This weekend, just 16 miles from the Las Vegas strip, 36 of NASCAR’s best went to battle at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Michael McDowell snatched the Busch Light Pole and led the field to green to start the action. McDowell led the first lap before getting passed by Joey Logano. Logano held serve until pit stops started at lap 31. Ryan Blaney pitted from the 16th position after starting last after a crash in Saturday’s practice. He had an issue on the left front that resulted in a 31-second pit stop putting him two laps down. Chase Briscoe lost a tire leaving pit road and brought out the first yellow of the day. This trapped 15 cars a lap down. Everyone except for Denny Hamlin was able to take the wave around when the leaders pitted as he had to serve a penalty for speeding during his pit stop. Austin Cindric led the field to green on the restart and would hold off Alex Bowman’s attempts to get by him. Kyle Larson, who restarted 22nd after waving around, made rapid advances through the field, getting into the top five by the end of the stage. Cindric would hold off a late charge by Bowman and win stage one.
Stage One Results:
- Austin Cindric
- Alex Bowman
- Chase Elliott
- Bubba Wallace
- Kyle Larson
- A.J. Almendinger
- Joey Logano
- Josh Berry
- Carson Hocevar
- Christopher Bell
Pit stops during the stage break followed. Chase Elliott won the race off of pit road over Bubba Wallace and Cindric. Elliott, however, was nabbed for speeding. As such, Wallace would lead Cindric and the field back to green to start the second stage. Alex Bowman would duck off the track to pit from 4th place with a vibration. Larson would get by Wallace for the lead, but before he could set sail, Shane Van Gisbergen spun out, bringing out the second caution for cause of the day. Leaders would all pit with Wallace winning the race off pit road. Christopher Bell left his box with a loose wheel and duck into his teammate Chase Briscoe’s pit stall and have it tightened, this sent him to the rear of the field but saved him from going multiple laps down losing a wheel on the racing surface. Wallace led the field back to green, they weren’t able to make it a lap before caution flew again for Kyle Busch losing his right rear wheel coming out of turn 2 running 12th. No other cars were involved. Bowman and Mcdowell both sped on pit road during the caution and would be sent to the rear. William Byron led the field to green, Larson was able to get past him and set sail for about 25 laps before Todd Gilliand would bounce off the wall and Rick Stenhouse Jr. and back into the wall, bringing out the 4th caution of the day on lap 147. This set up some split strategy with only a few laps left in the stage. With Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, and Erik Jones taking only two tires to gain a track position advantage. Chastain led the field back to green as Hamlin was overtaken quickly by those who took all four tires. Jones would put up more of a fight but would eventually fall back as well. Chastain would fare the best of the three as Byron and Larson got by him, but he was able to hold serve in 3rd place through the end of the stage. Larson, meanwhile, was able to get by his teammate Byron and win the second stage. Becoming the first driver this year to win more than one stage.
Stage Two Results:
- Kyle Larson
- William Byron
- Ross Chastain
- Bubba Wallace
- Carson Hocevar
- Ryan Blaney
- Daniel Suarez
- Josh Berry
- Tyler Reddick
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Everyone except Austin Dillon and Mcdowell would pit. Daniel Suarez would take two tires and win the race off pit road over Larson and Byron. Josh Berry would pit again to tighten a loose wheel. Mcdowell led the field to green, but Larson made quick work to get the lead from him, with Daniel Suarez taking over second close behind. Byron got past him, and caution would fly again as Cody Ware spun and made significant contact with the wall. Everyone would pit during the yellow, and Chastain would take two tires to win the race off pit road. We stayed green for about a lap before Ryan Blaney, Bell, Wallace, and Noah Gragson went 4 wide out of turn two, and this sent Blaney into the wall, ending his roller coaster of a day. Wallace and Austin Dillon would also recueve significant damage in the melee. This created a split strategy as we were at the edge of the fuel window. Larson, Elliott, Chastain, Cindric, and Bell would pit. Leaving Reddick to lead the field back to green. Reddick set sail.off the ensuing restart and would lead the next 30 laps before Suarez would get past him. Joey Logano and the other leaders started to make quick work of Reddick, so his team decided to split the last run in half and pit with 37 laps to go. Josh Berry got past Logano for second place and would challenge Suarez for the lead successfully. However, Logano was hot on his heels and took the lead shortly thereafter. Quickly going into fuel save mode. With just 25 laps to go, Kyle Busch made major contact with the wall into turn two but be able to woe his ailing Chevrolet to the pits. A lap later, Noah Gragson was not as lucky as he blew a right front tire, bringing out the last caution of the day and setting up a pit stop and a dash to the finish. Suarez won the battle off pit road over Berry and Ryan Preece. Logano would have a slow stop that ruined his shot at the win. Suarez led the field back to green over Berry, and the two drivers would duke it out for several laps before Berry prevailed and didn’t look back, stretching his lead to over a second and guiding his Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the regimes 101st NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Top Ten:
- Josh Berry
- Daniel Suarez
- Ryan Preece
- William Byron
- Ross Chastain
- Austin Cindric
- Alex Bowman
- AJ Almendinger
- Kyle Larson
- Chase Elliott
Photo Credit: @puffadda, @PJVPhotography on X and Bluesky
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