FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: LAS VEGAS PLAYOFF ADVANCE
All three of NASCAR’s top series will feature playoff races for the first time this season as Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosts a tripleheader beginning Friday night with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. That will be followed by the inaugural postseason event for the NASCAR XFINITY Series on Saturday and the initial race of Round 2 in the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday.
This Week’s Schedule:
Friday, Sept. 24 – NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, 9 p.m. (FS1)
Saturday, Sept. 25 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
Sunday, Sept. 26 – NASCAR Cup Series, 7 p.m. (NBCSN)
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT LVMS
- Ford leads all manufacturers with 13 series wins in 27 all-time events.
- Roush Fenway Racing tops all organizations with 7 victories, including the first three.
- Ford has won four of the last seven at LVMS (Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano twice).
ROUND OF 12 NCS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 8 advance after Charlotte)
4- Ryan Blaney +11
9- Joey Logano -1
10- Brad Keselowski -6
12- Kevin Harvick -12
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT LVMS
- Ford has 11 NASCAR XFINITY Series wins at LVMS.
- Chase Briscoe won both races last season.
- Jack Roush leads all car owner with 6 series victories at LVMS.
ROUND OF 12 NXS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 8 advance after Charlotte)
1- Austin Cindric +39
11- Riley Herbst -7
FORD IN THE NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES AT LVMS
- Ford has 5 series wins at LVMS.
- Ford’s last win came by Grant Enfinger, who won the 2018 playoff race.
- Joe Ruttman, Greg Biffle, Travis Kvapil and Tyler Reddick also have one Ford win each.
FORD’S ROUND OF 12 LINEUP
Ford will have four drivers competing in the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12 while the NASCAR XFINITY Series playoffs begin with two drivers in that group. Ryan Blaney leads the Ford foursome, opening the second round in fourth place and 11 points above the cut line. Joey Logano (9th), Brad Keselowski (10th) and Kevin Harvick (12th) all start the three-race round below the cut off but well within striking range of advancing. On the NXS side, Austin Cindric begins defense of his series championship as the top seed while Riley Herbst opens in 11th place and seven points below the final transfer spot.
BRISCOE COMPLETES VEGAS FIRST
Chase Briscoe became the first driver to win both NASCAR XFINITY Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since the track began hosting two events a year in 2018. Briscoe won last year’s spring event, which had to be run over the course of two days due to rain, after leading a race-high 89 laps. The key to his victory, however, was the pit crew, which got Briscoe off pit road first and allowed him to lead the final 36 circuits to post his first win of the season. He followed that up in the 2020 playoff opener with a dominating performance that saw him lead 164-of-200 laps. Briscoe won all three stages and left the track with the points lead and a guaranteed spot in the Round of 8.
VEGAS PROVES TO BE LOGANO’S BEST TRACK
Joey Logano has two career victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and those wins have helped make the track his best statistically on the circuit. Logano sports an 8.4 average finish in 16 career starts, which he maintained after a ninth-place run earlier this year. In fact, it’s the only track in which he’s made more than 10 career starts where his average finish is in single digits. Besides his two victories, Logano has 6 top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes at LVMS since joining the circuit in 2009.
ROUSH RULES
There have been two Roush Fenway Racing drivers who have posted consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Jeff Burton won in 1999 and 2000 while Matt Kenseth did it in his championship season of 2003 and 2004. In fact, Roush Fenway Racing has been a force in both the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series at the 1.5-mile facility. The organization has posted seven NCS wins and six NXS victories for a total of 13 overall, which includes back-to-back weekend sweeps in 1999 and 2000. In addition, RFR has three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series triumphs.
TEAM PENSKE ON VEGAS ROLL
Team Penske has had great success at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and will be looking to extend its years of winning at least one Cup race to four this weekend. Joey Logano has won twice during this stretch while teammate Brad Keselowski has three wins at the 1.5-mile track since coming to Ford in 2013. Overall, Team Penske has five wins in the last 11 series starts on the Cup side while also producing three victories in the NASCAR XFINITY Series during that same stretch of time.
SWEEP DELIGHT FOR KESELOWSKI
Brad Keselowski completed a weekend sweep in 2014 after taking the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series events on consecutive days. Even though Keselowski led the most laps in the NCS race, he needed a little bit of luck and got it on the final lap when Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was in conservation mode, ran out of gas on the back straightaway. That enabled Keselowski to win going away and post the first of his six victories that season.
MARTIN LEADS FORD CHARGE IN INAUGURAL VEGAS CUP EVENT
Ford took the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the inaugural race at the 1.5-mile facility on March 1, 1998 as Mark Martin led a manufacturer runaway that saw 13 of the top 14 finishers driving a Taurus. The win was the first for Taurus, which became the first full-time four-door entry in NASCAR, after Ford decided to use it in the NASCAR Cup Series starting with the 1998 season. Martin bested Roush Fenway teammate Jeff Burton by 1.605 seconds to win the Las Vegas 400 with Rusty Wallace, Johnny Benson and Jeremy Mayfield rounding out the top-five. The only non-Ford to finish in the top-10 was the late Dale Earnhardt, who was eighth.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT LAS VEGAS
1998 – Mark Martin
1999 – Jeff Burton
2000 – Jeff Burton
2003 – Matt Kenseth
2004 – Matt Kenseth
2008 – Carl Edwards
2011 – Carl Edwards
2014 – Brad Keselowski
2016 – Brad Keselowski
2018 – Kevin Harvick (1) and Brad Keselowski (2)
2019 – Joey Logano (1)
2020 – Joey Logano (1)
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT LAS VEGAS
1999 – Mark Martin
2000 – Jeff Burton
2002 – Jeff Burton
2005 – Mark Martin
2009 – Greg Biffle
2012 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2013 – Sam Hornish Jr.
2014 – Brad Keselowski
2017 – Joey Logano
2020 – Chase Briscoe (Sweep)
FORD NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT LAS VEGAS
1997 – Joe Ruttman
1999 – Greg Biffle
2007 – Travis Kvapil
2016 – Tyler Reddick
2018 – Grant Enfinger (2)
