Posted on by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS — A refocused and rejuvenated Denny Hamlin drove the dominant car to victory in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The NASCAR Cup Series victory was Hamlin’s first of the season, his third overall and second straight at the 1.5-mile track and the 61st of his career, good for 10th on the all-time list.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

The win came five races after Hamlin suffered a crushing 11th-hour defeat in the race for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship last November at Phoenix Raceway. Three laps from his first title and foiled by an ill-timed caution, the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver took months to reconcile the disappointment.

“I knew it took a few weeks to feel like driving,” Hamlin said. “Over the last couple weeks, I definitely regained my love of it, got refocused. These are great opportunities for us.”

His 61st victory broke a tie on the career list with Kevin Harvick.

“My name stands out amongst … there’s the legends of the sport,” said the 45-year-old Hamlin. “I feel very fortunate to be on the list. Those guys were far more talented than I have ever thought about being.

“I just work really hard. I still, to this day, work really hard at my craft to try to continue to get better. Days like today certainly make me feel happy about where I’m at in the sport still and what I can still do.”

SHOP: Winner’s gear

Brushing off a pit-road speeding penalty at the first stage break, Hamlin rallied to lead a race-high 134 laps and held off the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Chase Elliott and William Byron, who ran second and third, respectively.

Polesitter Christopher Bell — who won Stage 1 — was fourth, followed by Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson, who led 62 laps and finished second in Stages 1 and 2.

Chase Briscoe ran eighth, also overcoming a speeding penalty, as did Gibbs, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. Bubba Wallace came home ninth and Brad Keselowski 10th.

Tyler Reddick, winner of the first three races this season, faded to 13th in the final run but maintained his series lead by 61 points over Wallace, his 23XI Racing teammate, and 67 over third-place Ryan Blaney.

MORE: Stage 2 results | Byron clinches Stage 2 victory

With Hamlin relegated to the rear after his speeding penalty, the start of the second stage was a thrill show, with the cars of Larson, Bell, Byron and Elliott packed together like the United States Air Force Thunderbirds flying in formation.

The four drivers, soon joined by Reddick, jockeyed for position for three laps before Byron pushed Larson into the lead on Lap 93, with Bell soon following into second.

Larson led 28 laps before steering his car to pit road on Lap 121. When the pit cycle ended, Larson led Bell by nearly three seconds but began to fade toward the end of the stage. Both Bell and Byron tracked Larson down, with Byron seizing a chance to take the lead three-wide in the tri-oval on Lap 159.

MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Bell clinch opening stage win

Byron pulled away to win Stage 2, with Larson and Bell finishing second and third under the green/checkered flag on Lap 165.

Meanwhile, Hamlin spent the entirety of Stage 2 recovering from the pit-road speeding penalty he incurred under caution during the Stage 1 break on Lap 84. Restarting 21st on Lap 89, Hamlin methodically worked his way forward and was fifth when the second stage ended.

Hamlin moved to second behind Byron after the final-stage restart on Lap 174, grabbed the lead to the inside of the Hendrick driver on Lap 185 and began to pull away.

But Hamlin’s lead was short-lived. On Lap 211, Byron pulled ahead in Turn 3 moments before Connor Zilisch spun off Turn 4 to cause the first and only caution of the race for an on-track incident.

Under the yellow, Bell regained two positions and the lead with a quick stop, with Hamlin exiting pit road in second and Byron and Elliott following in third and fourth. A slow pit stop relegated Larson to eighth for the Lap 218 restart.

One lap later, Hamlin passed his JGR teammate for the lead and held it the rest of the way, holding off a fast-closing Elliott by 0.502 seconds at the finish.

“It (the No. 9 Chevrolet) was definitely better there towards the end than we had started the run,” said Elliott, who hasn’t led a lap at Las Vegas since NASCAR introduced the Gen 7 race car in 2022. “I thought there might be an opportunity. I knew that he was starting to get tight there at the end of runs. Yeah, man, as bummed as I am to come up that close to a win, I have to kind of bring myself back to a reality check, how much better we ran today than we’ve been running. I’m balancing that, right?

“Obviously, these things are hard to win. We had a great opportunity to do it. But really proud of the effort throughout the week, preparation, yesterday. Just kind of fighting through a not-so-good day. Getting up there in the mix with the guys that win a lot of these races anymore. Really proud of that.”

Justin Allgaier, substituting for Alex Bowman — who is suffering from vertigo — finished 25th.

With long green-flag runs being the order of the day, only of the 20 of the 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule 

There were 21 lead changes among nine drivers and three cautions for 20 laps.

The Cup Series returns eastward for a date at the iconic Darlington Raceway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Hamlin as the Las Vegas winner. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.
Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — Kurt Busch is a Vegas native, through and through.

So what better place for 23XI Racing to pay tribute to its first NASCAR Hall of Fame driver than Las Vegas Motor Speedway?

MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

This weekend, as a nod to the Class of 2026 Hall of Fame inductee, the No. 45 team is featuring the same Jordan Brand elephant-print paint scheme it donned when Busch wheeled it to Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway in May 2022 in the 34th and final victory of his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career.

Tyler Reddick is driving that car now — one which opened the 2026 season with a never-before-seen three-peat across the Daytona 500, EchoPark Speedway and Circuit of The Americas. But much of today’s No. 45 team remains intact from its 2022 inception, when Busch joined the 23XI Racing program in its infancy as its second full-time driver in the organization’s second season.

“I mean, he kind of set the table for me, really,” Reddick said Saturday at the track. “He was a part of that process of putting together the 45 team. Obviously, there’s been a couple changes over the years, but he played a huge role in where this team started out, and I jumped into it in a really good place. And he’s just continued to stay involved to offer up anything and everything. Over the years, as I’ve learned more, our relationship has certainly changed a little bit. But it is always still great to be able to talk to Kurt because the amount of insight and knowledge he has from the years, just the massive amount of experience he has, it’s always good to lean on.”

Today’s team still includes crew chief Billy Scott, who first worked as Busch’s crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018 and rekindled their relationship at 23XI in 2022. Though Busch has been out of the driver’s seat since the summer of 2022, the impact he’s made on the blossoming company lingers through Scott’s team today.

“It’s just everything that we desire as a team — just the winning, the competitiveness — that was Kurt through and through,” Scott told NASCAR.com. “That’s Tyler. That’s the way Bubba is now. It’s just, that’s the way our nature is. And you know, even last week (at Phoenix), you’ve got to lose eventually. We were happy for those guys (on the No. 12 team). They earned it, for sure. We got beat. But it’s still disappointing. And it still leaves you hungry coming back, ready to get back to Victory Lane.”

MORE: Busch reflects on storied career: ‘An amazing journey’ | Busch through the years

When team co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin sought a new driver to join 23XI as Bubba Wallace’s teammate, Busch’s name came highly recommended. The production in the short 20 races they had together arguably surpassed expectations, collecting one win, five top fives and eight top 10s while leading 182 laps that season, nearly matching his entire output from the previous season. The people who helped make his No. 45 Toyota competitive were there largely because of its driver.

Tyler Reddick drives a Kurt Busch tribute at Las Vegas.
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media

“I think (he) was very instrumental in getting quality people to come to work here,” Scott said. “They had a really good basis. But when you’re trying to add on that much at that time period, it was very important to have a Hall-of-Fame driver in the lineup to be able to get people to come over and start a team from scratch because the company was very small at the time. But then his impact as part of the team is being — I think — Denny found this out when he was researching who to get — that he is one of the best teammates you could ever ask.

“Everybody that’s ever worked with him has found value in him being there because he does care about everybody. He is one of the most genuinely good people that you’ll ever meet, and just building the team camaraderie of totally embracing their culture that they wanted to have, where everybody works together, everybody helps each other out, he is kind of the definition of that. So, yeah, I think his impact will forever be felt, and everybody still leans on him. And he’s still around, right? He still has advice now and then, and he’s still one of our biggest cheerleaders. So being able to just pay tribute to him with his car is special in itself.”

Busch’s reach expanded outside the No. 45 team, even within Airspeed, 23XI Racing’s shop.

The 2004 Cup Series champion became the first teammate Wallace ever had at the Cup level. That bond proved fruitful almost immediately — and lasts today.

“Kurt has always believed in me,” Wallace told NASCAR.com. “He’s always a phone call or a text away anytime I need him, and that made for a remarkable first teammate. It’s nice to see where he is now and to still have him a part of the team. He’s a true Hall of Famer.”

Of the 182 laps Busch led with 23XI, 116 came at Kansas, where he delivered Jordan Brand its first Cup Series victory. Scott, of course, was the crew chief that day, too. To see that car back on track — and qualifying seventh for Sunday’s race (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — is a feeling Scott will cherish all over again. The first thing he thinks of? The celebration.

NASCAR ON YOUTUBE: Busch breaks down his best moments

“Seeing the satisfaction on his face and knowing that he gave Michael his first win with the Jordan Brand car, and the first one for the 45, just, you don’t know when that’s coming. None of us do,” Scott said. “And to start the new team with, again, how small the company was as a whole, you knew they had a win with Bubba the year before so, knew it was possible. We were optimistic. But to see it probably come to fruition and have that victory and watch him celebrate for that, that made it all worthwhile.”

Now, he’s busy influencing how 23XI’s racers may strive to remain involved once they’re out of the cars themselves.

“Now that he is not the driver, he still wants to see the team do very, very well,” Reddick said. “That’s just the kind of guy that he is. Who knows, maybe years down the road, when I’m in a similar spot, I could see myself being in the same position, where the team that you’ve worked together with and put together, you still care once you’ve transitioned to a different role, you still care for how they perform and do.”

Kurt Busch looks on at Las Vegas.
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media
Posted on by Cameron Richardson

LAS VEGAS — A third-place performance for Sheldon Creed in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway didn’t come without a gamble.

It was a gamble that resulted in the misfortune of his competitors as the driver of the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet made contact with Taylor Gray on Lap 148. The incident put the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into the wall, ending Gray’s day.

Creed came over the radio shortly after. His words: “Man, that was my fault, but you can only block a guy so many times.” He took further accountability for the incident after the race — noting that Gray was looking to make a pass on then-leader Corey Day into Turn 3.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“Normally, I’ll kind of eat a couple blocks, but I just watched the replay, and I was just unaware that he was that close to the 17,” Creed said. “I thought he was kind of coming down to block me, and really, he was trying to poke inside the 17. So that’s totally my fault. When he came down, my plan was to just try to roll in there with him and pack some air on him because I let him get away with the first couple (of blocks). Still had a lot of laps left there. Yeah, I just ran into the back of him. That was totally on me. That was bad.”

Gray described the incident as ‘self-explanatory’ and admitted to playing defense on the No. 00 before the contact.

“I blocked him down the backstretch. It definitely didn’t warrant me getting wrecked, but it is what it is,” Gray said. “He knew what he was doing, right? He’s ran these cars long enough, and he’s been in the series long enough. He had the mentality to go into (Turn) 3 and wreck me. Obviously, he was pretty good at doing that.”

It’s not the first time Gray has been on the short end of contact. Last year, he was caught up in a humdinger ending to the Martinsville spring race, where Sammy Smith rammed the back of the No. 54 to spin Gray in the final set of corners to cause a heated exchange between the two by the infield care center.

But even amid a blistering spring prelude in the Nevada desert, tempers were cool, and no consultation occurred between Gray and Creed.

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

However, Creed understood what a future exchange on track could mean if he sees the No. 54 in his rearview mirror.

“He owes me one moving forward,” Creed said. “So whenever that comes, I’ll understand when it comes back to me.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — Denny Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle nailed both their strategy and their car setup the last time the NASCAR Cup Series visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

They’re hoping they can find that sweet spot yet again with their No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Sunday’s race at the 1.5-mile oval (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Just trying to replicate the success, really, right?” Gayle told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “Like, we know what we think made us good last time, and we’re trying to replicate that here. And the temperatures are probably going to be far closer to the fall race. Normally, it’s pretty cool here in the spring, and we didn’t quite get that this time. So, can we build upon that performance or not?”

MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

So far, it appears they’re close. After qualifying on pole position in October, Hamlin qualified second in Saturday’s time trials and will start on the front row alongside teammate Christopher Bell.

The ambient temperatures, Gayle believes, will play a factor in how teams balance their race cars for 400 miles around NASCAR’s first intermediate oval of 2026. The spring race produced an uncharacteristic 25th-place finish for the No. 11 team in March 2025, a day when temperatures maxed out at 71 degrees Fahrenheit. On a warmer October afternoon last fall with temps around 77 degrees, Hamlin led nine laps and stormed to the win late.

“It helps specifically, like for us, when we were better in the fall than the spring, and we want to use those fall notes more closely than we did the spring race. That’s really about it,” Gayle said. “And I think you have enough time (and) you get enough spring and fall races, the temperature differences, you can kind of understand the compensation you need to make for it.”

The car that led the most laps last fall, however, was the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Kyle Larson and led by crew chief Cliff Daniels. The team earned Chevrolet’s quickest qualifying time Saturday and will roll off the starting grid fifth. But the team is also navigating updated body panels on Chevrolet’s 2026 Camaro ZL1. With Las Vegas being the first intermediate oval, this provides a true test for Chevrolet’s camp. The group enters Sunday’s exam with just 20 laps of practice and one circuit of qualifying on the track added to their simulation data.

“Twenty minutes isn’t long to adjust on it, but everybody’s in the same boat,” Daniels told NASCAR.com Saturday. “And really grateful for all the people at GM, Chevrolet for bringing us a car that we believe has a lot more potential still to get in it. It’s going to take us a minute to figure out how to balance it out and get it closer. But all signs were looking pretty good today, and now we’ve just got to work on getting the balance a little bit closer for making him comfortable. But I think it’s close.”

Kyle Larson drives during NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas.
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media

But what strategy will be the right one come Sunday afternoon? In October 2024, Joey Logano stretched his fuel mileage 69 laps to score the victory over Bell, the day’s dominant driver. The answer to Sunday’s equation lies somewhere in the crew chiefs’ notebooks — as long as they select the right formula.

“I mean, we’ve studied a lot of the Vegas, Kansas type intermediate races. They all play out very similar,” Daniels said. “There’s some cautions that you’ve got to look for if they fall at certain spots. Otherwise, the stages play out very similar to one another between those two track types and especially over the years. So all that’s in mind. I don’t expect anything new. Certainly going to be hot and slick, so grip will be a priority. And otherwise, it’s just going to be making good decisions in the moment and execute when we can.”

Pit-stall selection has also proven pertinent in certain years at Las Vegas. Pit road follows a curve along the frontstretch that leaves certain pit stalls advantageous and others detrimental. That includes pit stall No. 1 — the pit box nearest pit exit. Daniels selected stall No. 15 for the third time in the past four Vegas races, while Gayle selected pit stall No. 6 for the No. 11 team. Adam Stevens, crew chief of Bell’s pole-winning car, selected pit stall No. 1, a change from the last time the No. 20 team earned the pole in October 2024 and chose stall No. 6.

MORE: Sunday’s pit map

The debate is fascinating — and arguably never-ending — but how drivers navigate their pit entry and exit may well play a factor in who wins Sunday’s race.

“I think there’s lots of people to complain about how well (that first pit stall) launches, and it does not launch very well,” Gayle said. “And then there’s also the factors of which pit stalls get the best rolling times as well. And obviously, we have enough data. I’ve been in stall one now. I’ve been not stall one with Denny. We can compare and see what the trade-offs are and make the decision based on that.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS — No matter the series, Las Vegas Motor Speedway agrees with Kyle Larson.

Surging into the lead from the seventh position moments after the final restart on Lap 154 of 200, Larson pulled away to win The LiUNA!, becoming the fifth different winner in five NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races this season.

Larson crossed the finish line in Saturday’s race 2.557 seconds ahead of Chase Briscoe, who recovered from a brush with the outside wall and resulting flat tire to finish second.

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

The victory was Larson’s second at Las Vegas to go with three in the NASCAR Cup Series. In his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start of the 2026 season, the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driver registered the 18th win of his career.

Sheldon Creed ran third, followed by series leader Justin Allgaier and Sammy Smith.

“I was a bit nervous,” Larson said of the final run. “I knew the 00 (Creed) and Briscoe were ripping the top. I tried it once, and I didn’t feel good up there at all.

“I don’t know — clean air just must have meant a lot today. So, glad I was able to get the lead when it mattered.”

Briscoe took responsibility for the mistake that cost him a chance to win.

“Even with the adversity we were dealing with, I knew if we got a lucky break, we were going to hopefully get back up there,” Briscoe said. “Honestly, it wasn’t an unfortunate break with the tire — I think it was my own fault.

“I just drove it into the fence and cost myself. I had a lot of fun. It was certainly fun slipping and sliding around the race track. You could kind of run all over. I had a blast.”

MORE: Briscoe had ‘fun slipping and sliding around’ in runner-up

Jesse Love ran sixth in one of the fastest cars in the race. Love led 36 laps and was first off pit road after stops on Lap 120. But his team incurred a safety violation when a crew member fell over the wall on that stop, and Love restarted 32nd under penalty. A determined charge through the field earned the sixth-place finish.

Creed’s third-place run was not without incident. On Lap 148, a tap from Creed’s front bumper sent Taylor Gray’s Toyota rocketing into the Turn 3 wall and out of the race as the drivers were battling for second.

“I just got into him,” Creed said. “I was trying to pack some air. I didn’t know he was that close to the 17 (eighth-place finisher Corey Day). I could have cut him more of a break there, and I didn’t. That’s not the way I wanted to race him.”

Connor Zilisch ran seventh as the fourth JRM driver in the top seven. Day in eighth scored his fourth consecutive top 10 after leading nine laps before the Creed/Gray accident caused the eighth and final caution.

William Sawalich finished ninth, and Daytona winner Austin Hill ran 10th.

Allgaier led a race-high 48 laps to Larson’s 47, with the No. 7 JRM driver sweeping the first two stages to expand his series lead over Love to 13 points.

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next Saturday at the historic Darlington Raceway for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 (5:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Larson as the Las Vegas winner.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

LAS VEGAS — Shane van Gisbergen’s quick rise in the NASCAR Cup Series has been nothing short of cinematic.

He won his very first Cup start on the Chicago Street Course in 2023 out of nowhere and took NASCAR’s top level by storm with five wins in his first full-time season last year.

Maybe not a “Best Picture” nominee at the Academy Awards, but van Gisbergen has a tantalizing “It Follows” plot where he serves as the entity endlessly chasing the main cast of drivers until one day, he finally catches them. That day may come sooner rather than later, and drivers are on notice of how quickly the New Zealander is settling in on the circuit.

RELATED: Sunday’s Vegas lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

“Certainly the trend is continuing that he keeps getting better,” Hamlin said Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I think that’s what [Trackhouse Racing owner] Justin [Marks], the whole Trackhouse group was hoping for. While they know what he can do on the road courses, as he proved it in his first start, can he adapt to these [ovals], and elite, superior drivers find a way to adapt. And he’s one of those.”

There was little surprise that van Gisbergen struggled in his first few races on ovals.

In select Cup Series starts in 2024, the 36-year-old wheelman competed on tracks like Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Las Vegas, but mustered a best finish of 26th at Darlington in that stretch.

In his rookie 2025 season, he started slow with 31st, 34th and 32nd-place results at Phoenix, Las Vegas and Homestead, respectively, but broke through in the crown jewel Coca-Cola 600 with a solid 14th-place run.

The road-course dominance was predictable, and van Gisbergen kicked the field, winning five of the six races on such tracks. Then, the playoff stretch of tracks appeared, and it seemed as though van Gisbergen was starting to find his footing on NASCAR’s bread and butter.

He was 14th at Richmond Raceway and then nabbed his first intermediate top 10 at Kansas last September.

Through the first four races of 2026, which included two superspeedways, a road course and the unique 1-mile layout of Phoenix, van Gisbergen is fifth in points with two top 10s pocketed already.

Three-time Cup champion Logano said that van Gisbergen’s strong start is credited more toward the wild card events to begin 2026 rather than pure talent, but still had praise for the driver early in his stock-car career.

“He’s obviously had a pretty solid start,” Logano said. “The speedway races and obviously the road course, you expect him to be good. We’ve had one normal type race at Phoenix, and even with that, still, what was there, 12 cautions or something? It was a lot. I think it’s just we haven’t seen much normalcy yet. I think obviously it’s great he’s up there. I mean, he’s doing a good job. I’m not taking it away from that. I’m just saying we haven’t gotten into a flow yet. Still hard to look at points.”

Van Gisbergen was the cause of two of those cautions in Phoenix, spinning twice off Turn 4.

But the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet driver recovered from the adversity to place 11th and made 118 green flag passes, according to NASCAR’s Loop Data, which was seventh-best among the Cup field last weekend.

“I feel like we’ve been able to execute and get the most out of our situations, which is awesome,” van Gisbergen said of his results-saving efforts. “Like [EchoPark Speedway] was a yo-yo. The leaderboard for us, up and down. Pretty cool to do the same at Phoenix last week, but it would be nice to have a trouble-free day. It wasn’t really our doing last week with the tire and stuff. Hopefully, we can have more smooth sailing.”

The rapid growth for van Gisbergen could’ve stemmed from him experimenting at ovals last year with a playoff ticket intact for most of the regular season. However, that won’t be the case this year as NASCAR reverted back to The Chase postseason format, which is solely a battle for points week-to-week. So the balance of finding his groove versus having clean days has leaned more into doing what he can to score the most points in any given race.

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Sean Gardner | Getty Images

“Last year, I could afford to do that,” van Gisbergen said. “You’re locked in the playoffs, whereas now you need to get as many points as you can every week. So certainly the risk-reward ratio for me has changed a lot, so probably going to drive a little more conservative, but you still got to push it too. It’s a real fine line this year.”

2020 Cup Series champ Chase Elliott said he isn’t surprised to see what van Gisbergen has already accomplished at the Cup level, and that his trajectory comes from his swift adaptability in NASCAR rather than the few similarities between the current Generation 7 Cup car and van Gisbergen’s roots in Australia’s Supercars championship.

“I know that there’s been a lot of [comparisons] to his background and the similarities of this car change that we had to that, but I’m sure it’s still different,” Elliott said. “I’m sure there’s still things that he had to rely on, his natural feel inside the car, to help tune and make it better and make it what he wanted on the road-course side. When I look at how his oval stuff has improved, I’m not surprised. I think he’s really knowledgeable. I think he’s got a great feel for just natural balance behind the wheel, which I think is a really big deal.”

Christopher Bell, who won the pole for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), was more blunt on van Gisbergen and explained why the cream of the crop will continue to maintain the upper hand on the rising star.

“Fortunately for his competitors and unfortunately for him, the [weekend] format handicaps him tremendously,” Bell said. “If he would have done this years ago, where we had hours of practice and multiple sets of tires for practice, I think he would have been a lot further along. But the format that we race under today, with one set of tires for a 20-minute practice session, I think has taken him a little bit longer to develop the oval stuff. But he’s clearly getting the hang of it, and it’s not going to be long before he’s a factor on an oval.”

So is an oval win on the cards for van Gisbergen soon? For now, he doesn’t believe so.

“Man, I’m a long way from that,” van Gisbergen admitted. “I need luck to get that and I don’t want to win like that. I’m learning things and feel big improvements every week still, and know what’s going on now rather than just deer in headlights, but I know I’m still probably a little bit away from a win.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: 4 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FS1, HBO Max, FOX One, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Stages: 80 | 165 | 267
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit-stall assignments

Las Vegas sets tone for intermediates to come in 2026

LAS VEGAS — Chevrolet took a calculated gamble when it updated its body panels for this year. It’s only fitting that its first opportunity to hit the jackpot in 2026 comes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Vegas marks the first traditional 1.5-mile oval of the season, offering Ford and Toyota a relatively standard, rinse-and-repeat weekend, as little has changed on their cars at this style of track from 2025. But Chevrolet doesn’t have that same luxury — and its competition recognizes that.

“We haven’t been to a true high-speed, downforce-style track yet,” Toyota’s Christopher Bell said Saturday morning. “So I would think that the Chevrolets, this will be a really good test for them to see where they stack up with their new car. But aside from the rest of us, it’s going to be more of the same.”

Perhaps as expected, Saturday’s sessions produced a mixed bag of results for those sporting the bowtie. In single-lap speed, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the fastest Chevrolet — third-quickest in practice behind eventual front-row qualifiers Bell and Denny Hamlin — with William Byron (seventh), Kyle Larson (eighth) and Carson Hocevar (ninth) all sporting top-10 laps.

MORE: Schedule, TV info: Las Vegas

Of the 18 total drivers who posted runs of at least 20 consecutive laps, Byron was second-fastest in 20-lap averages only behind Toyota’s Ty Gibbs. But the notebook remains too thin for anyone to make any substantial conclusions.

After the season started with two drafting-style tracks, one road course and a flat 1-mile oval, Kyle Busch said this weekend provides a basis “of where you stack up against the field.”

“Your setup here at Vegas is not the same as Kansas or Texas or Charlotte or any of those (other intermediates),” said Busch, a Las Vegas native and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. “You’re pretty different at each one of these race tracks that you go to. So (we’re) trying to pinpoint what allows us to be quicker and what allows us to be further up the pylon to compete. That’s what we’ve got to work on here this weekend to get ourselves in tune with the rest of the year.”

Despite a fast lap in practice, Hocevar was dismayed by his car’s performance, posting just 16 laps in practice Saturday before a 19th-place qualifying effort.

“Car’s terrible,” Hocevar said after qualifying. “Just no grip. I’m sure we’ll fix it, but it wasn’t good.”

He believes a lack of notes contributed to his displeasure, but he said the simulator didn’t go much better in preparation for this weekend’s event. Still, he carries a tinge of optimism into Sunday’s race, knowing the team can make minor adjustments before the green flag.

“Mile-and-a-half (tracks) have been where we’ve been the best, and we’ve been really good here,” Hocevar said. “Felt like we (had) winning speed in the spring, not so much in the fall. There’s a lot of times I show up here, and I think we’re really good on Saturday and we’re not good on Sunday. So hopefully it’s reverse.”

Carson Hocevar climbs into his NASCAR Cup Series car at Las Vegas.
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media

In the details …

Kyle Larson is fresh from his first top-five finish of the young season, a hard-fought third after early handling woes at Phoenix Raceway. There’s reason to suggest another top five — or better — is in store at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he’s a three-time Cup Series winner. Larson has led laps in nine of the last 10 Vegas races, a level of consistency that places him among the 1.5-mile track’s all-time best:
DriverLaps led at LVMSNumber of LVMS starts
Kyle Larson81919
Kevin Harvick67929
Jimmie Johnson59523
Joey Logano58525
Matt Kenseth52619
Tony Stewart48217
Jeff Gordon45718
Denny Hamlin42128
Brad Keselowski36125
William Byron33716

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Las Vegas hub: Key information, links, results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Spotter’s guide to Vegas | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Horsepower boost, tires a solid Phoenix combo | Listen now
• Tire topics: Familiar Goodyear setup returns at Vegas | Read more
• ‘Full Speed’ on Prime: Relive the Daytona 500 with in-depth access | How to watch
• Power Rankings: Cup Series’ top 20 drivers after Phoenix | This week’s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Las Vegas | Watch now

Contributing: Zack Albert | NASCAR.com

Posted on by Staff Report

Christopher Bell will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Bell takes pole, JGR goes 1-2-3 | Las Vegas photos

Following the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver in the starting order will be two of his teammates in Denny Hamlin (No. 11) and Ty Gibbs (No. 54).

Josh Berry, in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, is the defending race winner. He will start the race in 32nd.

See the full lineup below.

The Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube is at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday (FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

PositionCarDriver
120Christopher Bell
211Denny Hamlin
354Ty Gibbs
423Bubba Wallace
55Kyle Larson
612Ryan Blaney
745Tyler Reddick
860Ryan Preece
924William Byron
1017Chris Buescher
113Austin Dillon
1238Zane Smith
137Daniel Suárez
1443Erik Jones
159Chase Elliott
1697Shane van Gisbergen
171Ross Chastain
1819Chase Briscoe
1977Carson Hocevar
2035Riley Herbst
2122Joey Logano
2248Justin Allgaier
2347Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
248Kyle Busch
2588Connor Zilisch
2642John Hunter Nemechek
2734Todd Gilliland
286Brad Keselowski
2916AJ Allmendinger
3071Michael McDowell
312Austin Cindric
3221Josh Berry
3351Cody Ware
344Noah Gragson
3541Cole Custer
3610Ty Dillon
Posted on by Staff Report

The first of nine traditional 1.5-mile races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule begins Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with the data projecting the usual intermediate aces to hold the winning cards.

Joe Gibbs Racing staked a claim during Saturday’s qualifying session, with Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs wheeling fast Toyotas en route to a 1-2-3 start in Sunday’s race. Despite this, Racing Insights has a Hendrick Motorsports driver — Kyle Larson — collecting the checkered flag. Five Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers (Larson, Bell, Hamlin, Byron, Elliott) are projected to finish inside the top 10, which, if the predictions ring true, will continue a stretch of dominance for both organizations on 1.5-mile tracks.

Here is how the rest of the field stacks up heading into Sunday’s race.

RELATED: Full starting lineup | Las Vegas preview

DRIVERS TO WATCH

RYAN PREECE: The No. 60 RFK Racing Ford looks to continue a strong start to 2026, with the metrics predicting a 10th-place result at Las Vegas. Preece’s 16.3 average finish through the first four races to begin the season is his best start to a campaign since 2021 (12.8), not to mention the 35-year-old Connecticut native has been on a bit of a roll at Las Vegas, finishing inside the top 10 in both races there in 2025, including a third-place result last March. Preece’s eighth-place start is his best beginning position so far in 2026 and his first career top-10 start at Las Vegas.

BUBBA WALLACE: If there is an organization best equipped to overtake the Joe Gibbs-Hendrick Motorsports brigade in Las Vegas, it could be 23XI Racing. Look no further than Wallace and the No. 23 camp; while the team is projected to finish 12th at Las Vegas, there is positive momentum going for them. Wallace’s 8.8 average finish to begin 2026 is his best career start to a season, and while his last six races on 1.5-mile tracks have yielded mixed results (two top fives, four finishes of 22nd or worse), you can’t discount playing the hot hand. Wallace will start fourth, his best career start in Sin City.

AUSTIN DILLON: The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing driver will start just outside the top 10 on Sunday (11th), and while the metrics project a finish outside the top 20 (22nd), it is entirely possible this fortune can be reversed for the better. Las Vegas is the only 1.5-mile track where Dillon has multiple top-five finishes in Cup.

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR 2026 PENNZOIL 400 PRESENTED BY JIFFY LUBE (4 P.M. ET, FS1)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
15Kyle Larson
220Christopher Bell
311Denny Hamlin
424William Byron
545Tyler Reddick
622Joey Logano
79Chase Elliott
817Chris Buescher
912Ryan Blaney
1060Ryan Preece
111Ross Chastain
1223Bubba Wallace
1354Ty Gibbs
147Daniel Suárez
1519Chase Briscoe
166Brad Keselowski
178Kyle Busch
1871Michael McDowell
1916AJ Allmendinger
2077Carson Hocevar
2138Zane Smith
223Austin Dillon
2343Erik Jones
2421Josh Berry
2548Justin Allgaier
2688Connor Zilisch
274Noah Gragson
2847Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2942John Hunter Nemechek
3035Riley Herbst
3197Shane van Gisbergen
322Austin Cindric
3334Todd Gilliland
3441Cole Custer
3510Ty Dillon
3651Cody Ware
Posted on by Reid Spencer

LAS VEGAS — Kyle Busch expects to use Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a barometer for intermediate tracks later in the 2026 schedule, but the fit won’t be precise.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Las Vegas

“Yeah, just to kind of get a basis, I guess, of where you stack up against the field,” Busch said of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “Your setup here at Vegas is not the same as Kansas, Texas, Charlotte or any of those.

“You’re pretty different at each one of these race tracks that you go to, so trying to pinpoint what allows us to be quicker and what allows us to be further up the pylon to compete — that’s what we’ve got to work on here this weekend to get ourselves in tune with the rest of the year.”

Busch showed excellent speed at Las Vegas in last year’s spring event, before his race fell apart.

“Last year here, this race was really good for us,” said Busch, whose winless streak at Richard Childress Racing has reached 97 races as he comes to his home track. “I thought we had really good speed. I think we qualified in the top 10 (fourth in fact). We were running fourth. We had a bad pit stop, and then we had a loose wheel, lost a tire, all that sort of stuff.

“So it just kind of derailed after the first time we hit pit road. Can’t have all that happen. Hopefully, we can have some of the same speed that we had here and go from there.”