’ve still got two more races to get ourselves in position. So I feel good about that. But to be that close really stinks.”

Bell qualified on the pole position for an incredible sixth time this season and led 61 of 267 laps, the second-best of the day. But Larson swept the stage victories, led a race-high 133 circuits and managed to fend off the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for his fourth win of the season and lock into the Championship 4 for the second time in three years.

Bell, the only member of last year’s Championship 4 still in contention this season, said he did everything he could to eliminate the gap to Larson as laps ticked away. But the Oklahoma native simply couldn’t get there in time and was left to settle for second.

“I definitely think I could have completed the pass had I got there earlier,” Bell said. “He was really struggling and hanging on. I just didn’t get there.”

RELATED: No. 20 crew chief Stevens: ‘The pressure is on right now’

The two share plenty of history racing one another — for years on dirt tracks before both ending up at stock-car racing’s top level. As Larson drove his No. 5 Chevrolet to Victory Lane, he offered a thumbs-up to Bell, who returned the favor while standing on pit road.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Bell&#39;s late rally isn&#39;t enough! <a href=”https://twitter.com/KyleLarsonRacin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@KyleLarsonRacin</a> wins at <a href=”https://twitter.com/LVMotorSpeedway?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@LVMotorSpeedway</a>! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/NASCARPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#NASCARPlayoffs</a> <a href=”https://t.co/nLiBHGxrdk”>pic.twitter.com/nLiBHGxrdk</a></p>&mdash; NASCAR (@NASCAR) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NASCAR/status/1713675101588144630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>October 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

“That was just me kind of showing respect and saying thanks in a way for, you know, having us race it out,” Larson said of his gesture. “Obviously, I’m happy because I won. But he’s always been a really fair, clean racer. You know, we’ve had numbers and numbers of battles in in stock cars, but most mostly in dirt tracks, and I’m typically the one that is the aggressor or the aggressive one in our battles and probably push the limit of being dirty sometimes.

“So, you know, for him to continue to race me clean, you know, I definitely have a ton of respect for him,” continued Larson, who tested for the Indianapolis 500 last week. “Always have. He’s, in my opinion, one of the best race car drivers in the world and could do everything that I get to do outside of NASCAR if his team would let him. It’s just fun to get to battle with a guy like that.”

What the No. 20 team left Las Vegas lacking in guarantees, it made up for in execution. In a season that has seen Bell or crew members face adversity — some of which was self-inflicted — Vegas produced a clean, issue-free contest for Bell.

“That’s what we should be doing every week. And I think that we’re capable of it,” Bell said. “I’ve been saying it for a while that if all of us do our jobs, then we’re going to be right there in the thick of it and we showed that today.”

Posted on by Staff Report

After the seventh race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs concluded at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, here’s a quick look at the playoff picture.

WINNER

Kyle Larson not only led 133 laps but also earned max points on the day and held off Christopher Bell to the checkered flag by 0.082 seconds. After just skating by in the Round of 12, Larson definitely put on a heater in the desert. He won the first two stages of the race and has a lot of positives to take away from his Chevrolet’s performance as he heads into the next two races with full steam.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

WHO’S HOT?

Denny Hamlin. After hitting a few bumps last week in Charlotte, Hamlin surged back to competing up front at Las Vegas after qualifying the worst out of the eight playoff drivers. Hamlin certainly has the race craft to be in the mix every weekend.

Christopher Bell. It was a hard-fought day for Bell, with his battle with Larson in qualifying continuing right over to the final laps of Sunday’s race. Bell flat-out had the speed to win, but his last pit stop before the checkered flag was just a bit slower than Larson’s and may have been a factor in keeping him out of Victory Lane.

WHO’S NOT?

Tyler Reddick. After roaring back last week to put himself in the Round of 8, Reddick was quiet all day in Vegas and sits 16 points below the elimination line. On the bright side, Reddick will be eager to head to Homestead-Miami Speedway as it is one of his best tracks, with two top-five finishes in three starts.

Chris Buescher. While Buescher has looked the best out of the two Fords overall in the playoffs, the intermediate tracks have not been the No. 17’s friend. A mix of slow pit stops and not gaining any track positions during the race leave him looking way outside of being in the hunt.

NEXT RACE

The Round of 8 continues at Homestead-Miami for the 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 on Oct. 22 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

BUBBLE WATCH
RankDriverCutoff
1Kyle LarsonWIN
2William Byron9
3Denny Hamlin2
4Martin Truex Jr.2
ELIMINATION LINE
5Christopher Bell-2
6Tyler Reddick-16
7Ryan Blaney-17
8Chris Buescher-23
Posted on by Holly Cain

LAS VEGAS — Kyle Larson earned this trophy the old-fashioned way. The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver led the most laps and swept both stage wins but still had to hold off a hard-charging, equally motivated Christopher Bell at the start/finish line to claim a dramatic victory in Sunday’s South Point 400 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The 31-year-old Larson blocked the final charge by fellow playoff driver Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as the two cars approached the checkered flag. Larson ultimately positioned his Chevy in front to claim a 0.082-second win and secure the first of four available positions in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 race at Phoenix in three weeks.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos 

It was a compelling afternoon ushering in this final three-race, eight-driver round of playoff competition to set up the four-driver title chase, with seven race leaders and 20 lead changes. Larson held off the field on a restart with 45 laps to go and never relinquished it despite quality challenges from Bell to close out the race and earlier, Roush Fenway Keselowski owner-driver Brad Keselowski, who led 38 laps himself.

Larson led seven times and accumulated the most laps led — 133 of 267 — on the afternoon to top the 1,000 laps led mark on the season. His 1,031 total laps out front in 2023 are the most in the series.

Not only did he have to hold off Bell, who made up half a second in the closing five laps to get to Larson’s bumper, but the 2021 series champ Larson survived a close call mid-race, his Chevy getting loose and out of control. But the former dirt race champion dramatically corrected and calmly carried on.

WATCH: Larson discusses Vegas win | Bell: ‘That was my moment to make the final four’

“Thankfully, Christopher [Bell] always races extremely clean. It could have gotten crazier than it did coming to the start-finish line, so thank you to him for racing with respect there,” Larson said. “What a job done by my team. Just a great race car.

“I almost gave it away there in turns 1 and 2. Got sideways and hit the wall and had to fight back from there. I was happy to pull away as much as we did and was hoping that would be enough to maintain, which it was. But I didn’t think they’d be able to get as close as they did at the end. So nerve-wracking.

“This is really cool to get to race for the championship in a few weeks, and really glad I don’t have to stress these next two races,” Larson continued.

Despite the impressive afternoon, Bell, who started from the pole position and led 61 laps, now finds himself ranked fifth, two points below the four-driver elimination line heading into next week’s playoff race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I don’t know what else I could have done,” Bell said. “I feel like that was my moment, that was my moment to make the Final Four and didn’t quite capture it. Coming to the checkers there, I knew he was going to be blocking, so I’m like, I’ll try to go high, and he went high. I don’t even know if I had a run to get by him coming to the line. Just wasn’t enough, but a great day. Great day for sure to get those stage points and a second-place finish out of it. Puts us behind by two [points], so we’re not out of it by any means, but would have been nice to lock in.”

The non-playoff cars of Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, RFK’s Keselowski and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain rounded out the top five behind Larson and Bell.

SHOP: Winner’s gear

Seven of the remaining eight playoff-eligible drivers finished inside the top 10. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin finished sixth through 10th, respectively. Blaney was initially disqualified in post-race inspection due to the left-front damper not meeting the overall specified length (Section 14.11.3.5). However, the penalty was rescinded on Monday.

The race shook up the postseason picture. Beyond Larson’s automatic bid, Byron still holds the championship lead in what is now more tightly bunched standings. The No. 24 is nine points up on Truex Jr. and Hamlin, who both are two points above the elimination line.

Reddick (-16), Blaney (-17) and Buescher (-23) round out the playoff driver’s positioning. Buescher’s 11th-place finish represented a decent rally for his car, which ran 15th-20th place for much of the day.

Hendrick Motorsports executive — and NASCAR Hall of Famer driver Jeff Gordon — smiled when asked about Larson’s day.

WATCH: Gordon on if Larson is a better driver than he was: ‘Uh, yes!’

“I don’t know where to begin,” Gordon said. “It certainly looked like they were the class or the field at one point, then Bell did, then Keselowski did. Great race, really.”

Asked if Larson was potentially as “good” as the 93-race winner Gordon had been when competing, the former four-time series champion said, “You take a guy like Kyle and his capabilities and his talent, and he’s impressed me with his work ethic too. I wasn’t sure how he approached the Cup Series and [crew chief] Cliff [Daniels] and all the data that Cliff gives him in the meetings they have. .. it’s a lot of information you have to absorb.

“But he’s stepped up to the plate and done absolutely everything the organization has asked of him and then some. It’s been a great relationship, and this year has been all about getting the car and team to align.

“Seems like in the playoffs, they’ve been bringing fast race cars and stepping up to the plate.”

The next race of this final three-race playoff round to set the championship field is next Sunday’s 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Larson is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage concluded with confirmation of Larson as the race winner.

Posted on by Staff Report

Editor’s Note: Projections have been updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions:

The next two races in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are taking place on 1.5-mile tracks, the first time all season that the schedule features back-to-back 1.5-milers. By now, we’ve enjoyed an ample sampling of who does well on these tracks and can therefore, get a good handle on who might end up in Victory Lane after Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Plus, Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions did little to alter the favorites projected earlier in the week.

PLAYOFFS: Playoffs hub page | Playoffs Grid Challenge game

According to Racing Insights, William Byron leads with 218 points scored in the five races on 1.5-mile tracks this season. Byron is also the only driver with two wins on 1.5-mile tracks this year, including one in the spring at Las Vegas. Denny Hamlin is second in points with 183, followed by Tyler Reddick with 178, Ryan Blaney with 167 and Kyle Larson rounding out the top five with 164 points. In addition, Blaney, Hamlin and Reddick each have one win on a 1.5-mile track this year.

With that many Round of 8 drivers among the leaders in points and wins on 1.5-mile tracks, Sunday’s race figures to be quite the battle to gain the early edge for what many will say is the most important win of the year. How important is that edge? The driver who wins on Sunday gets two weeks to prepare for Phoenix, and that advantage has paid off three of the last five years with a championship at Phoenix.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

KYLE LARSON: The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has a lot going for him at Las Vegas: He won there in March of 2021, finished in the top 10 in nine of his last 11 Vegas starts and has five career 1.5-mile wins. Look for Larson to be battling among the leaders all day.

MARTIN TRUEX JR.: Regular-season bonus points have helped carry Truex Jr. this far, but many, including Kyle Petty, wonder when he’ll flip the switch. It could happen this week at Las Vegas, where the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is a two-time winner and is the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all three races with the Next Gen car.

CHRIS BUESCHER: The driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford enters Las Vegas three points beneath the elimination line and will need to go against the statistical trends in order to make up ground. Buescher has just one top-10 finish in 13 Las Vegas starts and has never finished in the top five on a 1.5-mile track.

DENNY HAMLIN: Hamlin comes to Vegas just 11 points above the elimination line, but he scored the second-most combined points in the spring at Las Vegas and Martinsville with 79. The only driver better during those two races was Larson. Plus, Hamlin is one of four drivers in the Round of 8 with wins at all three of the tracks in this round.

RYAN BLANEY: Blaney is bringing up the rear in the standings, 10 points behind, and is known more for his superspeedway racing, but don’t overlook him on the 1.5-mile tracks. The driver of the Team Penske No. 12 Ford already has a win this year on a 1.5-mile track in the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Projections as of Sunday, Oct. 15:

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE SOUTH POINT 400

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.

FinishCar NumberDriver
15Kyle Larson
224William Byron
311Denny Hamlin
445Tyler Reddick
51Ross Chastain
619Martin Truex Jr.
720Christopher Bell
817Chris Buescher
96Brad Keselowski
1023Bubba Wallace
1112Ryan Blaney
128Kyle Busch
139Chase Elliott
1448Alex Bowman
1522Joey Logano
164Kevin Harvick
1754Ty Gibbs
1843Erik Jones
1916AJ Allmendinger
2010Aric Almirola
2199Daniel Suárez
223Austin Dillon
2347Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2414Chase Briscoe
2534Michael McDowell
267Corey LaJoie
272Austin Cindric
2831Justin Haley
2941Ryan Preece
3042Carson Hocevar
3121Harrison Burton
3277Ty Dillon
3338Todd Gilliland
3451J.J. Yeley
3578BJ McLeod
3615Brennan Poole

Posted on by Dustin Albino

All season long, it’s been a battle between Hendrick Motorsports and Toyota for who is the best at intermediate tracks. It feels like we’ve got another case of that on our hands this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, though a couple of other teams could sprinkle in their speed. For the fourth time in seven playoff races this season, Christopher Bell will lead the field to the green flag and is a worthy addition to your fantasy lineup.

MORE: Bell captures Vegas pole | Starting lineup | Vegas schedule

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: William Byron

Starter 2: Kyle Larson

Starter 3: Tyler Reddick

Starter 4: Christopher Bell

Starter 5: Martin Truex Jr.

Garage pick: Bubba Wallace

NEXT IN LINE: Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain

RISING: I’ve learned my lesson from earlier in the playoffs: Larson is needed for your lineup this weekend, no matter how many uses you have left with him. I’m not making the same mistake that I did at Bristol, where I opted not to use the No. 5 car, and he went out and scored the third most points in the race. Larson was quickest on 10-lap averages and looked to have among the best cars on the short run as well.

If the second half of the season has taught us anything about Buescher, it’s to leave any of his past trends in the rearview. Once again, he looked to have the best Ford in the field and will start fifth. Of the two Ford teams remaining in championship contention, this is the manufacturer’s best shot. Buescher ranked fourth on 10-lap averages.

FALLING: Sin City continues to plague Chase Elliott. His trajectory was moving in the right direction in the opening minutes of practice, ranking fourth on overall speed. But the No. 9 car cut a right-rear tire after running 15 laps — in which Elliott had the best 15-lap average in the field — and backed into the Turn 3 wall. With no laps in his backup car, you would be hard-pressed to use Elliott this weekend. However, there is only one direction to go from his 35th-place starting position.

With how consistent the No. 11 team has been over the last handful of months, it’s a weird site to see Hamlin struggle in practice and qualifying. Remember, though, earlier this week in Fastlane, I noted that Hamlin stated it takes him time to get the correct feel for his car at Las Vegas. That was likely the case on Saturday, but Hamlin was 30th on the speed chart and 18th for 10-lap averages.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:

Tyler Reddick vs. Ryan Blaney

Since the latter part of the 2022 season, Toyota has found a knack for finding maximum speed on intermediate tracks. That is where the manufacturer stands out, with five of its six drivers making the final round of qualifying on Saturday. Blaney looked decent, but I pulled him from my lineup because the No. 12 car doesn’t have the pace of Toyotas or Hendrick Motorsports. Meanwhile, Reddick might win the race outright.

Christopher Bell vs. Chris Buescher

This one has gotten a lot tougher from earlier this week because Buescher unloaded off the hauler fast. Bell was just a touch better, winning his sixth pole of the season. It wouldn’t be surprising if Buescher is a top-five threat, but Bell’s past success at the track makes me lean in his direction.

Kyle Larson vs. Denny Hamlin

This matchup has flipped, however. Two of the best crew chiefs in the garage work on the Nos. 5 and 11 teams. It’s safe to assume that Chris Gabehart will dial in on Hamlin’s car overnight and make the necessary adjustments to contend for the win. That’s what the No. 11 team does better than most teams. But this seems to be the perfect weekend for Larson to lock himself into the championship race in Phoenix via a victory. At least, that’s where I stand.

Martin Truex Jr. vs. William Byron

Here’s the battle of the second row. Byron bettered Truex by one position in qualifying and was two spots better on single-lap speed in practice. The No. 24 Chevrolet stood out on the long run, trailing only Larson. Clearly, I’m high on Toyotas at 1.5-mile tracks, but this could be setting up for a duplicate race that we saw from the spring with Byron and Larson dominating. With this matchup, I’m also leaning in Hendrick Motorsports’ direction.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — Riley Herbst’s charge to a dominant win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday left an unclaimed spot available in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4.

John Hunter Nemechek’s runner-up finish led the eight racers eligible in the Round of 8 ahead of fellow playoff participants Cole Custer, Chandler Smith, Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier and Austin Hill, who finished third through seventh, respectively. Sheldon Creed finished 15th, one lap down, while Sammy Smith was scored 17th, two laps down.

Four drivers will advance to Phoenix Raceway to fight for the 2023 championship. With Herbst’s victory, at least two of those spots will be filled based on points standings.

MORE: Race results | Creed explains decision to leave RCR for 2024

Nemechek, who owns a series-best seven wins this year, was forced to rally from the rear of the field for the second week in a row after an oil leak sprung during Friday’s practice session. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota gained a whopping 19 positions within the first four laps of the race and maximized the day, extending his cushion above the provisional elimination line to 47 points.

“What makes a championship team is how you overcome things like that,” Nemechek said. “We had a fast Toyota GR Supra. (Sponsor) Pye-Barker colors looked good again. Sucks that we couldn’t get them into Victory Lane, but we finished second, so solid day. Solid points day for us, and we’re just gonna continue to push forward onto Homestead next week.”

Cole Custer looks at his No. 00 Ford after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Studios

Custer appeared to have one of the fastest cars in Saturday’s race, but the vehicle’s balance shifted too far loose, with its rear end slipping through the corners. He netted a race-best 19 stage points after leading 62 laps with a third-place finish and heads to Homestead on the bubble — but with a smile on his face.

“It’s awesome. I mean, we had a really fast car today,” Custer said. “Our guys did a great job. Just got loose on the long run and as the run went there. I thought the ‘track will tighten up here eventually,’ but it didn’t. So I would just stay free the whole time. And, you know, wish we had one more run there, maybe.”

Behind him on the track was Chandler Smith, who has embraced the underdog role throughout the course of these playoffs. The Kaulig Racing driver led 118 laps at Vegas in the spring before finishing third and nabbing fourth after leading 23 laps Saturday, his most since Nashville Superspeedway in June. Yet despite a strong finish and a second-best 14 stage points in Las Vegas, Smith lost four points to the elimination line, sits fifth and trails Custer by 15 points entering next week’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“That’s the sucky part is … you feel like you had such a good day today, then I go look at the point standings,” Smith said. “I was minus (11) going in, now minus 15. So that sucks, for sure. But it’s nobody’s fault but ours. We did a horrible job in the regular season and are paying (for) that now.”

Chandler Smith leans against his No. 16 Chevrolet after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Studios

Mayer was busy celebrating one week ago with a clutch victory at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course to advance into the Round of 8. But an ill-handling car early set the No. 1 JR Motorsports team behind before he rallied for a fifth-place finish after failing to score stage points. The result in standings? Sixth, 16 points beneath the line to advance.

“We worked our tails off today,” Mayer told NASCAR.com. “We obviously finished well but did not give ourselves a good outlook on the next two races. But I have confidence in all our guys. I mean, we clutched up to get here in the first place. So the silver lining is we’re here, but obviously, we want to make the most of it. So we’ll have to go to Homestead, I think more than anything there to make something happen because we’re obviously in the hole right now. So we’re gonna have to dig deep.”

Allgaier, his JRM teammate, seemed poised for a better day than sixth place but told NASCAR.com that nose damage suffered on an early restart — combined with missing the balance transitioning from Friday’s sessions to Saturday’s race — factored into a mid-top-10 run. The good news is Allgaier sits second in points, 26 markers behind Nemechek, but up 21 on the elimination line.

“I think yesterday’s conditions versus today’s conditions,” Allgaier said. I probably would’ve adjusted a little more yesterday had we known, but on the other side of it, you don’t want to overadjust when conditions aren’t the same. Today was just off. We battled. We got stage points. We did all the right things. Are we safe by any means on these playoff points? No, but a non-playoff car winning today definitely makes that a little bit better.”

MORE: At-track photos: Las Vegas | Latest points standings

Hill was victorious in Vegas back in March by virtue of a late-race pass on Chandler Smith, but the No. 21 Richard Childress Chevrolet never truly factored into the fight for the lead, netting six stage points in the first stage but none in Stage 2, the team hindered by a loose wheel in the early goings of the contest.

“We definitely had to dig deep for today. It didn’t come easy,” Hill told NASCAR.com. “You know, we got through Stage 1 and thought we just needed to tighten up some. I didn’t think we needed a ton; we just needed to be a little tighter overall. Had a loose wheel on that stop. My guys have been awesome all year, so I can’t get mad at them about it. You know, nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s human. So things are gonna happen.

“So I just put my head down and tried to dig deep through there through Stage 2 and try to put ourselves back in a good spot. And you know, we were able to get back up there inside the top 10 and we really just need a few more cautions to fall our way and I think you would have seen us get back in the top five. I thought we had a top-five car. Not sure we had a winning car, but I thought we had a good, solid top-five car.”

Hill holds the third spot in the title standings for now, 19 points above the elimination line heading into Homestead.

His teammate Creed struggled through Saturday’s event and scored no stage points en route to his 15th-place run. JGR’s Sammy Smith suffered two loose wheels, including one during a green-flag pit cycle that forced him back to pit road a second time. Smith sits seventh in the standings, 35 points beneath the elimination line, while Creed enters Homestead eighth, 41 points out.