Throughout the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Advance Auto Parts is spotlighting a series of Home Track Heroes from NASCAR-sanctioned short tracks around the country. Each Home Track Hero, nominated by his or her peers as a result of contributions made to the race track, will have his or her name appear on the C-Post of Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang in a Cup Series Playoff race. Erika Bills, the Pit Boss at Alaska Raceway Park, is the Home Track Hero whose name will appear on Blaney’s car during the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Those at Alaska Raceway Park have a simple word to describe Erika Bills: “Invaluable.”
A banker by trade, Bills serves as the NASCAR Home Track’s Pit Boss, working mostly in concessions and sales. But, more or less, she does it all.
Bills keeps Alaska Raceway Park’s pits in order, assisting new drivers, training other track officials and assisting wherever else needed. She even trains other employees across the state of Alaska.
Bills handles sales during Alaska Raceway Park’s offseason, and on the drag strip side, she recently took over concessions management. Perhaps her most important role at the track, though, is her ability to serve as a mentor and coach to Alaska Raceway Park’s young drivers.
A former Legend Car driver herself, Bills is the perfect role model for kids who look to race in Alaska.
Bills is not only a Home Track Hero at Alaska Raceway Park; she’s a hero in the community.
She helps with seemingly everything, from the Food Bank, delivering meals to the youth during the summer, to volunteering with the local baseball league and assisting with the Special Olympics.
She’s famous for her peanut butter balls, many of which she donates for fundraisers.
Kyle Larson turned his first official laps in an Indy car on Thursday, passing his Rookie Orientation Program (ROP) test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and checking off the first requirement for his 2024 Indianapolis 500 bid.
Larson drove a No. 6 Arrow McLaren/Hendrick Motorsports entry on the 2.5-mile oval, successfully completing the three phases of his rookie test — 10 laps between 205-210 mph, 15 laps at 210-215 mph and 15 laps faster than 215 mph. The 31-year-old driver, a 22-time winner as a regular and former champion in the NASCAR Cup Series, will attempt to qualify for his first Indy 500 start next May.
Larson’s best lap speed in the final session was recorded at 217.898 mph, and his best clocking through the speed traps at the end of both straightaways was 221.187 mph.
“Building up to that speed and pace and confidence was nice to do in ROP, but yeah, just getting to feel what an Indy car feels like, being low to the ground, feel the acceleration through the gears was pretty crazy,” Larson said. “All of that was eye-opening and an experience that I know for sure I’ll never forget, and now I look forward to kind of getting around cars and feel how the dirty air affects things.”
Larson is set to become the fifth driver to attempt the Memorial Day Weekend double on May 26, 2024, aiming to compete in the Indianapolis 500 before traveling to Charlotte for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. The designs of the cars and “Hendrick 1100” branding for Larson’s two-race effort were unveiled at the Indianapolis track on Aug. 13, seven months after the Indy 500 bid was confirmed.
A full delegation of Hendrick Motorsports dignitaries made the trip, including team owner Rick Hendrick, vice chairman Jeff Gordon and team president and general manager Jeff Andrews. For Gordon, the visit was partly a reconnection to his Indiana roots and the site of some of his biggest stock-car successes – with the inaugural Brickyard 400 triumph counted among his five IMS wins.
The track’s historic significance was one focal point, but the task of getting Larson up to pace was the primary thrust.
“On the other hand is just Kyle, watching him in his craft and his element,” Gordon said. “I could tell he was a little bit nervous. Heck, my palms were sweating before he got out on track myself, but then immediately you just see it click when he made those first few laps, and he just went into Kyle Larson mode of, ‘all right, now how do I get up to speed and go fast.’ … He doesn’t want to just come here and compete. He wants to come here and compete competitively.”
The moment also held a surreal feel for Hendrick, who stood alongside Larson for the reveal of the liveries back in August.
“It didn’t really hit me until I saw him,” Hendrick said. “We had the car here when we had the unveiling, but when you hear it and see it come by, and he’s in it, that’s when it really … it was goosebumps. It was goosebumps, it was pride, happy for him because it’s a bucket list for him and probably Jeff and I, too. But just to hear it, see it and watch the speed when it came then, that brought it all to life.”
The test was conducted under the watch of IndyCar officials but also Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan, who hoisted the Indy 500 trophy in 2013. Larson’s next on-track steps at the Speedway will come in an Indy 500 open test next April. Kanaan said that so far, Larson’s talent has made his coaching and consulting role an easier job.
“I don’t think Kyle Larson needs evaluation as an IndyCar driver,” said Kanaan, an IndyCar champion in 2004. “He’s a complete race car driver. It’s probably, out of his generation, the best I’ve seen. I’ve tasted a little bit what these guys do, like he does trying different cars lately, and I know how much I struggle, and he wins in everything. … He’s just one of the best race car drivers in the world right now, and I’m very fortunate to actually get the chance to work with him.”
As for Larson’s next steps on the NASCAR side, his quest for a second Cup Series championship continues this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Sunday’s South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). The race is the opener for the postseason’s Round of 8.
At first blush, the transition from an Indy car at Indianapolis to a full-bodied stock car at Las Vegas might seem like a tight and potentially jarring turnaround. But Gordon brushed off the suggestion that rookie testing at Indy might stretch the team thin, noting Larson’s penchant for extracurricular racing of all types of vehicles – including a drive to a championship two days ago in the High Limit Sprint Car Series at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana.
“For Kyle, I mean, that guy’s off racing all the time. He’s all over the place,” Gordon said. “So the team is well prepared. He and Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) have been prepping and planning for this weekend, and they’re very well prepared for this next round. Feel very good about this next round. It was this last round that was the nerve-wracking one, and we saw it all the way down to the final lap at the Roval.
“So from our standpoint, we’re fortunate to have enough great people and depth at our organization to be able to prepare for what’s ahead and really make sure that’s the priority, and the focus for the company is to go win a championship this year, get through this next playoff round and go to Phoenix, but also be up here and be able to enjoy a day like today.”
For most drivers, a 21.3 average finish through six playoff races would mean that their title hopes ended in the Round of 16 or last Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Not the case for Martin Truex Jr.
The 2023 Cup Series Regular Season Champion scrapped and clawed through the opening rounds of the postseason. Survive and advance is rarely a superlative slung at someone who performed the best out of anyone through the first 26 races of the year, but when you look at the numbers, it’s stunning that Truex is one of eight drivers eligible to hoist the Bill France Trophy at Phoenix.
Off the bat, Truex didn’t record a single top-five or top-10 result in the first two rounds. His best finish in the postseason so far is a 17th-place effort to open the Round of 12 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Looking deeper into Truex’s current slump, he ranked 17th in points scored among all Cup drivers during the Round of 12, below Brad Keselowski, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace, who were all eliminated in the round. Truex currently ranks 24th in total points scored in the playoffs and is averaging 17.7 points per race in the playoffs after averaging 34 points during the regular season. (Stats provided by Racing Insights.)
The most jarring numbers show just how much of an outlier this performance has been for the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Truex has finished outside the top 15 in the last seven races, which is his worst streak since 2009 — his fourth full-time Cup season. Given how his outings have been, it’s no surprise Truex is just the first driver to advance to the Round of 8 despite not having a top 10 through the first two rounds.
One could make the argument that Truex benefitted off the mistakes of his fellow competitors, and there’s a case to be made for that.
It seemed as though the writing was on the wall for Truex after crashing in the opening laps at Kansas put him below the elimination line heading into the Bristol Night Race. While not having the best of races himself with a 19th-place showing, Kevin Harvick finished 29th and 2022 Cup champion Joey Logano crashed out, allowing Truex to overtake Logano to put him through to the Round of 12.
Texas and Talladega were Truex’s ticket to the Round of 8. Kyle Busch wrecked out at Texas in the closing laps of Stage 1, and Ross Chastain wrecked at a near-identical point of the race at Talladega after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun entering Turn 3.
Despite capitalizing on the downfall of others, Truex’s strong regular season is more the reason why he’s currently on a never-before-seen playoff run — never before has being the Regular Season Champion been so valuable and important to a playoff run.
What also flies under the radar is Truex Jr.’s ability to finish races. It’s not always the top 10s, top fives and wins that get the job done.
During the regular season, Truex failed to finish only once after getting involved in a late-race crash at Darlington in the spring. On the other hand, Kyle Busch — who also has won three races — DNF’d on five different occasions (Daytona 500, Bristol Dirt, Kansas spring, New Hampshire, Michigan).
The DNFs and stage points were the biggest difference as to why Truex’s title hopes are still alive and why Busch was eliminated at the Roval.
With Truex still in the hunt, he’s arguably still among the favorites to win his second championship despite the woes — he has, after all, won at all four tracks remaining on the Cup Series calendar in Las Vegas, Homestead, Martinsville and Phoenix.
At Las Vegas specifically, Truex has finished inside the top 10 in the last six races at the Nevada oval, and is the only driver to finish top 10 in all three races there in the Next Gen car.
Truex can only go up after how he’s fared in the playoffs so far, but no better time to start the turnaround than at Sunday’s race in Vegas (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
He’s made it this far on the strength of his regular-season title. If he finds himself back on the right side of results this weekend, the championship still looms for the No. 19 team.
Last year’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a wild one that saw half of the playoff drivers at the time finish outside the top 10 while the other half finished inside the top five. If drivers want their shot at the title at Phoenix in three weeks, they will need to perform well in the high desert.
Before the green flag drops for Sunday’s South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), see how the race is trending for drivers still vying for the Bill France Trophy, trends to watch, Goodyear tire info and interactive ways to follow all the weekend’s action.
It’s no exaggeration to say that the Round of 8 field is trending to dominate Sunday at Las Vegas. The door is open for any one of the eight remaining title-eligible competitors to punch their ticket to a Championship 4 berth as Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway offer more challenges and have been dominated by only a handful of drivers in recent years.
Reverting to the spring race at Las Vegas, the lowest finish by a current playoff driver was Chris Buescher in 21st. Everyone else finished inside the top 15 with half of the Round of 8 scoring top-10 results.
Vegas will pay the points to most of the playoff drivers on Sunday, and teams are going to need to hit their setups perfectly right off the hauler in practice and qualifying to find any advantage they can entering the race.
Goodyear will run the same tire setup at Las Vegas that was introduced in last year’s playoff race. Teams will be allotted one set of tires for practice, one set for qualifying, and an additional eight sets for Sunday’s race.
Along the right-side door bars and extending toward the rear clip, teams are mandated to run a steel plate in addition to the chassis adjustments made for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The right-side door bar gussets and the removal of the front clip V-brace are changes that remain, in addition to the removal of other front-clip components, to create a softer and larger crush zone for frontal impacts.
Also included in the updates are front-bumper strut softening (modifications to existing parts), the requirement of an empty front ballast box, and a modified cross brace. NASCAR incurs the cost of all these updates.
In the event of a lost wheel that is contained to pit road, the offending team will be subject to a pass-through penalty under green-flag conditions. If the infraction occurs during a caution period, the offending team will restart at the tail end of the field.
If the wheel breaks free outside of pit road, the new rules guidelines mandate a two-lap penalty plus a two-race suspension for two crew members. Each penalty is series-specific: Violations in one series will not impact those crew members’ eligibility to participate in other series.
Fans can get in on the action all season long with NASCAR Fan Rewards, a free program that rewards fans for participating in the action when they watch races and play NASCAR Fantasy.
There’s no cost to join. Fans must be 18 years or older to participate in the program.
Earn points by checking into a race from home or at the track, setting your Fantasy Live lineup, making purchases on the NASCAR.com shop, and more. Points can be redeemed for race tickets, merchandise, and VIP experiences at the track, including pace car rides and waving the green flag at qualifying.
NASCAR Mobile has now added support for fans to “Follow the Race” and access live leaderboard and race information from Live Activities in the current app release (v13.2.0), available now. Android users, we didn’t forget you — the same functionality has been custom-built for Android devices, as well.
How to access Live Activities on iPhones:
Make sure your iOS device has been updated to 16.1 or higher.
Available on the leaderboard of all NASCAR Series races.
Click on the three-dot menu near the top right of the screen.
Select “Follow the Race.”
Swipe up to access the home screen, and you will see the Live Activities at the top.
Lock the device, and you will see Live Activities on the Lock Screen.
To turn it off, simply visit the leaderboard, click the three-dot menu, and “Unfollow the Race.”
FANTASY LIVE 🏆
Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which resets for the playoffs. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts by garaging a driver by the end of Stage 2, and there is a $10,000 prize for the winner.
During the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, fans have the opportunity to compete in The Playoffs Grid™ Challenge presented by Ruoff Mortage. Fans can enter by visiting The Playoffs Grid™ Challenge page and registering for a free NASCAR.com account before filling out a bracket. From there, choose from a list of playoff-eligible drivers round by round, and you’re on your way to compete for prizes!
Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week, a select number of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.
NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement to the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter, and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.
During NASCAR race weekends, shows cars are common sites at gas stations, home improvement stores and fast-food restaurants. The displays provide fans opportunities to take close looks at the machines wheeled by their favorite drivers.
In some cases, they serve as inspiration.
For Vicente Salas, a 21-year-old from Temecula, California, a chance encounter with a show car at his local Home Depot as a child helped set him on his path in motorsports.
“Racing has absolutely always been my dream,” Salas said. “Really the day it came to me and I figured that out was we went to Home Depot. My dad would always take me with him to run his errands. Tony Stewart’s No. 20 Home Depot car was sitting outside. We asked the guy if I could sit in it, and he was like, ‘You know, we normally don’t do this, but sure, go ahead.’
“The moment I got to sit down in that car and the wheel was put on, I just knew that this is what I wanted to do.”
Salas was just 3 when he sat in that car, but the moment became a core memory and created the foundation for what has quickly become a budding career.
Motorsports is not something that has always been a part of Salas’ family heritage, which has roots in Mexico and Latin America. Salas is the third generation of family to be born in the United States after they immigrated to the country and settled in Southern California.
“My mom’s side is from Europe, but it’s my dad’s side that is from Mexico and Latin America,” Salas explained. “I’m the third full generation to be here in the U.S. They actually had a big ranch down in León, Mexico, and basically it got taken from them during the drug wars down there. It forced them to move up here. They made a life up here, and now we’ve all settled here.”
Salas is the first member of his family to race stock cars, but he’s not the first to be part of the motorsports community. His father Don spent a little more than a decade as a motorsports photographer and even did a bit of motocross racing. Both helped fuel his son’s passion for the sport.
Vicente Salas (55) during a Late Model Stock Car event at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway earlier this year. (Photo: Gardner Street Photography/Hickory Motor Speedway)
Salas spent almost a decade of his childhood trying to convince his family to take his motorsports obsession seriously.
“It was kind of one of those things where some kids are like, ‘I want to be a football player or I want to be an astronaut,’” Salas said. “I think that’s kind of what they thought of me and how I wanted to drive. From the age of 3 or 4 all the way until I was 14 or 15, I would ask them constantly, ‘Can I go race? Can I get a go-kart? Can I get a bando? Can I get a Legend car?’
“I was just trying to find things to do that I could drive.”
When Salas was around 11, his father began taking him to local karting tracks in California, which helped scratch the racing itch. Eventually even that wasn’t enough, and Salas began begging his parents to let him race in a professional event.
As luck would have it, Salas’ best friend in high school ended up being the one to make the connection that would change the rest of his life.
“[He] met an incredible go-kart team,” Salas said. ‘He was like, ‘I’m going to go drive these go-karts at Auto Club Speedway.’ I was like whoa, that sounds really, really cool. So one day I went out there, and I got to test a shifter kart, and from there on it was kind of on.
“My parents, once they saw me on the race track on more of a competitive platform, they were like, ‘OK, now we understand. He really wants to do this.’”
Salas was 15 when he started racing shifter karts, much older than most start-up racers in the modern era. By his third season racing karts, he was competing nationally. His family quickly realized he needed to make the jump from karts to full-sized stock cars.
At nearly the same time, Salas began making inroads on the digital level by attempting to qualify for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series. During the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, Salas worked toward earning a spot in the series in 2021.
“That’s when I raced for Elliott Sadler. He helped me a ton,” Salas said about the 2020 iRacing season. “He was an awesome mentor. That was such a good time of learning.”
Salas successfully qualified for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series in 2021 and stunned his competitors early in the year by leading every lap and winning at Richmond Raceway as a rookie.
That win, Salas said, put him on the map as an iRacer and helped him secure opportunities to test and later race a Pro Late Model with the CARS Tour in 2022.
“That win at Richmond in 2021 I think is what really helped open the doors for the late model opportunities I had later that year and to race the next year,” Salas said. “My first race was pretty much from a shifter kart to a Pro Late Model with the CARS Tour in 2022.”
Salas, driving for noted team owner Donnie Wilson, made his Pro Late Model debut at Hickory Motor Speedway on March 26, 2022 with the CARS Tour. He qualified third and finished fourth that day in a field that included the two drivers that battled for the ARCA Menards Series East championship this year, William Sawalich and Luke Fenhaus.
In fact, Sawalich and Fenhaus were two of the three drivers who beat Salas that day. The other was Caden Kvapil, son of 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil.
Vicente Salas poses in Victory Lane following his first victory at Hickory Motor Speedway earlier this year. (Photo: Gardner Street Photography/Hickory Motor Speedway)
After getting his first taste of racing a stock car, Salas knew he wanted more. This season he was able to secure enough funding to race a Late Model Stock Car regularly for team owner Justin Carroll at Hickory Motor Speedway, where he earned his first victory with a daring, last-lap pass on March 25.
He also continued to compete in the eNASCAR series for Williams eSports.
“That victory meant a lot, because it was another one of those solidifying moments for not just me and the people around us, but especially for my family,” Salas said. “This is all that I’ve wanted to do. We worked very, very hard to make the Late Model opportunity happen and get me out here. It wasn’t just me by any means.
“That [win] honestly was just a dream come true.”
Salas’ goal is to race in the NASCAR Cup Series, and he’s already in the process of planning for what he is hoping will be a busy 2024 season.
While he isn’t yet sure what his schedule will look like, Salas is hopeful he’ll not only be able to take the next step in his racing career, but also continue to set an example for others.
“I’ve had a lot of kids come up to me and ask me how does this happen or how to do this,” Salas said. “It was cool to show them absolutely anything is possible regardless of who you are or where you come from or what your background is.
“If you work hard, you’re dedicated and you know what you want, you can make it happen.”
While Christopher Bell will look to prime his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to his second consecutive Championship 4 berth, the 28-year-old additionally acknowledged how aware he will need to be when it comes to Daniel Suárez.
During Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, Bell and Suárez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet made contact several times throughout the race, including on a Stage 2 restart. The final incident came during the final stage with less than 15 to go, where Bell clipped Suárez’s left-rear quarter panel and caused the No. 99 to spin out. Bell went on to claim a 15th-place result, while Suárez finished 33rd.
“Certainly, I didn’t mean to get into him [Suárez], and you know, he and I have had run-ins in the past, so that’s the last guy I wanted to get into and have a problem with moving forward,” Bell said during a virtual teleconference with the media on Wednesday. “I reached out to him and told him that it wasn’t intentional, but I’m sure he’s going to be coming after me, which is not ideal going into the next four races, but it’s a mistake, and I’ll have to keep that in the back of my head moving forward.”
Bell, a NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs driver, currently sits below the elimination line (-8) as the Round of 8 begins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. In addition to racing playoff competitors on the track, Bell mentioned how he would need to be cognizant of Suárez, should they both be in each other’s vicinity.
“I think it really just depends on where we’re at on track. If we’re not around each other, then it’s something that is pretty easy to put away, but I just have to be smart whenever it comes time to whenever I’m around him,” Bell said. “Certainly give him as much room as possible, and it is what it is. It was not a smart move on my behalf to … It was a mistake. It wasn’t like that was a move I was trying to do, but I should’ve been more mindful of the position I was in and where we were at in that race. Not ideal, I’ll just have to pay attention moving forward and do the best I can.”
Next season, the NASCAR Cup Series will kick off the 2024 calendar with the third consecutive Busch Light Clash inside the famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
To add even more pizazz to the spectacle, the NASCAR Mexico Series will host a race on the same day as the heat races and main event for the Clash. While the 2023 season still rolls on in the midst of the playoffs, Cup drivers are already looking forward to sharing the stage with an international series.
“I think that’s a massive platform for those guys, and I think it’s really, really cool to showcase for them, but also for the fans that come out to the track,” 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace said. “So all around, that’s a good weekend for us. Excited to see how it all unfolds.”
Before going full-time in the Cup Series in 2018, Wallace drove for Rev Racing, a developmental team for drivers at the regional level and in the ARCA Menards Series and Craftsman Truck Series.
Rev has also been a landing spot for a handful of drivers from the Mexico Series, such as Daniel Suárez and, currently, Andrés Pérez de Lara.
Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has an alliance with Rev Racing through his Kyle Busch Motorsports team, currently in its final season in the Truck Series before handing the reins over to Spire Motorsports following a sale. Not only is he looking forward to spotlighting the series, but Busch also noted his familiarity with the talent that continues to rise up the ranks from the Mexico Series.
“I think that’s cool. I think we had a little bit of that crossover a couple years ago at Phoenix; they were there,” Busch said. “Other than that, yeah, we haven’t seen much of the Mexico Series. I know Daniel Suárez spent a lot of time there in that series, and there’s a few other drivers that are coming up through the ranks that have been in that series. One of those guys at Rev Racing with Max Siegel’s team in the ARCA Series and also Max Gutierrez is another one that’s there, so yeah, there’s some notable names that I’ve heard come through there, so it’d be nice to get them some more recognition on a bigger stage.”
Before hoisting the 2016 Xfinity title and becoming a Cup Series winner in 2022, Suárez was a 10-time winner in the Mexico Series between 2012-2014, with three of those victories coming at Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, which played host to the Xfinity Series from 2005-2008.
Busch won at Mexico in 2008, while two other current Cup playoff drivers — Martin Truex Jr. (2005) and Denny Hamlin (2006) — also nabbed victories at the road course.
RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski also competed in two of those Xfinity Series races, scoring an eighth-place finish in 2008. He emphasized the importance of change within NASCAR and bringing new ideas to the table.
“It’s different, and I appreciate the efforts that the sport is making to keep things fresh, but not just the schedule,” Keselowski said. “I think there’s always limits to what’s too far and what’s not too far. Sometimes, you don’t find those out until you live them, but that seems like a very reasonable thing to try.”
The Mexico Series event at the Clash will consist of 20 drivers. Pérez de Lara, Rubén García Jr., Salvador de Alba, Germán Quiroga, Max Gutiérrez, Alex De Alba (Challenge Series) and Ruben Rovelo (Championship Provisional 1) are among those who have already secured their spot in the race. Two of the guaranteed spots will be determined by a fan vote and a guest driver, who will be announced at a later date.
Kyle Larson said he will be paying attention to the event and stressed the importance of showing the fans the different brands of NASCAR that aren’t just the national series, which include the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, Pinty’s Series (Canada), and Brasil Sprint Race that debuted this year.
“I obviously think it’s really good for the sport to show the diversity of the brand of NASCAR,” Larson said. “I also think it’s good for those drivers to showcase their brands and talents as well because I couldn’t name you a single driver from that series right now.
“We can tell when drivers have talent, and so can team owners. I think there’s a good opportunity for drivers to showcase their abilities, and who knows, it might propel them on down the road a little bit better, so I think it’s great, and it should be a good show.”
Kyle Larson is scheduled to make the first on-track step toward his 2024 Indianapolis 500 bid on Thursday, participating in Rookie Orientation Program testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, is set to test the Arrow McLaren/Hendrick Motorsports IndyCar entry for the first time from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET on the 2.5-mile track. The test, a requirement for entry, will involve three controlled sessions with progressively higher speeds at each phase — 10 laps between 205-210 mph, 15 laps at 210-215 mph and 15 laps faster than 215 mph.
Rookie orientation marks a preliminary checklist item for Larson’s aspirations of competing in two crown-jewel races on May 26, 2024. The project — dubbed the “Hendrick 1100” by the team — is set to include 500 miles in the Indianapolis classic before he travels to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race.
Larson is attempting to become the fifth driver to compete in both Memorial Day races. He was preceded in the endeavor by John Andretti, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and most recently, Kurt Busch in 2014.
Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick, vice chairman Jeff Gordon, and Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan — the 2013 Indy 500 winner — are scheduled to attend Larson’s test.
Carson Hocevar will move to the NASCAR Cup Series full time in 2024, becoming the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet with a multiyear deal, the team announced Tuesday on FS1’s “NASCAR Race Hub.”
The 20-year-old Michigan native branched into the Cup Series this year, registering an average finish of 22.5 in six starts — one for Spire Motorsports at World Wide Technology Raceway and five in the No. 42 Chevrolet for Legacy Motor Club, netting a best finish of 11th at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“I mean, anybody in my position wants to be a Cup Series driver,” Hocevar said in a statement. “That’s what you dream about when you’re young. You want to race on Sundays. So, my opportunity to run a few times this year, to run on Sunday and get ready, I feel more than prepared to get in the No. 77 car with Spire.”
Hocevar is currently competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs as the third-year driver of Niece Motorsports’ No. 42 Chevrolet. The first of his three career wins came in April 2023 at Texas Motor Speedway, his breakthrough after four previous runner-up finishes.
His success in his full-time job continued through the regular season, and he scored wins at Nashville Superspeedway and Richmond Raceway before the postseason began. While he has yet to win through four playoff races this year, Hocevar has netted nine top-five finishes in his last 13 races, including a second-place finish in August at the Milwaukee Mile.
As a part-time driver in Cup, Hocevar has impressed in the No. 42 Chevrolet for Legacy Motor Club with four top 20s in five starts, the only exception coming at Talladega Superspeedway where he was involved in a late crash. The No. 42 car — piloted by Noah Gragson, Josh Berry and Mike Rockenfeller at various times — collected just three top-20 finishes this year in 26 races before Hocevar’s arrival.
“Carson Hocevar is a proven winner and excels with every opportunity,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said. “He’s an undeniable talent and reminds me a lot of a young Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski. We’re thrilled to have him join the Spire Motorsports family and help us continue to raise our competitive bar. Carson has driven the wheels off everything he’s ever raced and done more with less on multiple occasions. He has a knack for getting the most out of his equipment and that speaks directly to his desire behind the wheel. His attitude is infectious and he’s the kind of guy who’s just fun to be around. We think he’ll complement Corey and Zane very well.”
Hocevar correlates his on-track success to his extensive off-track work as a simulation driver for Chevrolet teams as the Next Gen vehicle entered Cup Series competition — his services utilized by Hendrick Motorsports and Trackhouse Racing ahead of his arrival at Legacy Motor Club.
“It’s similar to the truck,” Hocevar said Sept. 9 at Kansas Speedway. “That helps, but it’s more (that) I just have a lot of sim time in this thing. I started sim when the car was first introduced and I’ve been driving sim since, so I’ve seen how these cars build and develop and I bring a little bit of knowledge of what a real winning car should feel like.
“And when I ran Spire, they gave me the full access to rebuild that car and Legacy has given me the same thing. So I don’t want to toot my own horn — I’m not smart or anything and know the springs and shocks and all the everything — but I know what it’s supposed to feel like and I feel like for me to come in and elevate programs and help, it is more rewarding than just driving.”
Hocevar becomes teammates at Spire Motorsports with Corey LaJoie, who earlier this year signed a multiyear extension to remain driver of the team’s No. 7 Chevrolet.
“Corey and I have a great relationship,” Hocevar said. “Obviously, that’s going to exponentially grow when we spend day-to-day and week-on-week together, talking in the same meetings, working with the same people and same group, trying to pull the rope in the same direction. We’ve already started. He seems to have a lot of interest in what I’m doing, what my cars are driving like, and vice versa. We’ve started to compare driving notes a little bit. We talk about what each other is doing. I’m sure we’ll constantly be making ourselves go faster. There’s not a race within the shop, but we’ll work to make each other better.”
After Rockenfeller wheeled the car at the Charlotte road course, Hocevar will drive the No. 42 Chevrolet in each of the remaining four races of 2023, beginning on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs complete, the series moves west to the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s penultimate round opener, the South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A win in this round is a ticket to race for the 2023 championship.
A pair of former champions — Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. — a highly motivated veteran in Denny Hamlin and five fast next-generation stars in six-race winner William Byron, Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney bring in this next three-race round of competition to determine which four drivers will vie for the title Nov. 5 at Phoenix Raceway.
The Las Vegas oval has played host to five previous playoff races, with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin (2021) and Truex (2019) the only two current playoff contenders to hoist a trophy. Truex’s two Vegas wins (also spring 2017) make him the only multi-race winner among the eight.
Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and the current championship leader, won at Las Vegas this spring — leading a dominating 176 of the 271 laps but having to beat his teammate Larson in a wild overtime thriller. Larson (2021) is the only other playoff driver with a NASCAR Cup Series win at the track.
Reddick (2019) and Larson (2018) have Xfinity Series Vegas victories. And Reddick won the 2016 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race there, too.
It all sets up a compelling start to this playoff round. With the points reset, Byron goes into this stretch, including races at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway and the half-mile Martinsville Speedway — with a five-point edge on the Regular Season Champion Truex.
The 40-year-old Hamlin is only nine points behind the 23-year-old Byron, and Larson is 17 points back in what would be the fourth and final cut-off position for the Championship Race in Phoenix.
Chasing them is RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, the three-race winner is only three points below Larson at the cutoff line. JGR’s Bell and 23XI Racing’s Reddick are tied, eight points back, and Team Penske’s Blaney is only 10 points below the transfer line, making this an extremely tight competition in this all-important playoff round.
Certainly, the 25-year-old Byron’s work this season — including those series-best, career-high six wins — has made him a favorite this weekend. He rallied to a runner-up finish at the Charlotte road course in last week’s second-round elimination race despite being under the weather — wrapping up a three-race round that included a win and a pair of second places. He heads west with a lot of well-deserved optimism with a pair of top-five finishes in the last three Las Vegas races.
“We’ve got to keep it rolling,” Byron said. “I’d like to do one-two-two in the next round. That would be ideal, but keep performing where we want to be.”
The two-time Vegas winner, Truex, has 14 top-10 finishes in 23 races — 11 of those top 10s have come in the last 12 races, making him a strong trophy pick this weekend. Hamlin has a similar record with top-10 finishes in nearly half (11) of his 23 starts and has only finished worse than 11th place once in the last six races at Las Vegas.
Larson is another good bet in Vegas with an amazing 10 top-10 finishes in 14 starts — a 71 percent showing — placing outside the top-10 only twice since 2017; the last time came in the 2022 Playoff race.
Four times in the last ten races, overtime has been necessary to decide the Las Vegas trophy, twice in the playoff race (2020 and 2018). Only three times in that 10-race span has the driver who led the most laps gone on to celebrate the win.
A victory this weekend is more than a really cool trophy; it’s a ticket to race for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship and a crucial head-start on preparation for that. In the last two seasons, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano won Las Vegas Playoff races and then went on to win the championship.
“It’s huge,” said Blaney, who has eight top-10 finishes there in 14 starts. “Just having that prep time for two weeks with nothing else on your mind. … It’s a huge advantage.
“Obviously, everyone is gunning to do it and try to win that one and move on, but it was massive for our group (Team Penske) last year, and it would be the same big advantage for any group if a Playoff car were to win next week at Vegas.
“I think Vegas has been a good place for us in the past,” Blaney added. “I feel like it’s been one of our best tracks as an organization. It’s something that whatever we do in general as a group kind of works for that place, and hopefully that applies this year.”
