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Keselowski Breaks the Bank in Las Vegas

Brad Keselowski passed Kyle Busch in the closing laps and denied the reigning series champion a weekend sweep in his hometown.

The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford got a run on the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota going down the backstretch with five laps to go in the Kobalt 400 and drove on to score the victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He had to overcome being busted for speeding and staying out with less than 50 laps to go to score his 18th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series.

“This rules package — I love it, it’s awesome,” Keselowski said. “You can be really fast at the start of the run or at the end of the run, but we had awesome speed at the end of the run. It finally started to take off with 25 to go. This is such a good feeling to be back in victory lane. It’s been way too long. What a day, I’m beat. I put everything I had into driving this car.”

Teammate Joey Logano led 75 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in his No. 22 Ford.

“We had a good car,” a disappointed Logano said. “We led a lot of laps. Brad was just really good on the long run. I tried to hold him off as long as I could but he showed how fast he was getting by me and Kyle and checking out. Congratulations to Team Penske. It is something to be very proud of for our team. We have a lot of second place finishes already this year. I know we are only three races in but I am getting antsy. We have good speed in our cars, we will be alright.”

Jimmie Johnson led the most laps at 76 on his way to rounding out the podium in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Busch was in the catbird seat in the closing laps of the race but dealt with a right-front tire vibration he described as “coming apart” in the closing laps. He was unable to hold off the Team Penske duo and finished fourth. Austin Dillon also overcame a speeding penalty to round out the top-five in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Ryan Blaney was the highest finishing rookie in sixth in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

“This was really satisfying,” Blaney said after the race. “It was a good day for us. We needed a good finish after last week and it is nice to go out here and we all had fast cars. Congrats to the 2 team, they did a great job coming back from that speeding penalty and made a great call at the end. Good job by them and good job by our team.”

Last year’s race winner Kevin Harvick led only one lap and was never a factor for the win as he finished seventh in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished eighth in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Pole-sitter Kurt Busch was busted for speeding on the first pit stop of the race and was only able to rally back to a ninth-place finish in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-10 in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet.

Matt Kenseth had a strong car for most of the race, but his streak of bad finishes continued today as he crashed out of the race with 43 laps to go. He got loose going into Turn 1, slid up the track and Chase Elliott slammed into the rear of his car.

“I really don’t know what happened,” Kenseth told Fox. “I just turned off in there and spun off before I honestly knew what was happening. I don’t know why it spun out. I tried to save it the best I could and just got hit hard from behind and ended up wrecking it.”

“Just disappointing,” Elliott said. “What a fast race car. Just a terrible job on my behalf. It’s pitiful. Run three races and finished one. Bad job on my end. I know better to miss a wreck like that.”

Twenty-three cars finished on the lead lap. There were 20 lead changes among 10 different drivers and six cautions for 36 laps. The race lasted two hours, 53 minutes and 55 seconds at an average speed of 138.170 mph.

Kyle Busch retains the points lead leaving Las Vegas with Johnson trailing by six. Harvick (-7), Logano (-12) and Kurt Busch (-14) round out the top five in the standings.

March 6, 2016
Kyle Busch Hits the Jackpot in Las Vegas XFINITY Race

Kyle Busch led all but one lap as he cleaned out the casino in the XFINITY Series at Las Vegas.

The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 199 of the 200 laps to score the victory in the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It’s his 78th career victory in the XFINITY Series and first at the track for the Las Vegas native.

“It feels really good for as good as this car was,” he said. “It was really, really fast. This is 2-for-2 and that’s pretty cool, and to check this one off the box is awesome, too.”

Busch also commented about winning on his home track and holding off Suárez for the win.

“We were worried about fuel, but more so we more so worried about (Daniel) Suarez. He was on me there at the end, he was really, really fast. I can’t say enough about all these guys, everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing prepares some really fast Camrys and this NOS Energy Drink Camry was the best. It felt really, really good. I wish for as good as we were at the beginning of the race in the beginning of the run and end of the run, I was hoping we’d have some long run speed there at the end. Just wasn’t showing. Suarez was definitely faster than us when he got clean track. If roles were reversed, he would have been pulling away from me and I wasn’t going to be able to catch him. All in all just a great day for us in one-two-three and for me to get a victory here in my home town, check one off the list – that’s pretty awesome.”

Daniel Suárez tried to make a charge towards the end on his teammate, but he couldn’t close the gap and took his No. 19 JGR Toyota to a runner-up finish.

“Right there at the end, maybe, it took me a while to figure out how to be fast through traffic with a loose race car. But, honestly, in the last 10-15 laps we were the fastest race car there, so proud of my guys and looking forward for next weekend,” Suárez said.

He leaves sin city with the points lead.

Rookie Erik Jones came back from a two-lap deficit to finish third in his No. 20 JGR Toyota.

“Just wish we could have been in contention all day,” Jones said. He felt that he had “a car that could run with Kyle at times.”

Chase Elliott finished fourth in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet while Austin Dillon rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Brandon Jones finished sixth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet followed by Ty Dillon in seventh place in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet. Elliott Sadler finished eighth in his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet, Justin Allgaier finished ninth in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet and Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top-10 in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet.

There was one red flag for 19 minutes for a three-car wreck in turn 2 with 63 laps remaining. The No. 25 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet of Cody Ware broke loose, turned and slammed the wall driver-side. His disabled car rolled down into the middle of the track, but the caution had yet to be thrown. Slowing down to avoid him, Darrell Wallace Jr. t-boned the front of Ware’s car with the left front of his car and went spinning. Justin Marks went to the high side of the track and tagged the wall in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. He came back down the track and rammed into the rear of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

“That second impact was pretty good too,” Wallace said. “I am here and talking to you. All good. I hate it for my guys. I was having so much fun here. Ten laps ago I was thinking how good this place was to me. Guess I spoke too soon.”

Wallace said while his spotter didn’t have enough time to warn him of the disabled Ware car, he said that “(He) did a hell of a job as he always does” and that there was “no blame on anybody. By the time he caught it I was already in pitch and by the time I slowed down it just jumped out from under me. It is unfortunate circumstances, that is all.”

Eleven cars finished the race on the lead lap. The race lasted two hours, three minutes and 47 seconds at an average speed of 145.415 mph. The race had two lead changes among two different drivers and three cautions for 15 laps.

Complete Results:

March 5, 2016
Matt Kenseth Tops Final Practice at Las Vegas

Matt Kenseth topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.502 and a speed of 189.460 mph.

Carl Edwards was second in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 28.594 and a speed of 188.851 mph. Kurt Busch was third in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.616 and a speed of 188.706 mph. Paul Menard was fourth in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.620 and a speed of 188.679 mph. Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five in his No. 31 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 28.640 and a speed of 188.547 mph.

Jimmie Johnson was sixth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seventh in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Casey Mears was eighth in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin was ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-10 in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Austin Dillon, who was 11th in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 186.424 mph.

The next time the cars will be on track will be tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. for the Kobalt 400.

Related: Carl Edwards Leads The Field In Second Practice At Las Vegas

NSCS Final Practice Results:

March 5, 2016
Kyle Busch Earns XFINITY Coors Light Pole at Las Vegas

By Staff Report|NASCAR.com

Whirling around Las Vegas Motor Speedway at 182.698 mph, Kyle Busch swept all three rounds of XFINITY Series qualifying on Saturday, earning his 50th career Coors Light Pole Award. The Las Vegas native has never won an XFINITY race at his hometown track.

Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Erik Jones (182.642 mph) and Daniel Suarez(182.519 mph) will start in the second and third positions, respectively, in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 (4 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, PRN, SiriusXM). JR Motorsports’ Chase Elliott will roll off the grid fourth (181.702 mph) while Richard Childress Racing’s Brandon Jones qualified fifth with a fast lap of 181.684 mph in his No. 33 ride.

Austin Dillon, last year’s winner at Las Vegas, failed to make the final round of qualifying and will start Saturday’s race from the 14th position.

Derrike Cope’s No. 70 team hustled to prep a backup car for qualifying after a wreck during Friday practice. But the team wasn’t able to get the car on track before the Round 1 time clock expired and Cope’s No. 70 did not make the field. Todd Peck also failed to qualify for the event, the third of 33 races this season.

The first round was briefly halted with a caution due to fluid on the track.

The XFINITY Series is back on track at 4 p.m. ET for the Boyd Gaming 300 (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Full Starting Lineup

March 5, 2016
Carl Edwards Leads the Field in Second Practice at Las Vegas

Carl Edwards topped the chart in the second Sprint Cup Series practice session in a backup car. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 28.189 and a speed of 191.564 mph.

Austin Dillon was second in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.288 and a speed of 190.894 mph followed by Casey Mears in third in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet with a time of 28.317 and a speed of 190.698 mph. Kasey Kahne was fourth in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 28.368 and a speed of 190.355 mph and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 28.377 and a speed of 190.295 mph.

Trevor Bayne was sixth in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, Ryan Newman was seventh in his No. 31 RCR Chevrolet and Chase Elliott was eighth in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet. AJ Allmendinger was ninth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-10 in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Jimmie Johnson, who was 13th in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 188.636 mph. Dillon was second at a speed of 188.539 mph while Mears was third at a speed of 188.237 mph.

The Sprint Cup Series cars will be back on track this afternoon for final practice at 2:30.

NSCS Practice 2 Complete Results:

March 5, 2016
Kurt Busch on the Pole for Second Straight Race

Kurt Busch will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday for the second week in a row.

The driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet scored the pole for this Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after posting a time of 27.505 and a speed of 196.328 mph. This is his 27th career pole in the Sprint Cup Series and second at the track. The Las Vegas native also set a new track record with a time of 27.498 and a speed of 196.378 mph in the first round of qualifying.

“It was insanely fast,” Busch said. “It’s amazing all the detail that goes into qualifying with finding that perfect lap three times out there.”

Joey Logano will start second in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 27.572 and a speed of 195.851 mph while Matt Kenseth will start third in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after posting a time of 27.582 and a speed of 195.780 mph. Brad Keselowski will start fourth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 27.598 and a speed of 195.666 mph and Austin Dillon rounds out the top-five in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 27.604 and a speed of 195.624 mph.

Kevin Harvick will start sixth in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet, Aric Almirola will start seventh in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford and Kasey Kahne will start eighth in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin will start ninth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota while Martin Truex Jr. will round out the top-10 in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Jimmie Johnson will start 11th in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet. AJ Allmendinger will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.

Carl Edwards made contact with the wall rounding Turn 2 that tore up the right-rear corner panel of his car. This forced him to switch to his backup car. As a result, he’ll start from the rear of the field on Sunday.

Jamie McMurray also made contact with the wall in his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet exiting Turn 4 and will switch to a backup car.

Complete starting lineup:

March 4, 2016
Jones, Busch Lead XFINITY Practices at Las Vegas

Staff Report|NASCAR.com

Wheeling his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 183.094 mph, Erik Jones soared to the top of the leaderboard in the final minutes of Friday’s opening practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Jones’ JGR teammate Daniel Suarez also made a late run that proved fruitful, his No. 19 Toyota ranking second at 182.896 mph on the speed charts.

Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan was third-fastest (182.106 mph) in his No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet while Gaughan’s RCR teammate Brandon Jones came up fourth (181.886 mph) in his No. 33 ride.

Reigning race winner Austin Dillon, who led the majority of the session, rounded out the top five with a fast lap of 181.733 mph in his No. 2 RCR machine.

Five drivers are performing double-duty this weekend with the XFINITY and Sprint Cup Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Besides Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch (sixth-fastest), Chase Elliott (eighth-fastest), Aric Almirola (10th-fastest) and Brad Keselowski (14th-fastest) will wheel entries in both events this weekend at the Nevada track.

Derrike Cope brought out the red flag late in the 85-minute session, as his No. 70 Chevrolet hit the wall off Turn 4 hard. Cope will likely defer to a backup car.

The XFINITY Series was back on track at 6 p.m. ET for final practice (FS1).

Kyle Busch led the final practice session ahead of Saturday’s XFINITY Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver topped the practice with a best speed of 181.348 mph. He placed sixth in the first session with a best speed of 180.481 mph.

Ty Dillon jumped up to grab second late with a fast lap of 180.892 mph in his No. 3Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Busch’s JGR teammate, Erik Jones placed third on the leaderboard at 180.880 mph. Jones, who paced the first session, was trailed by another JGR entry in Daniel Suarez (180.771 mph). Dillon’s RCR teammate, Brandon Jones (180.644 mph), rounded out the top five.

Qualifying for Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 (4 p.m. ET, FS1) will kick off earlier in the day (Saturday) at 12:45 p.m. ET on FS2.

MORE: Practice 1 results

MORE: Practice 2 results

March 4, 2016
Harvick Comes up Short Again at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga.– A dominant car and dominant performance by Kevin Harvick wasn’t enough to secure the victory in Atlanta.

Despite leading 131 of the 330 laps in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet stumbled on the final restart of the race with two laps to go and finished sixth.

“We had issues about the last three runs,” he said. “I had to start driving the car different. It just required a little bit different handling. And then we had a slow pit stop there. We got way behind and the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was way out front and I had to drive the car really hard and got the right rear burned up. We just didn’t execute today but everybody on our Jimmy John’s/Busch Chevrolet hung in there all day and we’ll keep at it.”

In four of the last five years at Atlanta, Harvick has led over 100 laps. In each of those races, he’s finished fifth, 19th, second and sixth. In the last three trips, he’s led 195, 116 and 131 laps.

Despite coming up short, Harvick leaves Hampton, Georgia third in points trailing Kyle Busch by four. He’s also heading to Las Vegas as the defending race winner.

February 28, 2016
Kenseth Black Flagged at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga.– Matt Kenseth fell afoul of an unusual rule in today’s race at Atlanta.

Despite leading 47 laps and having a strong car, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was black-flagged by NASCAR for “improper fueling.” During his stop, the gas man engaged the fuel can with the fuel intake of the car and left a tool on the back of the car.

According to the NASCAR rule book, “The Fueler must be in control of the fuel can at all times when fuel is being added to the vehicle. The Fueler will not be permitted to perform any adjustments or other pit stop procedures while the fuel can coupler is engaged with the vehicle-mounted adaptor.” In other words, the gas can man can’t do anything other than hold the can while the car is being refueled.

As crew chief Jason Ratcliff protested the penalty, he failed to relay that his driver had been black-flagged. After failing to serve his pass-through penalty within three laps of being black-flagged, he was shown the black flag with white crosses. This meant he would no longer be scored until he served his penalty. After ignoring it one lap, he finally served the penalty and went from fourth in the running order to 32nd two laps down.

“I didn’t know we had any kind of problem. Nobody told me,” Kenseth said over his in-car radio. “Pretty much just threw our race away unless we get everything to fall in our lap.” Ratcliff said he couldn’t “see the black-and-white flag when I’m out of the pit box arguing the case.”

Kenseth would wind up finishing 19th two laps down.

February 28, 2016
Johnson Ties ‘The Intimidator’ with 76 Career Wins

HAMPTON, Ga.– Jimmie Johnson put himself amongst the hallowed legends of NASCAR after scoring the victory at Atlanta. The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led 52 of the 330 laps on his way to scoring his 76th career win in the Sprint Cup Series. This victory moved him up to seventh in the all-time NASCAR wins list in a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt.

“It’s such an honor,” Johnson said. “With the chaos at the end and the crash, wondering about overtime and how it worked these days, I kind of lost sight of that. I remembered on my victory lap coming down and I had to come by and throw a 3 out the window to pay respects to the man. There’s a huge void in my career that I never had a chance to race with him, but at least, I was able to tie his record there.”

Meanwhile, teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished runner-up in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet.

“I loved it. We were sliding around and driving the hell out of the car. I had a blast. I had some good races there on the track with the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) and the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and a bunch of guys. Man, it was so much fun,” Earnhardt said.

After starting 39th, Kyle Busch led two laps and finished third in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Brother Kurt led 62 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Carl Edwards led one lap and rounded out the top-five in his No. 19 JGR Toyota.

Despite leading the most laps at 131, Kevin Harvick stumbled on the final restart and finished sixth in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet.

“We had issues about the last three runs. I had to start driving the car different. It just required a little bit different handling. And then we had a slow pit stop there. We got way behind and the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was way out front and I had to drive the car really hard and got the right rear burned up,” Harvick said.

Martin Truex Jr. led 34 laps on his way to finishing seventh in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Chase Elliott was the highest finishing rookie in eighth in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet.

“I am really proud of the effort today. Really really solid NAPA Chevrolet. Just happy to be a part of this team. Everybody fought awfully hard. We are excited about today. I think it is something to build off of. It’s not perfect, it’s a start,” Elliott said.

Brad Keselowski finished ninth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-10 in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

Matt Kenseth had a strong car early in the race leading 47 laps, but he was black-flagged for improper fueling. While the fuel person had the can engaged with the fuel intake, he put a tool on the back of the car. According to the NASCAR rule book, if the can is engaged with the car, the fuel person cannot do anything else but fuel the car. While crew chief Jason Ratcliff was arguing the call, the black flag message was not relayed to the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota. Three laps after being black flagged, he was given the black flag with a white cross meaning he wouldn’t be scored until he served the penalty. After staying out a lap, he eventually served the penalty and went from fourth to 32nd two laps down.

After two races, Kyle Busch leads the point standings by three points over Truex while Harvick is third, four points behind the leader.

The race lasted three hours, 15 minutes and 38 seconds at an average speed of 155.863 mph. There were 28 lead changes among eight different drivers. The race went the first 209 laps caution-free before a piece of debris on the backstretch brought out the first caution. There were three cautions for a total of 13 laps.

Complete Finishing Order:

1. (19) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 330.
2. (16) Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet, 330.
3. (39) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 330.
4. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 330.
5. (7) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 330.
6. (6) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 330.
7. (9) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 330.
8. (24) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 330.
9. (17) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 330.
10. (5) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 330.
11. (8) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 330.
12. (26) Joey Logano, Ford, 330.
13. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, 329.
14. (15) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 329.
15. (27) Aric Almirola, Ford, 328.
16. (12) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 328.
17. (18) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 328.
18. (21) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 328.
19. (13) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 328.
20. (25) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 328.
21. (2) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 328.
22. (3) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 328.
23. (11) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 328.
24. (4) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 328.
25. (23) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 328.
26. (20) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 327.
27. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 326.
28. (31) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 326.
29. (35) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 326.
30. (34) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 325.
31. (10) Brian Scott #, Ford, 324.
32. (33) David Ragan, Toyota, 323.
33. (32) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 323.
34. (30) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 323.
35. (28) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 322.
36. (29) Landon Cassill, Ford, 321.
37. (36) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 318.
38. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 313.
39. (37) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 312.

February 28, 2016