Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: Sunday, 5:30 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App
Race purse: $9,797,935
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Stages: 80 | 165 | 267
Defending winner: Joey Logano, October 2024
Paint Scheme Preview: Sin City schemes set to shine
Starting lineup: Denny Hamlin on pole to start Round of 8
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Viva Victory Lane: Vegas critical in journey to Championship 4
LAS VEGAS — Three races separate the eight remaining NASCAR Cup Series title contenders from the Championship 4. The first comes Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Sure, there are two other races in the Round of 8, which kicks off Sunday afternoon in the Nevada desert. But a win at Las Vegas to open the three-race round could light a golden pathway into the finale at Phoenix Raceway, where the title will be decided on Nov. 2.
“This is a big one,” Christopher Bell said Saturday. “This is the race that we’ve had circled since the schedule came out, really. I mean, you make it into the Round of 8, and the mentality changes at this point in the season, in the playoffs. The Round of 16, Round of 12, you’re just looking for points. It’s survival mode. And then whenever you get into the Round of 8, it’s about wins. And ultimately, you need to win in order to make that final four.”
MORE: Weekend schedule: Vegas | Cup Series entry list
Kyle Larson won the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas back in 2023, propelling him into the title round. The advantages are plentiful, but he cautions about how significant they are.
“I think it’s definitely a benefit,” Larson said. “I think other drivers I’ve heard say it’s, like, everything. I don’t think it’s everything to win this first one, but it is nice to kind of look ahead a little bit. You know, I feel like in the playoffs, you don’t really ever get a chance to look ahead past the week in front of you. So if you win this first race, to take a little bit of focus off of the next couple and start digging through qualifying and practice and stuff like that at Phoenix is important. But again, it’s not everything.”
MORE: Playoff standings before Vegas
Last year, it was Joey Logano who locked his spot into the Championship 4 with a trip to Vegas’ Victory Lane. From Phoenix preparation to a relief from the mental anguish playoff stress can create, he reaped the benefits all the way to his third NASCAR Cup Series Championship last November.
“I think there’s something to do with the stress level as well,” Logano said. “Like, you have a moment to take a deep breath, right? Like, regain your thoughts again. The playoffs are tough, right? These 10 weeks are hard. It’s a grind on everybody. That gives you a couple weeks where you’re not taking them off because you’re still focused on Phoenix, but instead of working on three different things, you’re worrying about one thing. And all of us know if you do one thing, you’re gonna be better at it versus doing 10 different things halfway, right?
“I think that just narrows your focus when you’re able to do that. And it’s also tough. The race is in Phoenix, so you’ve gotta think, when you’re racing in Martinsville, your Phoenix car’s got to be ready to go already, right? Like the truck’s got to get out there pretty soon. So it’s not like you have much time to focus just on that one car because your tongue is hanging out just trying to get there first. That’s the first thing you’ve got to do is get there. So when you put all that together, yeah, it’s a pretty good size advantage to win here this weekend.”
RELATED: Full Saturday recap from Las Vegas
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Since James Small took over the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team in 2020, his cars have finished outside the top 10 at Las Vegas just twice in 11 starts. Ten of those starts came with Martin Truex Jr. behind the wheel. Now, Chase Briscoe wheels the No. 19 Toyota into the Round of 8 in his inaugural season with JGR.
But Small’s focus remains the same: Qualify well and stay up front all day.
“It just seems like they’re never that straightforward here, especially in the Next Gen car,” Small told NASCAR.com Saturday.
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The good news is that Briscoe accomplished that goal in Saturday’s qualifying session and will start second alongside JGR teammate Denny Hamlin. Small, though, pointed to the “chaos” that tends to unfold in the playoff race. Last year, the vehicle he prepped was involved in a spectacular multicar wreck that sent Tyler Reddick flipping onto his roof across the frontstretch. That race had five cautions for 32 laps. The spring race featured nine yellow flags for 53 laps. Part of that stems from car setup, which Small said requires teams to “generally run the car a little freer to be fast, so it’s more just more knife-edgy.”
“You just need to have a good handle on being balanced enough in traffic to then not be too free out front,” Small said.
His teammates on the No. 11 team rocketed to the Busch Light Pole Award by a mere 0.036 seconds. Hamlin was pleased by his short-run speed, placing sixth in 10-lap averages on Saturday, but expressed concern for the long run. A weather change from Saturday to Sunday will factor into how competitive Hamlin remains throughout the course of the race, with Sunday’s high of 79 degrees Fahrenheit set to be roughly 10 degrees cooler than Saturday’s, with wind gusts slowed to 13 mph from Saturday’s 31 mph.
“There’s a big wind-direction change tomorrow, and that’s probably one thing which we knew was coming potentially,” No. 11 crew chief Chris Gayle told NASCAR.com after winning the pole. “And then the second is just we weren’t good enough (on the) long run. We had really good short-run speed, but we got a little too free long run. So we just need to fix that for (Sunday), especially considering we’ll start on the pole and have clean air if we can have a good start.”
Gayle didn’t hesitate to say he would pick pit stall No. 1 for the No. 11 team on Sunday, setting up the team’s box closest to pit exit toward Turn 1. That decision isn’t always automatic at Las Vegas though. Last year, Christopher Bell and crew Adam Stevens — another set of JGR teammates — selected pit stall No. 6 because of the opening that sat in front of the box and a perceived lack of grip in pit stall No. 1. Small selected pit stall No. 6 with the second choice in pit-stall selections.
“There’s very few openings out here this weekend compared to normal, compared to Kansas,” Small said. “There’s so many openings in and out (at Kansas), it’s not as big of an issue. But here, it’s definitely a lot tighter. We’ve been trapped here before on pit road. You saw people run into a lot of issues last year [with] cars coming across them. There’s generally always so many cars on the lead lap here, it just seems like that even on a green-flag cycle, it can become pretty chaotic. So, yeah, anything to do to get priority selection there is going to be huge, especially as it comes down to the end there, especially if you’ve got two-tire calls at the end and things like that.”
RELATED: See where drivers will pit for Sunday’s race
History tells us …
This will come down to the wire. Seven of the last eight races at Las Vegas have had a margin of victory of less than one second, per Racing Insights, with the pass for the win coming inside the final six laps in four of the last seven Cup races here.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
Ross Chastain. No, he’s no longer eligible for a championship after his heartbreak at the Charlotte Roval. But Chastain laid down the quickest lap in Group A of practice Saturday before contacting the outside wall. Chastain has a series-best five top fives at Vegas in the Next Gen car and has top 10s in six of his last seven Vegas starts. | See Chastain’s projected finishing position
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
The Round of 8 playoff drivers came to play in the opener at Las Vegas, with the top six qualifying positions belonging to Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. Team Penske was respectable, but Ryan Blaney, who is always a frontrunner on long-run pace, ranked just 19th on 10-lap averages. William Byron was dominant over the course of a multi-lap run in practice, ranking as the best on five-, 10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages. The lone swap here this weekend is replacing Ross Chastain with Chase Briscoe, as he thought the No. 19 team had among its most balanced practice sessions of the entire season. Other notable Toyota drivers, Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs, also looked sporty on Saturday.
Lineup: William Byron, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe.
Garage: Tyler Reddick.
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Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Las Vegas: Key info, qualifying reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• Bubble Watch: Will anyone hit the jackpot at Vegas? | Read more
• A common theme: Round of 8 drivers share same belief | Read more
• Bell zeroes in on Vegas: Can No. 20 team return to Champ 4? | Read more
• At-track photos: Trackside sights, scenes from Sin City | View gallery
• Turning Point to Vegas: Is there a title favorite? | Read more
• Neil Paine: Proof in pressure: Logano rises when doubted | Read more
• Byron chugging along: Check in with No. 24 driver | Read more
• Playoff Pulse: Who’s hot, who’s not ahead of Vegas | Read more
• Power Rankings: Sizing up where playoff drivers stand | This week’s ranks
