With a casual Shane van Gisbergen victory at the Charlotte Roval in the rear view mirror, the championship contender count dropped to eight as Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, and Ross Chastain missed out on the NASCAR semifinal round.
Now, the powers that be hit the reset button for the next three races as the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series descend upon Sin City for today’s South Point 400.
Kyle Larson punched his ticket to the championship race here back in 2023. Can he replicate that feat today from sixth?
William Byron notched a victory at Vegas in the spring of 2023. Does he have what it takes to claim the checkered flag?
Ryan Blaney saw his 2024 title bid interrupted by rolling snake eyes and getting into an early crash. Can he avoid calamity to keep himself in contention over 400 miles?
Joey Logano piloted his Pennzoil ride to a win here after a fuel-mileage gamble from crew chief Paul Wolfe. The site of two playoff wins for the 22 team, can they use their cunning strategy to re-establish themselves as a title threat?
Chase Elliott often finds himself out of sorts when visiting Vegas, finishing in the top-10 just twice since the beginning of the NextGen era. Will the 9 team overcome those hurdles and replicate their form from Kansas?
Christopher Bell puts together winning performances at this track every year of recent, but keeps coming up one spot short. Starting third, is Bell the driver to beat in Vegas?
In his second trip to the seminfinal round, Chase Briscoe comes into this race with a new lease on life after a rude awakening in the quarterfinals. From the front row, can Briscoe and the 19 group put in a winning effort when it matters most?
And finally, pole sitter Denny Hanlin enters race 33 as the winningest driver of the 2025 season and shows no signs of slowing down. With that ever-elusive championship in sight, can Hamlin lock himself in amidst scrutiny both on and off the track?
All these questions will be answered as the rest of the field is pushing all their chips into the center of the table for a victory. In 267 laps over 400 miles, one victor shall remain.
Welcome to Las Vegas and the NASCAR Cup Series round of 8.
This Week in NASCAR
For a more detailed description of last week’s race from someone who attended the Roval, check out Jey’s recap.
The ongoing legal drama between NASCAR and the France family against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports continued this week when NASCAR’s attorneys submitted a request on Monday.
NASCAR wanted to meet with a new mediator instead of the mediator they used in a previous settlement conversation in August, Jeffrey Mishkin, the former chief legal officer of the NBA.
Ultimately, the Honorable Judge Kenneth Bell ordered NASCAR and the teams to meet with Mishkin later this month, shortly before the meetings on summary judgment.
On the bright side for NASCAR, they emerged victorious in a court battle against a memecoin that intended to capitalize on the viral moment that took place after a 2021 Xfinity Series race at Talladega.
Xfinity Series playoff driver Harrison Burton announced in a statement this week on social media that he’d be leaving his current AM Racing team at season’s end:
In a big announcement this week on the Dale Jr. Download, NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell claimed that the Cup Series engine formula will increase from the current 670hp model to 750hp at road courses and ovals shorter than 1.5 miles.
That list includes: Bowman Gray, COTA, Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville, Bristol, Watkins Glen, Dover, Nashville, San Diego, Sonoma, North Wilkesboro, Iowa, Richmond, Loudon, Gateway, and the Roval.
In Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, a battle between friends Jesse Love and Connor Zilisch got busted up by JGR’s Aric Almirola as the veteran racer drove by the two young guns and pulled away to a stunning victory.
As for Cup Series qualifying, Denny Hamlin logged the fastest lap with teammate and fellow round of 8 entrant Chase Briscoe joining him on the front row. For a full lineup, click here.
The Race
Tonight’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be broadcast on USA Network at 5:30pm Eastern time with commentators Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte on the call.
The 400 in the race title refers to the amount of miles the drivers must run around this high-banked 1.5-mile facility, which equates to 267 laps split up into three stages ending on the following laps: 80-165-267.
As for the average fall Las Vegas race, it looks something like this: 7 cautions for 35 caution laps, 20 lead changes, an averaged duration of exactly 3 hours, the final caution waving around lap 220 (or 48 laps to go), and two instances of overtime in 2018 and 2020.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s writer’s pick was Shane van Gisbergen, and he took me to my eighth win of the 2025 season and my seventh since Chicago.
This week, I’m taking the Green Goblin, Denny Hamlin.
In my appearances on GRID Network, I have noted that — any time there is a major update in the lawsuit — Hamlin or the 23XI cars step up in a major way.
By putting himself on the pole today, Hamlin gave himself the best chance to earn his sixth win of the season, the 60th win of his Cup Series career, and the earliest possible ticket to the championship race at Phoenix.
(Top Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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