The good and the challenging from a busy weekend of racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
CHECKERED FLAGS
Denny Hamlin
He started out a round of the playoffs with a win for the second time in 2021. Hamlin led seven times for 137 laps to take the checkered flag in the South Point 400 and advance to the third round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Joe Gibbs Racing
Hamlin led the way for JGR in Vegas and when the checkered flag flew he had teammates Kyle Busch (third) and Martin Truex Jr. (fourth) helping the organization take three of the top five positions.
Tyler Reddick
He may have been eliminated from the playoff picture after the opening round, but Reddick isn’t going out this season with a whimper. The Richard Childress Racing driver was very competitive on Sunday and ended up with a sixth-place finish.
Josh Berry
The amazing story for the 30-year-old Berry continued Saturday as he filled in for the injured Michael Annett to pilot the JR Motorsports Chevrolet to Berry’s second career Xfinity Series victory.
Christian Eckes
The young driver grabbed his first career Camping World Truck Series victory Friday night and led his ThorSport Racing team to a sweep of the first four finishing positions.
BLACK FLAGS
Hendrick Motorsports
A pit strategy miscalculation in the second stage came back to bite the entire Hendrick stable for the most part. Kyle Larson, who led 95 laps and was very strong early on, was not able to get back into contention while Chase Elliott did rally back to finish second.
Kevin Harvick
His weekend started with a continued war of words with Chase Elliott after their Bristol dust-up a week ago. It ended with a challenging race that saw Harvick finish ninth. But he lost his crew chief Rodney Childers for this week’s Talladega race thanks to a pair of missing lug nuts in post-race inspection.
Jeremy Clements
A tough start to the playoffs for Clements who raced his way into the Xfinity Series grid only to have the first race of the post-season end early in a Lap 13 accident.
Sheldon Creed
The second round of the Camping World Truck Series Playoffs didn’t start as well for Creed as the opening round did. The GMS Racing driver was knocked out of Friday night’s race early after just nine laps when he was caught in a multi-truck crash.
John Hunter Nemechek
A sour night for Nemechek, who was hoping to replicate his early LVMS Truck Series success. That did not happen and the Kyle Busch Motorsports driver exited Vegas with a 33rd-place finish.
