Ten years ago on this day, March 4, Kurt Busch announced his attempt to tackle ‘The Double.’ It’s the ultimate motorsports challenge that involves competing in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600, two prestigious events centered around two motorsports series, on the same day during Memorial Day weekend.
Busch’s first interest in attempting ‘The Double’ occurred in early May 2013 when he tested an IndyCar powered by a Chevrolet engine for Andretti Autosport at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. By then, the 2004 Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, was campaigning in the Cup circuit for Furniture Row Racing after spending the majority of the previous season driving for Phoenix Raceway.
After spending the remainder of the 2013 season along with the early months of the 2014 season mulling over the decision to attempt ‘The Double’, Busch’s decision and announcement for the challenge was officially made on March 4, 2014, two months before the Indy 500 would occur, as he would join forces with Andretti to pilot a fifth entry for the organization.
On April 28, Busch’s Indy 500 ride with Andretti Autosport was revealed, where he would pilot the No. 26 Dallara-Honda sponsored by Suretone Entertainment in IndyCar’s most prestigious events on the calendar to commence the double duty process. He would then fly back to Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, in time to compete in NASCAR’s longest event on the calendar, the Coca-Cola 600, behind the wheel of his full-time Cup Series ride: the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing.
A day later, Busch’s double challenge on the track commenced as he piloted his Andretti entry around Indianapolis Motor Speedway during a refresher test program. He turned in 66 laps during the program and recorded a top speed of 220.844 mph. Another week later, the Las Vegas veteran topped the speed charts during the event’s Rookie Orientation Program with an average running speed of 222.289 mph, which cleared him to attempt a qualifying run for the Indy 500, before he posted the second-fastest speed at 224.159 mph behind teammate EJ Viso during a practice session the following week.
On May 17, when the qualification process of the 2014 Indy 500 occurred, Busch made two qualifying attempts and ended up posting the 10th-fastest average speed at 229.960 mph, which was one spot short of reaching the Fast Nine Shootout. Flying back to Charlotte Motor Speedway to compete in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, where he finished 11th, Busch would participate in the Indy 500’s second qualifying session the following day, May 18. With his best four-lap average qualifying speed averaging at 230.782 mph, he ended up claiming the 12th-place starting spot for the 2014 Indy 500 and watched from a distance as Indianapolis native Ed Carpenter claimed the pole position.
Aside from time management, the only hurdle to Busch’s double attempt was being involved in a hard accident during the post-qualifying practice session on May 19, where he slid into the outside wall while entering the backstretch and spun across the track before coming to rest towards the backstretch’s infield grass. The wreck resulted in Busch’s team using a backup car from teammate Marco Andretti as Busch’s for Carb Day and the Indy 500.
Meanwhile, Busch would proceed to qualify in 28th place for the Coca-Cola 600 on May 22 as his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team had Parker Kligerman tabbed as a backup competitor for Busch in the event of a scheduling conflict that would result in the latter having traveling issues from Indianapolis to Charlotte.
On race day for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25, Busch, who started alongside IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya on the fourth row from 12th place, ran a consistent race and spent the majority of the day running within the top 20. Amid a handful of late-race incidents that eliminated Dixon, Charlie Kimball, teammate James Hinchcliffe and pole-winner Carpenter out of contention, Busch climbed his way up the leaderboard to run within the top 10 with 25 laps remaining.
Then while running in seventh place with 10 laps remaining, he barely dodged an accident entering the backstretch that eliminated Townsend Bell out of contention to gain a spot. With scheduling concerns rising as the event was placed in a red-flag period to clear Bell’s wreckage, the race would proceed in stable time for a six-lap shootout, where Busch would steer his No. 26 Honda to a strong sixth-place finish while teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay fended off a late charge from Helio Castroneves to win the Indy 500 for the first time in his career.
Despite returning to Charlotte Motor Speedway in time for the start of the Coca-Cola 600, Busch was ultimately forced to start at the rear of the field due to missing the pre-race driver’s meeting. When the green flag for the start of the 600-mile event, he spent the early stages of the event pinned a lap down and mired within the top 30 in the running order. While trying to methodically carve his way up the leaderboard, Busch gained a break on Lap 148 when a debris caution enabled him to cycle back onto the lead lap after being pinned a lap down, and by then, he was running within the top 15.
Racing as high as within the top-10 mark as the event surpassed its halfway mark of 400-scheduled laps, where he would receive the free pass a second time due to another debris caution on Lap 222, Busch’s 600-mile event at Charlotte slowly began to go south just past the Lap 250 mark as he radioed the loss of two cylinders to his No. 41 Chevrolet. By Lap 273, his event came to a bitter end after his engine went up in smoke entering the backstretch, which resulted in Busch nursing his car to the garage as he retired in 40th place, thus ending his long double run, while pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson would proceed to win.
Overall, Busch completed a total of 906 miles from the planned 1,100 (471 of 600 combined laps). He joined John Andretti, Robby Gordon and Tony Stewart as the only competitors to have attempted and achieved ‘The Double’ at least once to date. Despite not achieving a victory in either event during his double challenge, Busch would be named the 2014 Indy 500 Rookie-of-the-Year recipient as he was the highest-finishing rookie on the track.
In addition, his sixth-place result during the Indy 500 matches Gordon and Stewart’s best on-track result in the Indy 500 for any competitor participating in ‘The Double’ challenge. Stewart, however, is the only competitor to date to have completed all 1,100 miles of competition during ‘The Double’, which he accomplished in 2001 after finishing sixth at Indy before settling in third at Charlotte.
“We gave it our all,” Busch said in the garage on FOX. “To feel the stock car right after driving an INDYCAR was a day I’ll never forget. I can’t let the mood here with the [expired] car [at Charlotte] dampen what happened up at Indy today. That was very special. It takes a team everywhere. All in all, I’m very satisfied. I trained hard. [I] had a lot of people helping me out. Everybody worked hard on both sides.”
Following his 2014 double attempt, Busch, who would not make any additional attempts for another double bid, would proceed to make the 2014 Cup Series Playoffs and end up in 12th place in the final standings. He then spent the next eight seasons accumulating a total of nine Cup victories and making the Playoffs from 2015-21 while competing between three organizations (Stewart-Haas Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing and 23XI Racing). An accident during a qualifying session at Pocono Raceway in July 2022 would force Busch to retire from full-time NASCAR competition before the 2023 season amid sustaining concussion-like symptoms, with Busch officially announcing his retirement from racing for good this past August.
This season, a new name strives to be added to the list of competitors who have successfully performed the double on Memorial Day weekend as Kyle Larson declared his bid in January 2023 to attempt ‘The Double’ challenge for the 2024 season. Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, will join forces with Arrow McLaren and attempt to qualify for this year’s 108th running of the Indy 500 in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Dallara-Chevrolet.
He will then travel to Charlotte Motor Speedway and conclude the day by competing in the Coca-Cola 600 behind his familiar No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup circuit, where he will bid for his second 600 victory after winning his first in 2021.
The 2024 Indianapolis 500 is scheduled to occur on May 26 and air at 11 a.m. ET on NBC. The 2024 Coca-Cola 600 will follow suit on the same day and air at 6 p.m. ET on FOX.
With Tyler Reddick hounding behind on three different scenarios, Kyle Larson struck gold during all three stages, including the latest, to land a dominant NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 3.
“I knew Tyler (Reddick) was going to be the guy to beat,” Larson said after the race. “From the first stage, he was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt it was going to time out to where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end. Thankfully, I was able to air-lock him a couple of laps and get him tight. I thought (Reddick) and Bubba (Wallace) were going to get working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen.
“All in all, such a great, great job by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, restarts, pit road.. all of that was great. Cool to get a win here in Las Vegas again, back-to-back, and swept all the stages. Can’t ask for much more than that.”
The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led eight times for a race-high 181 of 267 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Joey Logano but quickly made his presence known by assuming the lead for the first time on the third lap.
In an event highlighted by gusty wind temperatures, pit strategies and racing that fanned out to nearly five lanes, Larson fended off late charges from Reddick to capture both Stage 1 and 2 of the event. During the final restart with 27 laps remaining, Larson would then fend off Ross Chastain amid a late-race duel. He then spent the remainder of the event fending off another charge from Reddick, who used every inch of the circuit and the outside wall to overtake Larson but was unable to do so as Larson capitalized to achieve his first Cup victory of the 2024 season and cash in on a Vegas victory for a second consecutive time.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 2, Joey Logano secured his second Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 30th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 184.357 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Larson, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 184.225 mph in 29.312 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ross Chastain dropped to the rear of the field due to a replaced hood wrap. Ryan Preece also dropped to the rear of the event in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during the practice session along with Justin Haley with a changed steering rack that prevented him from qualifying.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Logano muscled his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead with the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out to multiple lanes. With the field still fanned out through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4, Logano proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of a hard-charging Larson while Austin Cindric, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace followed suit. Amid the early battles, Larson would then assume the lead from Logano by the third lap.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Larson was leading by half a second over teammate Byron followed by Logano, Cindric and Martin Truex Jr. while Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ty Gibbs occupied the top 10 in front of Chase Elliott, rookie Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. By then, rookie Zane Smith made an unscheduled pit stop under green after he hit the backstretch’s outside wall a few laps earlier.
On Lap 10, the event’s first caution period flew after Bell, who was mired within the top 20, fell off the pace through the frontstretch as he emerged with smoke and a flat right-rear tire to his No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.
During the event’s first caution period, the lead lap field led by Logano pitted for service. Following the pit stops amid mixed strategies, Chris Buescher exited in first place after only opting for a two-tire pit stop followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Reddick and Suarez while Larson, the first competitor who emerged with four fresh tires, exited sixth ahead of Byron, Logano, Cindric and Wallace. Amid the pit stops, Todd Gilliland was penalized for crew members over the pit wall too soon.
When the race restarted on Lap 15, Buescher and Briscoe dueled for the lead through the first two turns and they continued to battle dead even for the lead through the backstretch and back to the frontstretch until Byron and LaJoie attempted to make it a four-wide battle for the lead. With Byron going from fourth to second through the frontstretch, he then battled Briscoe on four fresh tires through the first two turns until he muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 before the Lap 17 mark. With Byron leading ahead of Briscoe, LaJoie and Larson, Daniel Suarez was in fifth ahead of Bubba Wallace and Buescher while Tyler Reddick, Cindric, Logano, Truex and Stenhouse followed suit in the top 12.
Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie and Wallace while Suarez, Buescher, Reddick, Truex and Austin Cindric were running in the top 10 ahead of Logano, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Stenhouse, Ryan Blaney, Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.
A lap later, Buescher, who was running seventh on two fresh right-side tires, went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 1 after losing a right-front wheel to his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse due to a lug nut not being tight, which drew the event’s second caution period as Buescher’s event came to an early end. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Byron returned to pit road for service while the rest led by Suarez and McDowell remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid another round of mixed strategies, Truex exited pit road first on two fresh tires while Kyle Busch, Larson, Byron, Hamlin, Wallace and Briscoe followed suit. The event would then be placed in a red flag period for more than 10 minutes to allow the on-track safety crew to finalize repairs to the outside wall towards Turn 1.
When the red flag lifted and the event restarted under green on Lap 35, Suarez received a shove from Truex to maintain the lead through the first two turns as the field fanned out to three lanes entering the backstretch. Amid the battles between those who pitted and those who either took two or four fresh tires during the previous caution period, Suarez maintained the lead during the following lap ahead of a side-by-side battle involving McDowell and Truex while John Hunter Nemechek, Larson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Byron and Wallace jostled within the top 10 along with LaJoie, Reddick and Hocevar.
On Lap 43, Kyle Busch battled and overtook Suarez for the lead as Larson and Truex also joined the battle towards the front. Larson would then quickly move into the runner-up spot as Suarez was trying to fend off Truex for third place ahead of McDowell and Nemechek, both of whom were running on old tires, as Hamlin followed suit in seventh. A few laps later, the battle at the front between Kyle Busch and Larson slowly started to brew as Larson trailed Busch by two-tenths of a second.
On Lap 48, Byron, who was running towards the front early in the event, made an unscheduled pit stop under green to have a large piece of black debris removed from the front nose of the No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. With Byron losing a lap in the process, Larson continued to pressure Busch for the lead through every turn and straightaway while Suarez trailed in third place by nearly two seconds.
By Lap 60, Kyle Busch retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Larson. Two laps later, however, Larson zipped his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 around Busch’s No. 8 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the first two turns and entering the backstretch, with the former leading the event. By then, Reddick trailed in third place by more than two seconds followed by Toyota competitors Truex, Hamlin and Ty Gibbs while Suarez retained seventh ahead of Cindric, LaJoie and a hard-charging Bell.
At the Lap 70 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than half a second over Busch followed by Reddick, Truex and Hamlin while Ty Gibbs, LaJoie, Bell, Chastain and Cindric trailed in the top 10. By then, Suarez fell back to 14th behind Logano, Blaney and Bowman, Elliott was in 17th and Wallace had fallen back to 20th.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick charged his way to a runner-up result followed by Truex and Busch while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, LaJoie, Chastain, Cindric and Bell were scored in the top 10. By then, 33 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap while Byron, who was mired in 34th, fended off JJ Yeley to emerge as the first competitor who was scored a lap down and received the free pass during the stage break period.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Truex exited first followed by teammate Hamlin, Larson, LaJoie, Busch, Ty Gibbs, Bell, Bowman, Logano and Cindric. Amid the pit stops, Reddick plummeted to 16th after he pitted too close to his pit wall after he slid into his stall, which forced him to reverse and straighten his car.
The second stage period started on Lap 88 as teammates Truex and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out to three lanes as teammates Truex and Hamlin battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the lead. With Truex being pressured by LaJoie, Larson and Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot, Hamlin maintained the lead by nearly four-tenths of a second in front of the field that continued to jostle for spots.
By Lap 100, Hamlin was leading by half a second over a hard-charging Larson while Truex, Kyle Busch, LaJoie, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Chastain, Bell and Bowman were running in the top 10. Behind, Reddick was up to 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Cindric and Elliott while Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton followed suit in the top 20 ahead of Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, McDowell and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Byron was mired back in 28th behind rookie Josh Berry and Ryan Preece, Erik Jones was in 29th and Nemechek was back in 31st in front of Daniel Hemric and newcomer Derek Kraus.
Ten laps later, Larson, who reassumed the lead five laps earlier, had stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Busch, LaJoie and Truex were running in the top five.
Another eight laps later, a cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Wallace and Stenhouse pitted along with Blaney, Suarez, Austin Dillon, Byron, Truex, Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Bowman, Logano, Cindric, Elliott, Kyle Busch and others. The leader Larson would then pit by Lap 120 along with LaJoie before Chastain, who led the previous lap, pitted under green. Amid the pit stops, Cindric, Hemric and Chastain were all penalized for speeding on pit road. With the green flag pit stops cycling through by Lap 122, Larson cycled back into the lead as he was leading by nearly half a second over Hamlin while Blaney, Busch and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five.
At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Hamlin while third-place Busch also trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Blaney and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five while Truex, Reddick, Logano, LaJoie and Elliott occupied the top 10 spots in front of Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Hocevar, Bell and Suarez. Meanwhile, Byron was in 17th, Nemechek was mired in 22nd, Chastain was the first competitor scored a lap down in 30th and Wallace was scored three laps down in 35th.
By Lap 150, Larson continued to stretch his advantage as he was leading by four seconds over Busch while Hamlin, Blaney and Ty Gibbs continued to run in the top five. Behind, Reddick retained sixth ahead of Truex, Logano, Elliott and LaJoie while Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Byron, Bell and Hocevar occupied the top 15 in front of Bowman, Suarez, Noah Gragson, Brad Keselowski and McDowell.
Five laps later, the caution flew after Bell, who was running 14th behind Briscoe, got loose through Turns 1 and 2 before he spun from the middle to the bottom of the track entering the backstretch. By then, Hocevar, who pitted five laps earlier due to a flat right-front tire, was mired a lap down while Derek Kraus received the free pass by being the first competitor scored a lap down ahead of Kaz Grala and Chastain.
During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bowman exited first following a two-tire pit stop while teammate Larson, the first competitor with four fresh tires, followed suit along with Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney, Logano, Truex, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Byron. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation during a slow pit service while Brad Keselowski lost a bevy of spots after he had to reverse to leave his pit stall. In addition, Kyle Busch dropped to 18th after he endured a slow pit stop to get the right front tire tightened.
With the event restarting with four laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Bowman retained a narrow advantage over teammate Larson, Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney and Truex. Larson would then overtake Bowman through the frontstretch during the following lap as Reddick tried to follow suit in his No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry XSE. With Bowman and Reddick battling for the runner-up spot, the latter would prevail during the ensuing lap as Hamlin, Blaney and Truex would overtake Bowman on four fresh tires.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Larson fended off another late charge from Reddick to capture his second consecutive Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick settled in second ahead of Hamlin, Blaney and Truex while Elliott, Austin Dillon, Bowman, Logano and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the stage break, some led by Bowman pitted while the rest led by teammate Larson remained on the track.
With 95 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Larson and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead with the lead from the inside lane while Reddick, Hamlin and Truex fanned out to three lanes while battling for second place in front of another three-wide battle that involved Blaney, Elliott and Briscoe. With Reddick prevailing in the three-wide battle for second, Larson retained the lead as Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle amid three lanes for fifth place in front of Logano and Austin Dillon. Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle dead even amid three lanes for fifth place during the ensuing laps and in front of more on-track battles while Larson was leading by more than a second over Reddick.
With 80 laps remaining, Larson was leading by less than two seconds over Reddick while Hamlin, Truex and Briscoe were running in the top five ahead of Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott. Behind, hometown hero Noah Gragson was up in 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Erik Jones and LaJoie while Bowman, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Josh Berry occupied the top 20 in front of Todd Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Stenhouse, McDowell and Nemechek.
Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick, who was slowly gaining ground on Larson as teammate Wallace, who was multiple laps down to have a lug nut cut loose from his entry, was helping Reddick gain ground on the leader, while Truex, Blaney and Hamlin were running in the top five. Behind, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott were running sixth through ninth while Hocevar carved his way into the top 10 and he was running 10th ahead of a hard-charging Byron. Meanwhile, teammates Gragson and Briscoe battled for 12th while Logano and Erik Jones occupied the top 15 ahead of Chastain, LaJoie, Suarez, Bowman and Berry.
With 63 laps remaining, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Briscoe pitted his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Bowman would pit his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the following lap as Larson retained the lead by half a second over Reddick. Ty Gibbs would then pit his No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota Camry XSE with 59 laps remaining before Logano, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin and Kyle Busch would follow suit to pit under green. The leader Larson would then pit with 56 laps remaining along with more competitors before Byron and Hocevar would pit during the following lap. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch was penalized for pitting outside his pit box.
With 52 laps remaining, Suarez, who led the previous four laps, pitted his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the lead as McDowell and Kraus, both of whom have yet to pit, remained on the track. By then, Larson, who managed to blend back onto the track ahead of Reddick, was trying to close the gap from third place while Reddick and Blaney followed suit in the top five. McDowell, who would lead four laps, would then pit with 48 laps remaining and hand the lead to Kraus, who would be overtaken by Larson for the lead with 46 laps remaining as Kraus, who led his first two laps in the Cup Series, would then pit.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Larson was leading by nearly two seconds over Reddick as Blaney, Truex and Ty Gibbs trailed in the top five. Behind, Hamlin was back in sixth ahead of Logano, Bowman, Elliott and Austin Dillon while Gragson, Hocevar, Byron, Berry and Erik Jones were running in the top 15.
Seven laps later, the caution flew after LaJoie, who was running 18th, slid sideways in front of Keselowski as he spun his No. 7 USANA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up towards the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 before he slid back down across the apron. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting first ahead of Chastain, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin, Logano, Elliott, Truex, Bowman and Ty Gibbs.
As the event restarted with 27 laps remaining, the field fanned out through the first two turns as Larson, who nearly slid up the track, was battling Chastain for the lead through the backstretch. Larson then managed to rocket ahead from the inside lane entering Turn 3 while Reddick was battling Hamlin for third place in front of Blaney and Truex. Chastain then tried to mount another fight and challenge Larson from the outside lane for the lead during the following lap as Hamlin joined the battle. Larson, however, cleared Chastain’s No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the proceeding lap as Reddick and Hamlin battled again for third place with nearly 25 laps remaining.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson was leading by a second over Reddick, who navigated his way past Chastain for the runner-up spot, as Blaney and Gragson were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin slipped to seventh behind teammate Ty Gibbs while Truex, Logano and Elliott were battling in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon, Suarez, Keselowski, Byron and Bowman.
With 15 laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Reddick while Blaney and Chastain dueled for third place in front of Gragson and Ty Gibbs. Five laps later, however, Larson’s advantage dropped to four-tenths of a second over Reddick as the latter, who was running faster lap times, started to gain ground on the former for the lead. By then, Blaney was in third along with Chastain, both of whom were trailing the leaders by three seconds, while Ty Gibbs and Hamlin overtook Gragson for fifth and sixth.
With five laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by a narrow margin over Reddick as the latter continued to stalk and keep Larson within his sights around every corner and straightaway while also trying to narrow the gap.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who fended off Reddick to break his momentum during the previous lap, remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Reddick. With Reddick unable to regain his momentum, Larson was able to navigate his way around the Vegas circuit with the top spot and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag by four-tenths of a second over Reddick
With the victory, Larson notched his 24th career victory in the Cup Series and his third at Vegas as he also became the third different winner through the first three events of the 2024 Cup Series season. He also made Chevrolet three-for-three through the first three Cup events on the 2024 schedule and he delivered the 10th Vegas victory for Hendrick Motorsports as he ignites his early bid for his second title in NASCAR’s premier series.
“I knew Tyler [Reddick] was gonna be the guy to beat from the first stage,” Larson, who celebrated with his kids on the frontstretch, said on FOX. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were gonna get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was gonna time out to where he was running really hard and getting the toe to catch me at the end. Thankfully, [I] was able to air-block him a couple laps and get him tight. All in all, such a great job by this HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, pit road, restarts, all that was great. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back [wins], swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”
Reddick, who finished second behind Larson during both stages and in the final running order, was left disappointed over the result and falling one spot short of capturing the first victory of the season for himself and 23XI Racing.
“Kyle [Larson] did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap,” Reddick said. “He seemed pretty good in the middle [lane] and I was obviously really good on the bottom. He just never let me have it right, so I kept trying to run higher and higher. He was running right around the middle of the racetrack there and was pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I got close, we were running just wide-open enough in Turn 1 and 2 that he could defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never upfront really all day long until it got to the stage’s ends. We’ll continue to work on it, but good rebound for our team today.”
Blaney came home in third place followed by Chastain, who made the two fresh tires work to his advantage, and Ty Gibbs. Noah Gragson recorded a strong sixth-place result while Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin, Logano and Byron finished in the top 10.
Notably, Suarez finished 11th in front of Elliott, Keselowski, Erik Jones and rookie Carson Hocevar. In addition, Kyle Busch ended up 26th, Kraus finished 28th in his Cup Series debut and LaJoie ended up 32nd.
There were 24 lead changes for 15 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 31 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by eight points over Ryan Blaney, 14 over Martin Truex Jr., 15 over William Byron and 20 over Ross Chastain and 23 over both Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott.
Results.
1. Kyle Larson, 181 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
2. Tyler Reddick, one lap led
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Ross Chastain, two laps led
5. Ty Gibbs
6. Noah Gragson
7. Martin Truex Jr., four laps led
8. Denny Hamlin, 16 laps led
9. Joey Logano, two laps led
10. William Byron, 15 laps led
11. Daniel Suarez, 15 laps led
12. Chase Elliott
13. Brad Keselowski
14. Erik Jones
15. Carson Hocevar
16. Austin Dillon
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18. Alex Bowman, three laps led
19. Daniel Hemric, one lap led
20. Josh Berry
21. Chase Briscoe, one lap led
22. John Hunter Nemechek
23. Ryan Preece
24. Todd Gilliland
25. Michael McDowell, four laps led
26. Kyle Busch, 18 laps led
27. Justin Haley
28. Derek Kraus, two laps led
29. Austin Cindric
30. Harrison Burton
31. Kaz Grala
32. Corey LaJoie, one lap down
33. Christopher Bell, two laps down
34. JJ Yeley, six laps down
35. Bubba Wallace, 13 laps down
36. Zane Smith, 13 laps down
37. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident, two laps led
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 10, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
In an event mired with gusty winds, John Hunter Nemechek zipped his way to a dominant victory in The LiUNA! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 2, for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 season.
“We definitely worked hard for this one,” Nemechek said. “We were good, but we weren’t great. Tyler (Allen), all of the guys on the 20 team just kept adjusting on it. Hats off to them. They made this Toyota GR Supra faster every single time that we made a pit stop. It continued to get faster, faster and faster. The Safeway Toyota GR Supra looked good, proud to have all of the brands that we do, all of our partners – feels good to come back and win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and to do it here in Vegas – I’ve been so close, so many times with Joe Gibbs Racing, so to finally get it done, it feels really good.”
The 26-year-old, second-generation Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led five times for a race-high 99 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started 12th but raced his way to the front as he led for the first time on Lap 56 and finished in second place behind teammate Chandler Smith during both stage periods. After swapping the lead with Smith at the start of the final stage period, Nemechek, who reassumed the top spot during a restart with 72 laps remaining, then withstood a late round of green flag pit stops to reclaim the lead with 10 laps remaining, where he would muscle away from pole-sitter Cole Custer, Smith, and Austin Hill to cash in his first Xfinity Series victory of the 2024 campaign and his 10th of his career.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, March 1, Cole Custer, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, notched his first Xfinity pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.281 mph in 29.788 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Chandler Smith, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 181.178 mph in 29.805 seconds.
Before the event, Anthony Alfredo dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car while Justin Allgaier, Blaine Perkins and Sage Karam also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, AJ Allmendinger made a bold three-wide move beneath Custer and Chandler Smith through the first two turns in his early bid for the lead. Through Turns 3 and 4, however, Smith muscled ahead and proceeded to lead the first lap as Allmendinger was left to battle Austin Hill for the runner-up spot while Custer went up the track and was engaged in a tight three-wide battle for fourth place that involved Parker Retzlaff and Parker Kligerman. As the field behind continued to jostle for early spots, Chandler Smith was stretching his early advantage by more than half a second over Hill.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Chandler Smith was leading by more than seven-tenths of a second over Hill followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Allmendinger and Custer while Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Riley Herbst, Parker Retzlaff and Sammy Smith were running in the top 10 ahead of Aric Almirola, Sheldon Creed, Sam Mayer, Corey Heim and Brandon Jones. Meanwhile, rookie Jesse Love was in 17th, Justin Allgaier was running 20th and Shane van Gisbergen was mired within the top 25.
Two laps later, the event’s first caution period flew after Retzlaff, who was running in the top 10, slid sideways in front of Sammy Smith entering Turn 4 and was hit by Sam Mayer, which damaged both vehicles, as Almirola barely dodged the carnage.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 13, the field fanned out to three lanes again approaching the first turn as Chandler Smith managed to retain the lead in front of Allmendinger and Hill while Kligerman muscled his way up to fourth place as Nemechek, who was pinned in the middle of the three-wide battle, slid back to sixth place in between Custer and Ryan Sieg. Amid the early battles ensuing behind, Chandler Smith maintained a reasonable advantage over Allmendinger and Hill by the Lap 15 mark.
Through the first 25 laps, Chandler Smith was leading by more than a second over Custer followed by Nemechek, Hill and Allmendinger while Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Herbst, Allgaier and Brandon Jones were running in the top 10. Behind, Sammy Smith was back in 11th ahead of Creed, Jesse Love, Heim and Kyle Weatherman while Jeb Burton, Brennan Poole, Leland Honeyman, Kyle Sieg and Hailie Deegan followed suit in the top 20 along with Josh Williams, Almirola, Anthony Alfredo, Ryan Ellis and Jeremy Clements.
Ten laps later, Chandler Smith extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Nemechek while Custer and Hill battled for third place as they trailed by four seconds. By then, Shane van Gisbergen had taken his car to the garage following a mechanical issue.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Chandler Smith captured his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Nemechek settled in second followed by Hill, Herbst and Custer while Allmendinger, Allgaier, Kligerman, Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Chandler Smith pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hill exited pit road first followed by Herbst, Nemechek, Custer, Allmendinger and Allgaier while Chandler Smith lost six spots due to a jack issue and exited seventh amid his pit service.
The second stage period started on Lap 53 as Hill and Herbst occupied the front row. At the start, Hill and Herbst dueled for the top spot through the first two turns until Hill muscled ahead with the lead exiting the backstretch. With Hill leading the race, Nemechek and Herbst battled for the runner-up spot in front of Allmendinger and Custer while Chandler Smith was trying to carve his way back to the front from sixth place.
Just past the Lap 55 mark, Nemechek rocketed past Hill for the lead as Hill, who had debris clogging his front grille, was being pressured and overtaken by Herbst, Chandler Smith and a host of competitors, where he would drop to seventh place before he cleared the debris off of his grille. With Hill mired in the top 10 and mired in a bevy of traffic through the on-track battles, Nemechek retained the lead by half a second over both Herbst and Chandler Smith by the Lap 60 mark.
Just past the Lap 70 mark, Nemechek continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith while third-place Herbst trailed by more than a second. With Allgaier and Allmendinger running in the top five, Hill was back in sixth ahead of Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Custer and Sammy Smith while Jesse Love, Brandon Jones, Almirola, Creed and Heim trailed in the top 15 as Josh Williams was up to 16th place.
Ten laps later, Nemechek retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Chandler Smith while Herbst, Allgaier and Allmendinger continued to run in the top five ahead of Hill and Kligerman. Meanwhile, Jesse Love cracked the top 10 as he was in ninth ahead of Custer while teammates Sammy Smith and Brandon Jones battled for 11th ahead of Almirola.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Chandler Smith overtook teammate Nemechek on the final lap to capture his second consecutive Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Herbst settled in third followed by Allgaier and Allmendinger while Hill, Love, Kligerman, Custer and Ryan Sieg were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Chandler Smith returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Smith retained the lead after exiting pit road ahead of Herbst and Nemechek while Hill, Allmendinger, Custer and Love followed suit.
With 104 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Chandler Smith and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, both dueled for the lead for a full lap and they continued to battle dead even for the top spot for the following lap until Nemechek managed to muscle ahead of Smith and manage both lanes to his control. With Nemechek leading Smith, Herbst trailed in third ahead of Hill, Allgaier and Allmendinger while the rest of the field behind jostled for spots.
At the halfway mark on Lap 100, teammates Nemechek and Chandler Smith dueled for the lead again, but Nemechek withstood his ground and maintained the top spot while running on the outside lane. Nemechek would retain the lead until Chandler Smith reassumed the top spot with 90 laps remaining. By then, Herbst trailed in third place by a second as Hill and Allgaier continued to run in the top five.
With less than 80 laps remaining, Chandler Smith was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Nemechek while third-place Herbst trailed by nearly a second ahead of Allgaier, Hill and Allmendinger. The caution would then fly with 73 laps remaining after Retzlaff stalled his car towards the exit of pit road. This resulted in the entire lead lap field led by Chandler Smith returning to pit road for service, where Nemechek managed to reassume the lead after beating Smith off of pit road first followed by Hill, Herbst, Allgaier and Allmendinger.
When the race restarted under green with 72 laps remaining, Nemechek fended off teammate Chandler Smith and Hill to maintain the lead from the outside lane while the rest of the field behind fanned out and jostled for late positions through the backstretch. Amid the battles, Nemechek continued to lead with less than 70 laps remaining. He would also maintain the lead with less than 60 laps remaining as Herbst was running in second ahead of Chandler Smith, Hill and Allgaier.
With 50 laps remaining, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than a second over Herbst while teammate Chandler Smith trailed in third place by more than three seconds. Hill and Allgaier continued to run in the top five while Custer, Sammy Smith, Allmendinger, Almirola and Brandon Jones were running in the top 10 ahead of Ryan Sieg, Kligerman, Love, Williams and Hailie Deegan.
Ten laps later, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to a second over Herbst and over three seconds over Chandler Smith while Hill and Allgaier remained in the top five. By then, Ryan Sieg cracked the top 10 as he was running 10th behind Custer, Allmendinger, Sammy Smith and Almirola while Creed overtook Deegan for 15th.
Another five laps later, green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Brandon Jones pitted his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro. Chandler Smith would surrender third place to pit during the following lap along with Herbst, Hill, Custer, Sammy Smith, Love, Allmendinger and others before Nemechek pitted with 31 laps remaining. Amid the pit stops, Jeb Burton was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With Nemechek pitting, Allgaier assumed the race lead with 31 laps remaining followed by Almirola, Williams, Creed and Poole. Allgaier, who was one of seven competitors opting to stretch the fuel tank as far as possible, retained the lead by nine seconds over Williams with 25 laps remaining. Meanwhile, Nemechek was mired back in eighth but was running as the highest competitor who had recently pitted ahead of Herbst and Chandler Smith.
Then with 21 laps remaining, Allgaier, who led 11 laps during his fuel stretch, pitted his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro under green as Williams assumed the race lead. By then, Nemechek carved his way up to third place while Hill, Chandler Smith and Herbst were trying to keep pace with Nemechek. Amid their charge to the front, Williams retained the lead with 15 laps remaining as he was leading by less than 12 seconds over Nemechek.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Nemechek reassumed the lead after Williams, who led the previous 10 laps, pitted under green. By then, Nemechek was out in front by more than four seconds over Hill while Chandler Smith, Custer and Herbst trailed by nearly six seconds in the top five.
With five laps remaining, Nemechek continued to lead by five seconds over a tight three-car battle for the runner-up spot that involved Hill, Custer and Chandler Smith while Herbst trailed by more than six seconds. Meanwhile, Allmendinger trailed in sixth place by seven seconds as Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Allgaier were mired in the top 10 and trailing the lead by nearly 22 seconds.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by nearly five seconds over Custer. Amid the gusty temperatures, Nemechek was able to navigate his way around the Vegas circuit smoothly for a final time and cycle back to the frontstretch as the winner as he claimed the checkered flag by more than four seconds over Custer.
With the victory, Nemechek, a full-time NASCAR Cup Series competitor for Legacy Motor Club and a part-time Xfinity competitor for Joe Gibbs Racing, scored his 10th career win in the Xfinity Series, second across NASCAR’s top three national touring series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and his ninth driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, with JGR claiming its first victory in 2024 and its fourth at Vegas in the last 10 years. The victory was also the first for rookie crew chief Tyler Allen.
“Hats off to all the guys on this No. 20 team from Joe Gibbs Racing,” Nemechek said on FS1. “Man, it’s awesome to come back out here and win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a limited number of starts. Our goal was to come and win as many [races] as we possibly could. Nothing else matters. Congrats to [crew chief] Tyler [Allen], who’s the crew chief this year of the No. 20 car. His first win as a crew chief. We’ll go celebrate in Victory Lane. Man, it feels so good to win here in Las Vegas.”
Custer, the pole winner, settled in second place followed by Chandler Smith, Austin Hill and Riley Herbst while Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Allgaier finished in the top 10.
There were 12 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 22 laps. In addition, 13 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 22 points over Chandler Smith and 27 over Riley Herbst.
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, for the Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 9, at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
In a race weekend that commenced on a high note by achieving his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career pole position, Rajah Caruth concluded the weekend by achieving another first: his first Truck Series career victory as he raced his way to victory in the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, March 1.
The 21-year-old Caruth from Washington D.C. led twice for 38 of 134 scheduled laps in an event where he commenced on a high note by achieving his first career pole position and leading the field to the green flag. Despite losing the lead early, Caruth, who led for the first time on Lap 34 after exiting pit road with the lead, kept in touch with the front-runners throughout the entire event as he achieved top-three results during both stage periods. Then amid a cycle of green flag pit stops with 34 laps remaining, Caruth, who outlasted a late battle against Taylor Gray, cycled into the lead with 21 laps remaining and managed to withstand lapped traffic and a late charge from points leader Tyler Ankrum to claim his first career victory in his 30th series’ start.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Rajah Caruth notched his first Truck Series career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 177.043 mph in 30.501 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Christian Eckes, who clocked in the second-fast qualifying lap at 177.038 mph in 30.502 seconds.
Prior to the event, rookie Layne Riggs dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his Front Row Motorsports entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Caruth and Eckes dueled for the lead entering the first two turns and through the backstretch in front of two stacked lanes until Eckes muscled ahead on the inside lane and led the first lap ahead of Caruth. As the field fanned out to three lanes, Eckes maintained the lead over Kyle Busch, who overtook teammate Caruth for the runner-up spot as Ty Majeski and Tyler Ankrum followed suit in the top five.
On the third lap, the event’s first caution flew when Bayley Currey slipped underneath Chase Purdy while battling for a top-12 spot amid a three-wide battle that also involved Matt Crafton as Currey backed his No. 41 Niece Motorsports entry into the backstretch’s outside wall before he slid back down across the track and towards the inside wall with significant rear end damage.
When the race restarted under green on the seventh lap, Eckes briefly fended off Busch for the lead entering the first turn until Busch used the outside lane along with a push from teammate Caruth to assume the lead through the backstretch, with Eckes slipping back to second as he was being challenged by Majeski. Amid the early battles ensuing behind, Busch maintained the lead ahead of Majeski, Eckes and Caruth while Stewart Friesen and Tyler Ankrum battled for fifth in front of Grant Enfinger.
Through the Lap 10 mark, Busch was leading by more than two-tenths of a second over Majeski followed by Caruth, Friesen and Eckes while Ankrum, Enfinger, Zane Smith, Nick Sanchez and Christopher Bell were running in the top 10. Behind, Corey Heim was in 11th ahead of Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Ben Rhodes and Dean Thompson while Taylor Gray, Jake Garcia, Daniel Dye, Ty Dillon and Bret Holmes occupied the top 20 on the track.
Four laps later, Majeski engaged in a side-by-side battle with Busch for the lead through the frontstretch as Caruth joined the battle. After dueling against Busch through the backstretch, Majeski muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 as he was out in front through the frontstretch before Busch reassumed the top spot through the first two turns just past the Lap 15. Amid another side-by-side battle with Majeski, Busch muscled back ahead just past the Lap 16 mark as teammate Caruth started to battle Majeski for the runner-up spot. Majeski, however, would reassume the lead on Lap 19. He would be followed by Caruth while Busch, who started to battle tight conditions, was battling Friesen for third place.
At the Lap 25 mark, Majeski was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Caruth while Friesen, Ankrum and Bell were in the top five. Meanwhile, Busch had fallen to seventh behind Heim while Taylor Gray, Enfinger and Zane Smith were running in the top 10. In addition, Eckes, who led early, was mired back in 13th behind Crafton and Sanchez while Rhodes was mired 15th in between Dean Thompson and Tanner Gray.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Majeski captured his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Caruth settled in second followed by Friesen, Ankrum and Heim while Bell, Taylor Gray, Busch, Enfinger and Crafton were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Majeski steered to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Caruth emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Busch, Heim, Majeski, Enfinger and Crafton. Amid the pit stops, Bell was penalized for equipment interference while rookie Thad Moffitt was also penalized for his pit crew being over the wall too soon.
The second stage period started on Lap 36 as teammates Caruth and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Caruth received a push from Majeski to retain the lead from the inside lane while Busch battled and prevailed over a brief battle with Majeski for the runner-up spot through the backstretch. During the following lap, however, Busch drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Caruth for the lead. With Heim and Majeski following suit in close-quarters racing, Caruth would muscle back ahead of Busch by Lap 40. He would retain the lead by a narrow margin during the proceeding laps while Busch, Heim and Majeski ran second through fourth, respectively, as they were separated within half a second.
By Lap 45, Caruth was leading by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Majeski while teammate Busch trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second. Behind, Heim and Taylor Gray were in the top five while Sanchez, Crafton, Enfinger, Ankrum and Zane Smith occupied the top 10 in front of Friesen, Eckes, Thompson, Tanner Gray and Dye.
Five laps later, Caruth continued to lead by less than two-tenths of a second over Majeski. Majeski, however, would navigate his way back into the lead over Caruth entering the frontstretch during the following lap. Heim would then battle Caruth for the runner-up spot while Busch, Taylor Gray and Sanchez trailed in the top six. Meanwhile, Bell was up in 16th place following his early pit road penalty.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Majeski captured his second consecutive Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Heim prevailed in a late battle against Caruth for the runner-up spot followed by Taylor Gray and Busch while Sanchez, Enfinger, Zane Smith, Friesen and Crafton were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Majeski returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Busch emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Taylor Gray, Majeski, Heim, Sanchez, Enfinger, Crafton and Caruth followed suit.
With 68 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Taylor Gray and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Busch fended off Gray to emerge with the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns. Busch would lead ahead of Gray and Majeski for nearly a lap just before the caution returned after Thompson, who was running 11th, smacked the outside wall entering the frontstretch.
When the race restarted with 62 laps remaining, Busch maintained a narrow advantage over both Majeski and Taylor Gray through the first two turns before he was overtaken by Majeski, who was being drafted by Sanchez as Enfinger fanned out and made a three-wide move in an attempt to gain ground on Busch towards the front, though Busch maintained third place in front of Enfinger, Heim and Caruth. With the field still fanning out and jostling for late spots, Majeski retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Sanchez followed by Heim while Caruth, Taylor Gray and Busch followed closely in the top six with 60 to go.
A few laps later, Sanchez battled and overtook Majeski for the lead through the frontstretch. With Sanchez out in front, Caruth would challenge Majeski for the runner-up spot followed by Heim and Taylor Gray while Busch and Ankrum battled for sixth place. Heim would then take the lead from Sanchez with 53 laps remaining while Majeski, Caruth and Taylor Gray fiercely battled for third place. As Ankrum and Busch joined the tight battle towards the front, Heim would retain the lead by two-tenths of a second over Majeski with 50 laps remaining before the latter assumed the top spot a lap later.
With 40 laps remaining, Heim, who reassumed the lead five laps earlier, was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Taylor Gray while Majeski, Caruth and Ankrum trailed in the top five ahead of Sanchez, Busch, Bell, Rhodes and Eckes. Meanwhile, Friesen, who hit the backstretch wall and pitted under green with a flat right-front tire, was mired back in 27th and two laps down, while Crafton, Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Riggs and Zane Smith were running in the top 15.
Six laps later, green flag pit stops commenced as Daniel Dye pitted followed by Eckes, Enfinger, Caruth, Busch and Majeski before the leader Heim pitted with 30 laps remaining. Ankrum would also pit while Taylor Gray would pit during the proceeding lap. As the green flag pit stops continued, Majeski and Sanchez were assessed a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road while Busch would be penalized for a safety violation. With more names that included Tanner Gray, Jake Garcia, Bret Holmes, Bell and Purdy also pitting under green, Gray would be penalized for a commitment line violation. By then, Mason Massey, who has yet to pit, was leading while Taylor Gray and Caruth battled for the runner-up spot.
Then with 21 laps remaining, Massey, who led the previous six laps, pitted under green. This moved Caruth into the lead as he was ahead by nearly a second over Taylor Gray while Heim, Ankrum and Bell were scored in the top five ahead of Eckes, Crafton, Dye, Enfinger and Rhodes.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Caruth extended his advantage to more than a second over Taylor Gray while third-place Ankrum trailed in third place by two seconds ahead of Heim and Bell. A lap later, however, Ankrum would overtake Taylor Gray for the runner-up spot and set his sights on Caruth while Gray proceeded to fend off Heim for third place.
Five laps later and with the leader navigating through lapped traffic, Caruth continued to lead by more than a second over a hard-charging Ankrum while Heim, Taylor Gray and Bell were running in the top five ahead of Eckes, Crafton, Enfinger, Zane Smith and Rhodes were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Majeski was back in 11th ahead of Garcia, Holmes, Connor Jones and Busch while Sanchez was back in 17th ahead of Purdy.
With five laps remaining, Caruth stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Ankrum and by more than two seconds over third-place Heim while Taylor Gray and Heim remained in the top five.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Caruth remained as the leader by more than a second over Ankrum. With Ankrum trying to mount a final lap charge, Caruth was able to stabilize his steady advantage and navigate his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST around the Vegas circuit smoothly for a final time as he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag in the series by eight-tenths of a second over Ankrum.
With the victory, Caruth, whose first career victory came in his 30th series start, became the 124th competitor to achieve a victory in the Truck Series and the second first-time winner of the season after Nick Sanchez achieved his first career victory at Daytona International Speedway two weeks earlier. He also became the third African-American competitor to win across NASCAR’s top three national touring series and the second to do so in the Truck Series since Bubba Wallace made the first accomplishment in October 2013 while also delivering the fourth career victory for Spire Motorsports. Caruth also delivered the first victory for crew chief Chad Walter.
“It’s surreal,” Caruth said on FS1. “Thank you so much to HendrickCars.com, Mr. [Hendrick] for putting me in this [Spire Motorsports truck] all year along with the men and women at Spire. They’ve had a lot of work this winter and the decal shop’s been working very hard too. Glad to get the win for Team Chevy. Can’t thank my family enough. So many people have helped me get to this point. I can’t believe it. I just stayed cool. We lost track position a little portion of the race. We just stayed in the game and it was just one step. One punch, one round at a time. My [pit] guys had me a great stop and we just executed. There’s more [wins] to come, for sure.”
Tyler Ankrum, the series’ points leader, settled in the runner-up spot while Corey Heim, Taylor Gray and Christopher Bell finished in the top five. Christian Eckes rallied to finish sixth while Matt Crafton, Zane Smith, Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski ended up in the top 10.
Notably, Kyle Busch ended up in 15th place ahead of Chase Purdy while Nick Sanchez finished 17th.
There were 19 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 19 laps. In total, all but one of 32 starters finished the event while 13 finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Tyler Ankrum continues to lead the regular-season standings by five points over Ty Majeski, seven over Corey Heim and 10 over Rajah Caruth.
Results.
1. Rajah Caruth, 38 laps led
2. Tyler Ankrum
3. Corey Heim, 18 laps led
4. Taylor Gray, four laps led
5. Christopher Bell, two laps led
6. Christian Eckes, seven laps led
7. Matt Crafton
8. Zane Smith
9. Grant Enfinger
10. Ty Majeski, 40 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
11. Jake Garcia
12. Bret Holmes
13. Ben Rhodes
14. Connor Jones, one lap down
15. Kyle Busch, one lap down, 13 laps led
16. Chase Purdy, one lap down, one lap led
17. Nick Sanchez, one lap down, five laps led
18. Stewart Friesen, one lap down
19. Connor Mosack, one lap down
20. Tanner Gray, one lap down
21. Mason Massey, one lap down, six laps led
22. Layne Riggs, one lap down
23. Lawless Alan, one lap down
24. Daniel Dye, two laps down
25. Thad Moffitt, two laps down
26. Ty Dillon, two laps down
27. Keith McGee, three laps down
28. Bayley Currey, five laps down
29. Spencer Boyd, six laps down
30. Dean Thompson, nine laps down
31. Matt Mills, nine laps down
32. Timmy Hill – OUT, Electrical
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. The event is scheduled to occur on March 16 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
Today marks Leap Day, February 29, where an extra day is included in the calendar every four years and occurs due to Earth taking 365 days and an extra six hours to orbit around the Sun. The gain of an extra day within the 365-day calendar ensures the calendar itself remains aligned with Earth revolving around the Sun.
With Leap Day providing its share of historic events and birthdays throughout human history, the holiday date has also provided a handful of significant moments within NASCAR history.
The first known NASCAR competition to occur on Leap Day dates to February 29, 1976, at North Carolina Motor Speedway, where the Cup Series’ Carolina 500 occurred. During the event, Richard Petty won for the first time of the season after claiming the checkered flag by two laps over runner-up Darrell Waltrip and dodging a late multi-car pileup that resulted in Bobby Allison flipping. The victory was redemption for Petty, who was involved in a wild final lap accident and finish with David Pearson two weeks earlier that resulted in Pearson managing to nurse his damaged No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Mercury across the finish line in first place ahead of Petty, whose car was unable to restart.
The 1976 victory at Rockingham’s North Carolina Motor Speedway would serve as Petty’s 178th of 200 overall Cup victories he would achieve, where he still stands as NASCAR’s “The King” with the most career victories all-time to coincide with his seven championships, which is tied for the most in the Cup Series history alongside Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson. Currently, Petty, who retired from NASCAR competition following the 1992 season, serves as a team ambassador for Legacy Motor Club, a team he formerly owned and is currently owned by Johnson and Maury Gallagher. The team was rebranded from Petty GMS Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports, both names that stood out over the last 14 years.
Sixteen years later (1992), another Leap Day event at North Carolina Motor Speedway occurred. On this occasion, the Xfinity Series hosted the Goodwrench 200. During the event, Ward Burton scored his first Xfinity career win after leading the final 22 laps and beating Mark Martin by nine-tenths of a second. The Rockingham victory would serve as Burton’s first of four total victories he would achieve in his Xfinity career, with his latter three occurring in 1993. To date, Burton has made 161 career starts in the Xfinity Series, with his latest occurring in 2007. The South Boston, Virginia, native has also made a single start in the Craftsman Truck Series, which occurred in 2012 and marks his final national touring series career start, and 375 in the Cup Series, where he has achieved five victories, including the 2002 Daytona 500 and the 2001 Southern 500.
In 2008, there were no NASCAR race day competitions that occurred on Leap Day. Instead, the Cup Series held a qualifying session for the upcoming UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. During the qualifying session, hometown hero Kyle Busch, who was making his third career start driving the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, secured his first pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 182.325 mph in 29.613 seconds. During the main event two days later, Busch, who led twice for 56 laps, ended up in 11th place while Carl Edwards would fend off Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a two-lap dash to win for the ninth time in his career and second in recent weeks.
Today, Edwards, who would proceed to win eight additional events and settle in the runner-up spot behind Jimmie Johnson in the 2008 final standings, is retired with 28 Cup career victories added to his resume after electing to step away from full-time competition following the 2016 season. Earnhardt Jr., who would end up in 12th place in the 2008 standings, also retired following the 2017 season as he stands at 26 Cup career victories, including two Daytona 500 titles. Meanwhile, Busch, who ended up in 10th place in the 2008 standings despite winning a total of eight races, is currently campaigning in his 20th season as a Cup Series competitor and second driving for Richard Childress Racing. He currently has achieved two Cup Series championships (2015 & 2019) and holds 230 victories across NASCAR’s top-three national touring series (65 in Craftsman Truck Series, 102 in Xfinity Series and 63 in Cup Series).
The third and latest NASCAR competition to occur on Leap Day was in 2020 at Auto Club Speedway in the Xfinity Series. During the year’s event, Harrison Burton, Ward Burton’s nephew who was campaigning in his first full-time Xfinity campaign and driving the No. 20 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, scored his first Xfinity victory in his 12th series start after he led twice for 40 laps and managed to retain the top spot during a restart with 19 laps remaining before fending off late challenges from teammate Riley Herbst and Austin Cindric. The Fontana victory would serve as the first of four victories accumulated for Burton throughout the 2020 Xfinity season, with the Huntersville, North Carolina, native securing a spot in the 2020 Xfinity Playoffs. Despite being eliminated from Playoff contention following the Round of 12, Burton, who won twice in the final four-scheduled events, proceeded to finish in eighth place in the final driver’s standings and secured the Rookie-of-the-Year title.
Currently, Burton is campaigning in his third full-time season in the Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing and as the driver of the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. He has made 75 starts in NASCAR’s premier series and has racked up a single top-five result and four top-10 results.
Prior to Harrison Burton’s first Xfinity victory, the Cup Series generated a dramatic moment earlier in the day when Clint Bowyer edged seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson by 0.007 seconds to claim what would be his fourth and final Cup career pole position at Fontana. Bowyer’s pole-winning lap, overall, occurred at 179.614 mph in 40.086 seconds. During the main event, Bowyer, who led the first 10 laps, ended up in 23rd place and Johnson settled in seventh place while Johnson’s teammate, Alex Bowman, won for the second time in his career after leading a race-high 110 laps.
Bowyer and Johnson have since retired from full-time NASCAR competition, which occurred following the 2020 season, while Bowman is currently campaigning in his ninth season in the Cup Series and seventh driving for Hendrick Motorsports.
Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.
For this season, there are no NASCAR-sanctioned events that are scheduled to occur on Leap Day, with the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity and Cup divisions set to run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as part of a triple-header weekend between March 1-3. With Leap Day 2028 scheduled to occur on a Tuesday and with race day events primarily occurring on weekends, Leap Day 2032 is scheduled to occur on a Sunday, which leaves the futuristic possibility of another addition to NASCAR competition on Leap Day to be made.
NASCAR released its penalty report following this past weekend’s triple-header feature at Atlanta Motor Speedway which includes two Cup Series teams from the same organization hit with an early points swing.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Nos. 10 and 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse teams piloted by Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece, respectively, have each been docked 35 driver/owner points as a result of violating Section 14.5.6.1.a. of NASCAR’s Rule Book that highlights the specification compliance of roof rail deflectors.
The news comes after NASCAR confiscated the roof rail deflectors of both Gragson and Preece’s entries following Friday’s pre-race inspection and before the Cup Series’ Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday.
During the event, Preece finished 16th while Gragson, who was involved in a 16-car pileup on the second lap, retired in 36th.
In addition, Joey Logano, a two-time Cup Series champion, was fined $10,000 for a competition infraction that involved failing to meet SFI-approved specifications with his protective gloves, where his left glove was discovered to be modified with webbings between his thumb and index finger, which would provide an aerodynamic advantage by creating drag and deflecting air from coming inside the car.
Logano, who initially posted the second-fastest qualifying speed and was set to start alongside pole-sitter Michael McDowell on the front row, was instead forced to drop to the rear of the field and serve a pass-through penalty at the start of the main event. Despite rallying to lead 27 laps, Logano ended up 28th after getting collected in a multi-car wreck with Chris Buescher and Denny Hamlin prior to the second stage’s conclusion.
In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Seth Chavka, crew chief for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 “all-star” Toyota Supra entry that was piloted by Ryan Truex, was fined $5,000 due to a single lug nut discovered to be unsecured on Truex’s entry following the series’ RAPTOR King of Tough 250 at Atlanta on Saturday. During the event, Truex finished ninth after he initially was in contention for the victory during an overtime shootout.
In addition, Jason Miller, crew chief of the No. 14 SS Green Light Racing Chevrolet team piloted by JJ Yeley, was issued a two-race suspension, beginning for the next two upcoming weekends, for violating Section 4.4.D of the Xfinity Series’ Rule Book that highlights NASCAR member code of conduct. Miller was seen engaging in a physical confrontation with Kyle Weatherman following Saturday’s event. Their argument stems from where Weatherman sent Yeley for a spin entering Turn 1 nearing the Lap 60 mark. Yeley ended up 24th while Weatherman finished 17th.
There were no penalties or fines issued from Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series’ FR8 208 event at Atlanta.
NASCAR is set to resume to action for its third triple-header feature of the 2024 season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The action commences with the Truck Series’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 on Friday, March 1, which will air at 9 p.m. ET on FS1 followed by the Xfinity Series’ The LiUNA! that will occur on Saturday, March 2, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. The Cup Series’ Pennzoil 400 will conclude the weekend by occurring on Sunday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Hendrick Motorsports will be fielding the No. 17 Chevrolet Camaro entry sponsored by HendrickCars.com for 10 NASCAR Xfinity Series events, an increase from the previous two seasons, featuring five accomplished competitors throughout the 2024 season.
William Byron, the 2024 Daytona 500 champion, will first field the HMS No. 17 “all-star” entry at Phoenix Raceway on March 9. He will also compete at Darlington Raceway on May 11, Pocono Raceway on July 13 and conclude the entry’s 10-race program by competing at Watkins Glen International on September 14.
During Byron’s four-race Xfinity slate, Brandon McSwain, a lead engineer for Byron and the No. 24 HMS team in the Cup Series who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a mechanical engineering degree, will also serve as Byron’s Xfinity crew chief.
Kyle Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, will return to pilot the No. 17 HendrickCars.com entry at Circuit of the Americas on March 23 and at the Chicago Street Course on July 6 while Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, will compete at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25 and at Darlington Raceway on August 31.
Lastly, Alex Bowman, a three-time Daytona 500 pole winner, will make his lone Xfinity start of the season in the No. 17 entry at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 22 while Boris Said, an accomplished road-course ringer with victories in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, will return to compete at Sonoma Raceway on June 8. Said, a former champion of the Rolex Sports Car Series GT Class, with a single victory across the Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series, is also a partner at Hendrick Automotive Group’s BMW of Murrieta in Murrieta, California.
For the events where Bowman, Elliott, Larson and Said pilot the No. 17 entry (six races total), Greg Ives, the 2014 Xfinity Series championship-winning crew chief with 10 Cup Series victories, will return to call the shots atop the No. 17 pit box.
“The No. 17 is a big part of our story, and it would be special to see it win – and win often – during our 40th anniversary season,” Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports and chairman and CEO of Hendrick Automotive Group, said. “The sponsorship has been a big success for HendrickCars.com and our dealerships, and we’re pleased to add more races and take it to another level in 2024. It’s victory lane or bust.”
Hendrick Motorsports first fielded the No. 17 HendrickCars.com entry in four Xfinity events in 2022, where Bowman, Byron and Larson contributed to a combined two poles, three top-five results and 71 laps led. The entry returned for six events in 2023, where Bowman, Byron, Rajah Caruth, Elliott and Larson contributed to a single pole, three top-three results, four top-10 results and 68 laps led.
Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry is set to make its first start of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with William Byron at Phoenix Raceway for the Call 811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200 on March 9. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to commence at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
With the first two events of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule highlighted with two dramatic finishes on two restrictor-plate circuits in the rearview mirror, the teams and competitors venture off for a two-race West Coast swing between the states of Nevada and Arizona to commence the month of March.
It all begins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, a city spotlighted with recent major sporting events and triumphs, from both the Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Aces achieving recent championships in the NHL and WNBA, respectively, to Formula 1 hosting its inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix through the Vegas Strip last November and Super Bowl LVIII occurring in the city’s Allegiant Stadium between the San Francisco 49ers and the eventual champions Kansas City Chiefs two weeks ago.
This upcoming weekend is set to mark the first of two scheduled visits this season in Sin City for both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity divisions while the Craftsman Truck Series division will make its lone, annual visit to Vegas’s 1.5-mile speedway venue before entering a one-week break period.
The main attraction for this weekend’s triple-header feature is the Cup Series’ Pennzoil 400 which will occur this upcoming Sunday, March 3, and cap off the triple-header feature.
With 37 participants entered for Sunday’s main event, which will ensure all entered competitors make the main event, the competitor who headlines the entry list is Daniel Suarez, who is coming off a dramatic three-wide photo finish against Cup Series champions Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he nipped Blaney at the finish line by 0.003 seconds, that snapped Suarez’s one-year winless drought and register his second Cup career victory. Despite registering only two top-10 results in 13 Cup career starts at Vegas, the Monterrey, Mexico, native strives to extend his early momentum that could land him and Trackhouse Racing in Victory Lane for a second consecutive weekend.
William Byron, the 2024 Daytona 500 champion, and teammate Kyle Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, also headline the entry list as both Hendrick Motorsports’ competitors each won a Cup Vegas event a year ago (Byron in March and Larson in October). With HMS’ competitors winning four of the last six Cup events at Vegas, all four Hendrick competitors, including Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott, strive to extend the team’s strong early start into their 40th anniversary of NASCAR competition.
Currently, Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion and a native of Las Vegas, leads this year’s Cup Series regular-season standings following his third-place run at Atlanta. Busch, who achieved his first and only Cup victory to date at Vegas in 2009, strives to strike gold in front of his home crowd come Sunday’s main event while his competition that includes Byron, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Elliott, Suarez, Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., Larson and Corey LaJoie strive to spoil Busch’s homecoming.
A notable newcomer to this weekend’s Cup entry list is Derek Kraus, who will make his first select Cup Series starts this season in Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. The 22-year-old Kraus from Stratford, Connecticut, graduates to a part-time Cup Series campaign for the first time after spending this past season as a part-time Xfinity Series competitor for Kaulig Racing while also serving as a simulator competitor for both Kaulig and Legacy Motor Club. He is also the 2019 ARCA Menards Series West champion who competed in three full-time Craftsman Truck Series seasons (2020-22).
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
Another newcomer featured for Sunday’s event is JJ Yeley, who will return to pilot the No 44 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for NY Racing for his first official Cup start of the 2024 season two weeks after he fell short of qualifying for this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500.
A day before the Cup Series action, the Xfinity Series will host The LiUNA! which will feature 38 participants contesting from 38 starting spots.
The competitor who headlines the entry list is Austin Hill, who is two-for-two in this year’s Xfinity schedule following recent superspeedway victories at Daytona and Atlanta. With the Winston, Georgia, native having won the spring Xfinity Vegas event a year ago, Hill will attempt to become the first competitor to commence a new season of Xfinity Series competition by winning the first three events on a schedule.
Another competitor who headlines the list is Riley Herbst, a 25-year-old Las Vegas native who scored his first Xfinity career victory at his home track last October and is currently ranked in third place in this year’s Xfinity regular-season standings as he strives for back-to-back victories at home.
Both Hill and Herbst are not the only Xfinity regulars off to a strong start to the 2024 season. Sheldon Creed, Chandler Smith and Parker Retzlaff, all of whom have finished in the top five in the first two events of this season, strive to extend their early momentum and potentially land their first victory of the season. In addition, rookie Jesse Love, who is also last year’s ARCA Menards Series champion from Menlo Park, California, strives for redemption after leading a race-high 157 laps a week ago at Atlanta, only to run out of fuel during an overtime shootout and settling in 12th place in the final running order. The list also includes AJ Allmendinger, who won at Vegas in 2021, and rookie Shane van Gisbergen, who recorded his first top-three result by finishing third last weekend at Atlanta as he will make his first career start at Vegas.
Notably, Aric Almirola will make his first Xfinity Series start of the 2024 season as part of a part-time campaign with Joe Gibbs Racing. He was initially scheduled to share the No. 20 JGR Toyota Supra entry with John Hunter Nemechek throughout this season. Instead, Almirola will pilot the No. 19 Supra this weekend, an entry that had been piloted by Ryan Truex for the first two events on the 2024 calendar, while Nemechek returns to pilot the No. 20 entry for his third of 10 scheduled starts.
Photo by Tim Jarrold for SpeedwayMedia.com.
Corey Heim, a full-time Truck Series competitor for TRICON Garage and a Toyota Racing Development competitor, will also be featured in Saturday’s Xfinity event as he will make his first of select Xfinity starts in the No. 26 Toyota Supra for Sam Hunt Racing.
Currently, the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet Camaro entry is entered for Saturday’s event, though a driver has yet to be named. In addition, the No. 36 DGM Racing Chevrolet entry, which initially entered without a listed driver, is listed to be withdrawn from the event.
This weekend’s triple-header feature at Las Vegas will commence with the Truck Series’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 which will occur this upcoming Friday, March 1, and feature 32 competitors entered for the event.
Ironically, the competitor who headlines the entry list is Kyle Busch, who is set to make his second of five-scheduled series starts in the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports at his home track to go alongside his full-time Cup Series role with Richard Childress Racing. Busch motored his way to his first Truck victory of the 2024 season with Spire Motorsports at Atlanta last weekend and has won four of the last six spring Truck events at Vegas.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
Busch is not the only Cup Series competitor entered for this weekend’s Truck Series event at Las Vegas as he will compete alongside former Truck champions Christopher Bell and Zane Smith. Smith, the 2022 Truck Series champion and a 2024 Cup Series rookie, will pilot the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado RST for his first of four-scheduled starts in the series while Bell, the 2017 series champion, will pilot the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage.
Another notable spot in this weekend’s Truck entry list is Connor Mosack, who will make his first of select series starts in the No. 45 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Niece Motorsports. The 25-year-old Mosack from Charlotte, North Carolina, spent this past season competing in 24 Xfinity events between Sam Hunt Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing. He also achieved his first ARCA Menards Series career victory at Kansas Speedway last September and is currently competing in the 2024 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series for Silver Hare Racing.
Currently, Tyler Ankrum, who has achieved two top-11 runs in his first two Truck events driving for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, leads the regular-season standings by 10 points over Ty Majeski, who finished in the runner-up spot behind Busch last weekend at Atlanta, and by 12 over Nick Sanchez, who scored his first career victory at Daytona. Corey Heim, Rajah Caruth, Bret Holmes, Matt Crafton, Taylor Gray, Christian Eckes and Daniel Dye trail in the top 10 in the standings, respectively.
Following this upcoming weekend’s triple-header weekend at Vegas, the Cup and Xfinity Series teams and competitors will travel southeast to Avondale, Arizona, to compete at Phoenix Raceway alongside the ARCA Menards Series West for their season-opening event between March 8-10, which will conclude the two-week West Coast swing. Meanwhile, the Truck Series will enter its first off-weekend break period before returning to action at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, on March 16.
The Craftsman Truck Series’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is set to air on Friday, March 1, at 9 p.m. ET on FS1 while the Xfinity Series’ The LiUNA! will follow suit and air on Saturday, March 2, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. The Cup Series’ Pennzoil 400 will conclude this weekend’s triple-header feature by occurring on Sunday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
In a three-wide photo finish for the ages, Daniel Suárez bested NASCAR Cup Series champions Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch to score a wild victory in the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, February 25.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Suárez said after the race. “This team did an amazing job all race long. We wrecked on Lap two. The guys fixed the car and we were able to make it good again, make it fast again. It took some tweaking, but unbelievable. Freeway Insurance, Trackhouse, Chevrolet, and all the people that believed in us from day one – it’s unbelievable to do this in this fashion.”
The 2016 Xfinity Series champion from Monterrey, Mexico, led twice for nine of 260 scheduled laps in an event where he was involved in a 16-car pileup on the second lap. Amid the early incident, Suárez persevered through nine additional caution periods to methodically carve his way back to the front, where he would lead for the first time with 12 laps remaining. During a five-lap shootout to the finish, Suárez, who lost the lead to Ryan Blaney, was left to battle Kyle Busch dead even for the runner-up spot during the next four laps.
Then on the final lap, both Suárez and Busch took Blaney in a tight three-wide battle in front of the stacked field through the final two turns. All three competitors remained dead even against one another through the frontstretch until Suárez just managed to emerge ahead of both Blaney and Busch by a nose to claim his second NASCAR Cup Series career victory and snap a one-year winless drought.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, February 24, Michael McDowell achieved his first Cup Series pole position of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 178.844 mph in 30.999 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Joey Logano, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying speed at 178.424 mph in 31.072 seconds.
Prior to the event, however, Logano dropped to the rear of the field and was forced to serve a pass-through penalty through pit road at the start of the event due to wearing illegal gloves and violating NASCAR’s SFI specification. Chase Elliott also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, McDowell and Kyle Busch, who moved up to the front row, dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Busch, who was drafted by Kyle Larson on the inside lane, quickly moved in front of McDowell entering the backstretch. McDowell, however, fought back as he transitioned from the outside to inside lane, but Busch was able to muscle ahead from the outside lane and lead the first lap.
Following the completion of the first lap, however, the first caution flew after a checkup towards the front of the pack caused by Gilliland on the outside lane resulted with Austin Dillon, who was running in the top 10 and ran into the rear of Austin Cindric, getting hit by Martin Truex Jr. as he spun his No. 3 BREZTRI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 exiting the frontstretch, which then triggered a multi-car wreck entering Turn 1 that collected Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, rookie Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suárez, Elliott, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Preece, BJ McLeod and Harrison Burton.
During the event’s first caution period, a bevy of names that included Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Corey LaJoie, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., rookie Zane Smith, Logano and the wrecked competitors pitted while the rest led by Busch remained on the track. By then, Josh Williams took his Kaulig Racing entry to the garage due to a mechanical issue.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 10, Busch quickly transitioned from the outside to inside lane to retain the lead in front of a side-by-side duel in front of McDowell and Larson through the first two turns and the backstretch. Larson then challenged Busch with a move to the inside lane and he managed to slide in front of Busch’s No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead. Busch, however, responded back by overtaking Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the following lap as he would retain the lead while Chris Buescher challenged Larson for the runner-up spot.
Through the first 15 scheduled laps, Busch was leading ahead of Chase Briscoe and Larson while McDowell and Buescher followed suit in front of two tight-packed lanes. With the field slowing fanning out to three lanes while spread out around the Atlanta circuit, Busch, who was swapping against Larson for the lead a few laps earlier, continued to lead by the Lap 20 mark ahead of Larson while McDowell, Blaney and Buescher battled in the top five. Behind, Briscoe was in sixth while William Byron, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, Truex, Zane Smith, Gilliland, Ty Gibbs and LaJoie occupied the top 15 on the track.
Nearing the Lap 25 mark, the event’s second caution flew after Buescher, who was running in the top 10, got loose and spun his No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse in front of William Byron entering Turn 4, though he was dodged by oncoming traffic and was able to limp his entry to pit road for four fresh tires. During the caution period, some led by Byron pitted while the rest led by new race leader Ryan Blaney remained on the track.
At the start of the proceeding restart on Lap 31, Blaney muscled ahead on the outside lane and fended off Larson through the first two turns and the backstretch until Larson fought back on the inside lane, with both dueling for the lead in front of Busch, Briscoe, McDowell and Denny Hamlin. Amid the two-pack formation towards the front, Blaney retained the top spot until Busch rocketed his way back to the lead just past the Lap 33 mark. With Busch leading, McDowell battled dead even with Blaney for the runner-up spot while Chastain, Larson, Briscoe and Truex followed suit by the Lap 35 mark.
Through the first 40 scheduled laps, Busch continued to lead in front of McDowell, Blaney, Chastain, Larson, Briscoe, Truex, Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace while Byron, rookie Josh Berry, LaJoie, Logano, Gilliland, Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Keselowski, Zane Smith and Justin Haley were running in the top 20 amid two tight-packed lanes.
Ten laps later and with the field dispersed, McDowell, who reassumed the top spot on Lap 41, was still leading in front of Blaney, Busch, truex and Larson while Hamlin, Chastain, Briscoe, Stenhouse and Wallace were running in the top 10 in front of Byron, Logano, LaJoie, Cindric and Keselowski.
Another two laps later, the caution flew after Hamlin, who was battling for a top-five spot on the track, made contact with Kyle Busch as he spun his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE through the frontstretch’s grass before coming to a stop just towards the exit of pit road. During the caution period, a majority of the field pitted while the rest led by McDowell remained on the track.
With the event restarting with a single lap remaining to the first stage’s period, McDowell and Blaney dueled for the lead exiting the frontstretch and through the first two turns until McDowell started to muscle ahead from the inside lane with drafting help from Chastain. As the field behind fanned out to three lanes through Turns 3 and 4, McDowell was able to muscle ahead and capture his first stage victory of the season on Lap 60. Blaney settled in second followed by Chastain, Larson and Busch while Truex, Stenhouse, Wallace, Byron and Gilliland, all of whom earned the first wave of stage points, were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, some led by McDowell pitted while the rest led by teammate Gilliland remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Blaney nearly collided with Ryan Preece while trying to exit his pit stall amid a congested pit road stretch with those who pitted.
The second stage period started on Lap 67 as Gilliland and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Gilliland and Logano dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Gilliland, who received a strong push from LaJoie on the inside lane, muscled ahead and managed to slide in front of Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse through the backstretch. With Buescher, LaJoie and Zane Smith following suit, Gilliland retained the lead in front of Logano as Josh Berry, Harrison Burton and Cindric joined the battle towards the front.
On Lap 72, Zane Smith, who was rim-riding towards the outside wall while running in the top five, made contact with the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4 after he got loose just as Logano slid up in front of him, which stalled his momentum as his No. 71 City of Refuge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 slowly began to backslide through the field. With the field remaining under green flag conditions as Smith pitted, Gilliland retained the lead followed by Logano, Buescher, Berry and Harrison Burton while Elliott, Hamlin, Cindric, LaJoie and Ty Gibbs were running in the top 10 by the Lap 75 mark.
Through the first 80 scheduled laps and with the majority of the field running in tight-pack formation amid two lanes, Gilliland continued to lead in front of Ford teammates Logano, Buescher, Burton and McDowell, who carved his way from starting in the top 20, while Hamlin, who recovered from his early spin, was trying to mount a charge on the inside lane followed by Cindric. The top 28 competitors would be separated by more than two seconds by the Lap 85 mark as Gilliland retained the lead while McDowell moved up to third place and challenged Logano for more.
At the Lap 100 mark, Logano, who assumed the lead for the first time of the day a lap earlier, was leading in front of Gilliland, Buescher, Keselowski and McDowell while Burton, Byron, Hamlin, Blaney and Chastain were running in the top 10 in front of Larson, Cindric, Truex, Busch, Elliott, LaJoie, Wallace, Stenhouse, Daniel Suárez and Briscoe. By then, the top 28 competitors were separated by more than three seconds.
Fifteen laps later, Logano, who spent the previous 15 laps swapping the lead with Buescher and Gilliland, was leading ahead of Chastain and teammate Blaney while Buescher, Keselowski, Hamlin, Cindric, Burton, Larson and Byron followed suit in the top 10. By then, the majority of the field were running in two tight-packed lanes while some occurrences of three-wide racing occurred.
At the halfway mark on Lap 130, green flag pit stops slowly commenced as teammates Logano and Blaney pitted while Larson was leading in front of Cindric, Chastain, Keselowski, Byron and Hamlin. Cindric would then pit during the following lap as Keselowski challenged Larson for the lead. Keselowski would then lead Chastain and teammate Buescher to pit road through the venue’s pit road entrance towards the backstretch’s exit by Lap 133 before Hamlin led Truex, Elliott and Burton to pit road during the proceeding lap.
Then as Larson surrendered the lead to pit with the next wave of competitors on Lap 135, where he got bumped by Kyle Busch, Byron and McDowell spun and wrecked against one another while trying to enter the pit road’s commitment line towards the backstretch, though the event remained under green flag conditions as both proceeded. Amid the pit stops, Berry and Chastain were penalized for speeding on pit road.
With the first wave of green flag pit stops being completed by Lap 139, Cindric cycled his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead followed by teammates Logano and Blaney while Gilliland followed suit in fourth place. In addition, Larson was in fifth while Buescher, Briscoe, Wallace, Suárez and Keselowski were scored in the top 10. Soon after, Wallace, Busch and Stenhouse were penalized for speeding on pit road while Erik Jones was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.
By Lap 150, Cindric retained the lead ahead of teammate Logano, Larson, teammate Blaney and Buescher while Gilliland, Briscoe, Truex, Suárez and Hamlin cycled their way into the top 10 ahead of Keselowski, Burton, Elliott, LaJoie, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs, Kaz Grala, Carson Hocevar, Austin Dillon and John Hunter Nemechek.
Then on the final lap of the second stage period, the caution flew after Logano, who was trying to slide up in front of Buescher amid the draft, ran out of room as both collided against the outside wall through the backstretch, with Hamlin also getting collected in the wreckage while Keselowski barely dodged the incident. With the second stage period concluding under caution on Lap 160, Cindric, who nearly lost the lead to teammate Logano a few laps earlier, captured his first stage victory of the 2024 season. Larson settled in second followed by Blaney, Suárez and Truex while Gilliland, Keselowski, Burton, Briscoe and Elliott were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Cindic returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Gilliland exited first followed by Keselowski, Elliott, Hamlin, Suárez and Burton while Cindric exited in 10th place.
With 90 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Gilliland and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Gilliland and Keselowski dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Gilliland muscled ahead on the inside lane followed by Hamlin and Blaney. With Hamlin and Blaney swapping lanes exiting the backstretch, Gilliland maintained the lead on the frontstretch while Keselowski, Truex and Elliott followed suit in close-quarters racing and amid two tight-packed lanes. Amid the tight racing towards the front, Gilliland maintained the lead and control of both lanes during the proceeding laps while both Hamlin and Blaney were trying to gain runs amid their respective drafting lanes.
Not long after, the caution returned with 86 laps remaining after Kaz Grala, who was running in the top 10, made light contact with Kyle Busch amid a three-wide battle in Turn 1 as he slid sideways through the turn, but managed to keep his car off the track from oncoming traffic. During the caution period, some led by Blaney, Elliott and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Gilliland remained on the track.
During the proceeding restart with 80 laps remaining, Gilliland received a push from Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE to muscle ahead from Hamlin on the inside lane through the first two turns and the backstretch while the rest of the field behind fanned out and battled in two tight-packed lanes. With Briscoe, Keselowski, Larson, Elliott and Suárez making their moves to the front, Truex would then grab the lead two laps later over Gilliland through a strong move entering the backstretch while Hamlin remained in third place amid a tight battle with Briscoe. Another three laps later, however, Gilliland cycled his No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang Dark Horse back into the lead from Truex. Meanwhile, Keselowski was battling Briscoe and Larson for third place while Hamlin slipped to sixth.
With 65 laps remaining, Larson, who returned to the lead two laps earlier, was leading, but mixed in a tight battle to maintain the top spot in front of Gilliland, Truex, Hamlin and Keselowski while Suárez, Briscoe, Elliott, Cindric and Burton followed suit in the top 10. Behind, LaJoie was in 11th ahead of Blaney, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Haley while Hocevar, Daniel Hemric, Grala, Preece and McDowell occupied the top 20.
Three laps later and with the field fanning out to three lanes amid the late jostling of spots, the caution returned after Elliott, who was marching his way through the top-10 ranks, got bumped by Chastain and sent sideways entering Turn 3 as he managed to keep his No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning below the apron and away from oncoming traffic, though Ty Gibbs also veered sideways to avoid hitting Elliott. Amid the chaos, Wallace, who was battling Chastain for the free pass spot by being the first competitor scored a lap down, managed to receive the free pass.
During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Truex pitted, mainly for fuel, while McDowell and Preece remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Truex exited pit road first followed by teammate Hamlin, Briscoe, Cindric, Keselowski and Larson while Gilliland exited eighth behind Busch.
With the event restarting under green with 55 laps remaining, McDowell and Truex dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. They continued to duel for the lead in front of two tight-packed lanes through the frontstretch and back to the frontstretch while Austin Dillon, who was running in the middle of the pack, fell off the pace after he pounded the backstretch’s outside wall hard, though the event remained under green flag conditions.
Then with 50 laps remaining and with the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, a four-wide action for the lead ensued between Truex, Briscoe, McDowell and Cindric through the frontstretch as Cindric, who instigated the four-wide move, moved into the lead entering Turns 1 and 2. Busch would follow suit in second through the backstretch along with Briscoe, Gilliland, Hamlin and McDowell amid the four-wide battle while Truex, who was getting bumped and jostled amid the fanned-out battles, was slowly backsliding. The field would then settle to three-wide racing for the following lap as Cindric retained the lead followed by Busch, Hamlin, Briscoe and Gilliland while Keselowski and Larson followed suit.
With 44 laps remaining, Hamlin overtook Cindric from the outside lane for the lead. During the following lap, Briscoe tried to move in front of Hamlin for the lead, but the move did not prevail as Busch overtook Briscoe for the runner-up spot while Hamlin maintained the lead. The caution, however, would return with 42 laps remaining after Keselowski, who was running third, got loose and slid towards the outside wall entering Turn 3 as he collected Larson and LaJoie in the process. During the caution period, some including McDowell and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.
As the event restarted with 35 laps remaining, Hamlin muscled ahead from the inside lane followed by Busch while Cindric was left to fend off Briscoe and the rest of the pack in third place. Hamlin would retain the lead during the proceeding laps and with 30 laps remaining over Busch while Blaney and Briscoe battled for third place in front of two tight-packed lanes. Shortly after, however, Busch and Blaney went three wide on Hamlin as they both overtook Hamlin and moved into a battle into the lead for themselves followed by Gilliland and Cindric while Hamlin slid back to sixth in front of Wallace.
With less than 25 laps remaining and with the intensity towards the front igniting amid three tight-packed lanes, Blaney was leading the race ahead of teammate Cindric and Busch while Wallace and Briscoe battled for fourth in front of the field.
With 21 laps remaining, however, the caution returned after Hamlin, who was pinned in a tight four-wide battle for fourth place with Briscoe, Suárez and Busch, made contact with Briscoe that sent Briscoe’s No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse sideways and into Hamlin before Briscoe slapped the outside wall hard between Turns 3 and 4 as Burton, Berry and Haley were also collected. The incident was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period for more than 11 minutes.
Once the red flag lifted and the field returned under a cautious pace, some including Gilliland, Hemric, Preece and Byron pitted while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track.
When the event restarted with 15 laps remaining, where Blaney and Suárez occupied the front row, Blaney muscled ahead on the inside lane followed by teammate Cindric and Truex while Suárez, who had Kyle Busch and Wallace drafting him, was trying to fight back on the outside lane through the backstretch. With Blaney leading the next two laps and having both lanes to his control, Suárez then made his move on the outside lane with 12 laps remaining through the backstretch as he led the next laps by a hair while Busch and Cindric followed suit in the second lane. Then during the following lap and as Cindric briefly lost his momentum through the first two turns, the caution flew after Berry, who was drafting Wallace in the top 10, ran into the outside wall entering the backstretch and spun back across the track, where he collided into rookie Carson Hocevar, before he spun back across the track and into oncoming traffic as Elliott also spun towards the infield. Amid the chaos, Suárez managed to retain the lead over Blaney.
Down to the final five laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Suárez and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Suárez muscled his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead on the inside lane followed by Busch through the first two turns. Suárez then moved in front of Blaney to stall his momentum through the backstretch, but Blaney managed to stick his nose and draw even with Suárez exiting the backstretch as he assumed the lead followed by Truex. Blaney then retained the lead in front of two stacked lanes during the proceeding laps as he went on defense to fend off Suárez and Busch while Truex was backsliding.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained as the leader ahead of a side-by-side battle involving Suárez and Busch. Blaney would continue to lead through the first two turns and through the majority of the backstretch until Busch and Suárez took Blaney three wide entering Turns 3 and 4. Suárez, Busch and Blaney remained dead even amid three lanes for the lead entering the frontstretch, with neither lifting. With the leaders navigating through the frontstretch, Suárez, Busch and Blaney crossed the finish line dead even as the checkered flag flew. Following an extensive review of the footage, Suárez was declared the winner as he had beaten Blaney by 0.003 seconds and 0.007 seconds over Busch.
With the victory, Suárez, who was in contention of winning this year’s Daytona 500 before he was eliminated amid a late multi-car wreck, earned his second Cup Series career victory, his first since winning his first series’ event at Sonoma Raceway in June 2022 and his first on a superspeedway venue. He also recorded the seventh career victory for Trackhouse Racing and his first with his new crew chief Matt Swiderski.
“It was so damn close,” Suárez, who celebrated with a piñata, said on FOX. “It was good racing. Ryan Blaney there, Kyle Busch. Austin Cindric also was doing a great job giving me pushes. In the back straightaway, he didn’t push me because he knew I was gonna fight his teammate. Man, what a job. We wrecked [on] Lap 2. The [No. 99] guys did an amazing job fixing this car. Man, I can’t thank everyone enough. Let’s go!”
Blaney, who led 31 laps, settled in the runner-up spot while Kyle Busch, who led 28 laps, ended up in third place following their dramatic three-wide finish with Suárez to the finish line.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I thought I laid back enough in [Turns] 1 and 2 to not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney said. “Both lanes just got that shove super hard and I just chose the bottom [lane], safest place to be. What a cool finish. Appreciate the fans for sticking around. That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that. Race clean, three-wide finish to the end. Happy for Daniel [Suárez]. That was cool to see. Fun racing with Kyle [Busch]. I’ve won [races] by very, very little [margin], too, so I can’t complain too much about losing by that much. Close.”
“Overall, just real proud of everybody at [Richard Childress Racing], ECR [Engines],” Busch added. “Our Cheddar’s Camaro was fast. It’s good to see Daniel [Suárez] get a win. We were helping each other, being Chevy team partners and working together there. It shows that when you do have friends and you can make alliances that they do seem to work and that was the good part of today. Dammit. We’ll have to do it again and find another one.”
Austin Cindric came home in fourth place while Bubba Wallace rallied from a roller coaster event to finish fifth for a second consecutive race. Stenhouse, Chastain, McDowell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs finished in the top 10 on the track.
There were 48 lead changes for 14 different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 65 laps. In addition, 22 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the second event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Busch leads the regular-season standings by a single point over both William Byron and Austin Cindric, three over Bubba Wallace, eight over Ryan Blaney, 12 over Chase Elliott and 13 over Daniel Suárez.
Results.
1. Daniel Suárez, nine laps led
2. Ryan Blaney, 31 laps led
3. Kyle Busch, 28 laps led
4. Austin Cindric, 32 laps led, Stage 2 winner
5. Bubba Wallace, three laps led
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap led
7. Ross Chastain
8. Michael McDowell, 27 laps led, Stage 1 winner
9. Chris Buescher, one lap led
10. Ty Gibbs
11. Harrison Burton
12. Martin Truex Jr., nine laps led
13. Corey LaJoie
14. Kaz Grala
15. Chase Elliott
16. Ryan Preece
17. William Byron
18. Daniel Hemric
19. Carson Hocevar
20. Justin Haley
21. John Hunter Nemechek
22. Austin Dillon
23. Denny Hamlin, one lap down, 15 laps led
24. BJ McLeod, three laps down
25. Erik Jones , four laps down
26. Todd Gilliland, four laps led, 58 laps led
27. Alex Bowman, five laps down
28. Joey Logano, eight laps down, 27 laps led
29. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident
30. Tyler Reddick, 17 laps down
31. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
32. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident, 17 laps led
33. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident, two laps led
34. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident
35. Zane Smith – OUT, DVP
36. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident
37. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 3, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
In an event dominated by rookie Jesse Love, teammate Austin Hill captured the final spotlight by claiming a dramatic, overtime victory in the RAPTOR King of Tough 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, February 24, for his second consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series victory to commence the 2024 season.
The 29-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led the final two of 168 over-scheduled laps in an event where he was poised for a potential top-10 result while teammate Jesse Love dominated the event from pole position and had won the event’s two-stage periods. Following a caution period with two laps remaining that sent the event into overtime and with fuel becoming a concern for a multitude of front-runners, Love’s dominant quest to victory came to a halt at the start of overtime as he stumbled to keep up to pace. Love’s misfortune parted the seas for Hill to move into the lead. From there, Hill was able to fend off Chandler Smith for two laps to grab his second consecutive Xfinity victory to commence the 2024 season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, February 23, rookie Jesse Love notched his second consecutive pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 173.935 mph in 31.874 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Austin Hill, winner of this year’s season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, after he clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 173.706 mph in 31.916 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that included Brandon Jones, Patrick Emerling, Jeb Burton, Parker Retzlaff, Joey Gase, Ryan Ellis and Brennan Poole dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, teammates Love and Hill dueled for the lead for a full lap in front of two tight-packed lanes until Love managed to lead the first lap by a hair. By the conclusion of the second lap, Love had both lanes to his control with the lead while Riley Herbst was battling Hill for the runner-up spot.
By the fourth lap, Josh Williams had fallen off the pace due to a flat tire on his Kaulig Racing entry. Amid Williams’ issues, the race remained under green flag conditions as Love also retained the lead followed by Herbst, Sam Mayer, Ryan Truex and John Hunter Nemechek while Chandler Smith, Sheldon Creed, Hill, Parker Kligerman and Sammy Smith occupied the top 10 by the fifth lap mark.
Through the first 15 scheduled laps, Love continued to lead in front of a long single-file line of competitors that included Herbst, Mayer, Truex and Nemechek while Hill, Kligerman, AJ Allmendinger, Sammy Smith and Justin Allgaier trailed in the top 10.
Fifteen laps later, Love retained the lead ahead of Herbst, Mayer, Kligerman and Truex in the draft while Allmendinger, Allgaier, Creed, Sammy Smith and Ryan Sieg were running in the top 10.
When the first sage period concluded on Lap 40, Love, who has led every lap thus far, captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Herbst settled in second while Mayer, Truex, Kligerman, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Creed, Ryan Sieg and Sammy Sith were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Love pitted. During the pit stops, Brandon Jones was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation while Poole was also penalized due to his crew members being over the pit box too soon.
The second stage period started on Lap 47 as Love and Kligerman occupied the front row. At the start, Love and Kligerman dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Love muscled the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro ahead with the lead with drafting help from Allgaier. Kligerman, however, would spend the next two laps battling dead even with Love for the top spot until Love muscled back ahead by the Lap 50 mark.
Nearing the Lap 60 mark, the caution flew after JJ Yeley spun off the front nose of Kyle Weatherman exiting the frontstretch and entering the first turn. During the caution period, some drivers, including Shane van Gisbergen, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger and Kyle Sieg pitted while the rest led by Love remained on the track.
During the next restart on Lap 63, Love battled against teammate Hill for nearly a lap until he muscled ahead from the outside lane as he was pursued by Allgaier and Herbst while Hill remained as the lead competitor on the inside lane. As the laps progressed, Nemechek made contact with the outside wall in Turn 3 and Hill drifted outside the top 10 while he continued to run the inside lane. Amid the events, Love continued to lead the race.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 80, Love captured his second consecutive stage victory of the 2024 Xfinity season. Allgaier settled in second while Herbst, Truex, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Cole Custer, Hill, Allmendinger and Creed were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Love pitted while Jeb Burton remained on the track. Shortly after, Burton would surrender the lead to pit, which gave the lead to Allmendinger, who only pitted for fuel.
With 76 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Allmendinger and Love occupied the front row. At the start, Allmendinger and Love dueled for the lead in front of two packed lanes. Allmendinger and Love would then swap the lead during the next seven laps before Love assumed control of both lanes with the top spot with 67 laps remaining.
With 50 laps remaining, Love was leading ahead of Allmendinger, Herbst, Truex and Kligerman while Hill, Brandon Jones, Custer, Mayer and Sammy Smith occupied the top 10 in front of Allgaier, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Retzlaff, Anthony Alfredo, Leland Honeyman and Ryan Ellis.
Fifteen laps later and with the majority of the field running in a long single-file line towards the outside lane, Love continued to lead ahead of Herbst, Truex, Kligerman and teammate Hill. By then, Allmendinger, who was stuck on the inside lane, had slipped within the top 15.
Another 15 laps later, Love retained the lead as part of a 15-car breakaway followed by Herbst, Truex, Kligerman and Hill.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event and with the leaders approaching lapped traffic, Love maintained the lead in front of Herbst while Truex, Kligerman and Hill remained in the top five, though fuel was becoming a concern for the front-runners.
Then with three laps remaining, Custer, who was running in the top 10, fell off the pace through the frontstretch after he ran out of fuel. Teammate Herbst then met the same fate entering Turns 1 and 2, but the event remained under green flag conditions. With two laps remaining, however, the caution flew after Ryan Sieg came to a stop on the backstretch due to running out of fuel.
During the caution period, some including Brandon Jones, Chandler Smith, van Gisbergen, Allmendinger, Creed, Retzlaff, Jeremy Clements and Alfredo pitted while the rest led by Love remained on the track. With the event sent into overtime, disaster struck for Allgaier, who was running toward the front but was forced to pit after he ran out of fuel prior to the start.
At the start of overtime, Love along with Kligerman and Allmendinger fell off the pace after all three ran out of fuel through the frontstretch. With Love stumbling on gas, Austin Hill shoved Ryan Truex out of his path to assume the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch followed by a hard-charging Chandler Smith while Shane van Gisbergen followed suit in third.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hill remained as the leader by a narrow margin over Chandler Smith and van Gisbergen. With Smith unable to gain enough momentum amid the draft to mount a final lap charge, Hill was able to maintain control of both lanes and cycle his way back to the frontstretch to claim his second consecutive checkered flag of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Hill notched his eighth career win in the Xfinity Series, his sixth on a superspeedway venue and his third victory in his previous four starts at Atlanta, his home track. Hill also became the first competitor to win the first two events on the schedule since Tony Stewart made the last accomplishment in 2008.
“I just gotta thank my guys, everyone on this No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet,” Hill said on FS1. “We all worked through it. I was really thinking we were down and out. I was thinking [Love] was going to go get ‘em, and hey, if I can’t win, let my teammate win. We were riding there in fourth or fifth, whatever it was. I was saving fuel. We came to the restart zone and I’m like sloshing it around and we go through the gears. When I went to shift from third to fourth [gear], I actually stumbled and [Chandler Smith] hit me really hard, and that woke it back up, and I had enough fuel to complete the lap.
“But I’ve got to take this moment to congratulate, Jesse Love, my teammate. He ran an awesome race. To be a rookie and to lead that many laps, he should be sitting in Victory Lane right now. The No. 2 team did a hell of a job. So awesome to win here at my home track again for the third time. Man, what a race. I thought we were down and out. I really did. I thought we were just gonna run second or third and here we are in Victory Lane.”
Chandler Smith settled in the runner-up spot followed by Shane van Gisbergen, who achieved his first top-three result in the Xfinity circuit. Sheldon Creed came home in fourth place followed by Retzlaff while Jeremy Clements, Alfredo, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ryan Truex and Sammy Smith finished in the top 10.
Jesse Love, who led a race-high 157 laps, ended up in 12th place ahead of Allmendinger after he came up two laps shy on his dry tank of fuel.
There were 11 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 23 laps.
Following the second event of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, Austin Hill continues to lead the regular-season standings by 17 points over Sheldon Creed, 28 over Riley Herbst, 30 over both Chandler Smtih and Jesse Love, and 36 over Parker Retzlaff.
Results.
1. Austin Hill, two laps led
2. Chandler Smith
3. Shane van Gisbergen
4. Sheldon Creed
5. Parker Retzlaff
6. Jeremy Clements
7. Anthony Alfredo
8. Jeffrey Earnhardt
9. Ryan Truex
10. Sammy Smith
11. Sam Mayer
12. Jesse Love, 157 laps, Stage 1 & 2 winner
13. AJ Allmendinger, eight laps led
14. Brandon Jones
15. Riley Herbst
16. Cole Custer
17. Kyle Weatherman
18. BJ McLeod
19. Parker Kligerman, one lap led
20. Brennan Poole, one lap down
21. Leland Honeyman, one lap down
22. Ryan Sieg, one lap down
23. Jeb Burton, one lap down
24. JJ Yeley, one lap down
25. Ryan Ellis, one lap down
26. Nick Leitz, one lap down
27. Hailie Deegan, one lap down
28. Justin Allgaier, one lap down
29. Joey Gase, two laps down
30. Blaine Perkins, two laps down
31. Dawson Cram, two laps down
32. John Hunter Nemechek, three laps down
33. Patrick Emerling, three laps down
34. Garrett Smithley, three laps down
35. CJ McLaughlin, four laps down
36. Kyle Sieg, four laps down, one lap led
37. Josh Williams, nine laps down
38. Jordan Anderson – OUT, Steering
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is The LiUNA! At Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 2, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.
