NASCAR schedule for Las Vegas Motor Speedway Drivers to watch in NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway NASCAR suspends pit crew members for wheel coming off car NASCAR makes rule changes for road courses, many tracks 1 mile or less Kyle Petty Charity Ride scheduled to visit Nevada, Utah
Kyle Bushthe latest NASCAR Cup Series winner is set to build on that momentum on a very busy weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Busch, who won Sunday’s Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway, is racing in all three of NASCAR’s Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck races this weekend in Las Vegas. For some pilots, this would have been a tough schedule, but Bush proved he could handle the challenge. He has won all three races in the series twice in the same weekend, both times (2010 and 2017) at Bristol Motor Speedway.
MORE: Drivers to watch out for at the Las Vegas Speedway
MORE: NASCAR seeks to increase competition with rule changes
Busch will be one of the favorites for Sunday’s 400-mile Cup race. He won at his home track in 2009 and along with Martin Truex Jr.has the longest active streak in the top 10 at the circuit with five.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Cup, Xfinity and Truck)
Weekend weather
Thursday: Mostly sunny. Maximum 58. Wind 10-20 m/s.
Friday: Mostly sunny. High 60.
Saturday: Morning clouds. Sunny in the afternoon. Maximum 66. Wind 15-25 m/s.
Sunday: Partly cloudy and windy. Maximum 63. Wind 20-30 m/s.
Thursday, March 2
(All time Eastern)
Garage open
- 15:30 – 21:30 – Xfinity series
Friday, March 3
Garage open
- 10:00 – 20:30 – Xfinity series
- 11:30 – Truck series
- 15:30 – 20:30 – Cup series
Activity Tracking
- 16:30 – 17:05 – Truck training (FS1)
- 17:05 – 18:00 – Truck Qualification (FS1)
- 18:35 – 19:05 – Xfinity practice (FS1)
- 19:05-20:00 – Xfinity qualifier (FS1)
- 21:00 – Truck Race (134 laps, 201 miles; FS1, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday, March 4
Garage open
- 11:00 – 16:00 – Cup Series
- 13:30 — Xfinity Series
Activity Tracking
- 13:35 – 14:20 – Cup training (FS2)
- 14:20 – 15:30 – Cup qualification (FS1)
- 4:30 pm Xfinity Race (200 laps, 300 miles; FS1, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday, March 4
Garage open
- 12:30 pm. – Cup Series
Activity Tracking
- 3:30 pm – Cup Race (267 laps, 400 miles; Fox, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
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The early season NASCAR Cup Series continues in the West on Sunday with a 400-mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The first of two annual races on the 2.5 km track features a Chevrolet driver. Ross Chastain leading in the standings behind Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Kevin Harvick And Daniel Suarez.
MORE: NASCAR Power Ranking: Kyle Busch – No. 1
MORE: Kyle Petty Charity Trip to Utah, Nevada
Ricky Stenhouse Jr won his first season at Daytona and Kyle Busch scored last Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.
Take a look at the drivers to watch out for in Las Vegas:
LEADERS
Ross Chastain
- Points position: 1st
- Best season finish: 3rd (Autoclub)
- Past in Las Vegas: Finished in the top 3 in both races last year
Chastain started 2023 where he left off at the end of last season, making noise and racing with a leading group. He has been in the top 10 six times in a row since last season. This is due to his longest streak of top 10 finishes.
Joey Logano
- Points position: 2nd
- Best Finish of the Season: 2nd (Daytona 500)
- In the past, like Las Vegas: has a win and two top-10 finishes in the last five races.
Logano came within feet of winning the Daytona 500 and was leading 19 laps at the Auto Club on Sunday. All three of his Las Vegas victories have come in the last eight races.
- Points position: 24th
- Best Finish of the Season: 18th (Daytona 500)
- Past in Las Vegas: Won in March 2021 and was runner-up last March.
Larson has had a slow start to the season, but Las Vegas should be the balm. He has finished in the top ten in eight of his last ten starts at the circuit.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
- Points position: 38th
- Best season finish: 34th in Auto Club
- Past in Las Vegas: Three consecutive finishes seventh or better
Reddick needs reinforcements in Las Vegas to recover from tough racing in Dayton (39th) and the Auto Club (34th). He left both races after crashes.
- Points position: 12th
- Best Finish of the Season: 8th (Daytona 500)
- Past in Las Vegas: Career best finish in fifth place
Blaney has made 48 starts since his last points victory. In this segment, he has two seconds and 15 best fives.
- Points position: 26th
- Best Finish of the Season: 20th (Daytona 500)
- Past in Las Vegas: Five in a row finished 16th or worse
To date, Wallace has failed to finish both races, having parked after crashing in Dayton and losing his engine at the Auto Club.
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NASCAR suspended tire fitter Danny Olshovi and driver Kellen Mills for two races due to a blown tire. Martin Truex Jr.car during last weekend’s cup race at Auto Club Speedway.
They will both miss the cup races in Las Vegas and Phoenix. They will be eligible to return March 19 in Atlanta.
Last year, crew members and a crew chief were suspended four races each for infractions, but NASCAR changed the rule in the offseason.
The penalty to crew members this year was reduced to two races. In addition, the crew chief is no longer penalized unless he is one of the two crew members responsible for fitting the blown tire.
Also this year, if a car comes off a wheel while the car is still in pit road, the car will restart at the end of the field. If a wheel comes off the vehicle while it is in pit road under green flag conditions, it is a drive-thru penalty. Any vehicle that loses a wheel after exiting pit road will be penalized two laps.
Truex served a two-lap penalty during the race as a wheel came off after he pulled off pit road. He played both laps and finished 11th.
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NASCAR announced Tuesday that it will make changes to the Cup car for road racing and most races on tracks 1,058 miles or less.
Changes tested at Phoenix Raceway in late January and confirmed on February 13 in a wind tunnel test include a 2-inch spoiler (up from the current 4-inch spoiler) and the removal of three diffuser strips and engine panels. The changes are expected to result in a 30% reduction in downforce.
Eric Jacuzzi, NASCAR’s vice president of vehicle performance, told SiriusXM Speedway Tuesday that diffuser strips are parts that hang from the center of the diffuser under the car. He said NASCAR would remove three of the five diffusers. Jacuzzi said that the engine panel trim is metal pieces that stick out behind the front wheels and create front downforce.
The changes to the car have been made after Cup drivers complained last year about the difficulty it had on many short track and highway circuits.
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Source: nascar.nbcsports.com
