FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: LAS VEGAS ADVANCE
NASCAR’s western swing continues this weekend as all three top series will be in action, beginning with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Friday night. That will be followed by the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Cup Series events on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
This Week’s Schedule:
Friday, March 4 – NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, 9 p.m. (FS1)
Saturday, March 5 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 4:30 p.m. (FS1)
Sunday, March 6 – NASCAR Cup Series, 3:30 p.m. (FOX)
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT LVMS
· Ford leads all manufacturers with 13 series wins in 28 all-time events.
· Roush Fenway Racing tops all organizations with 7 victories, including the first three.
· Ford has won four of the last eight at LVMS (Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano twice).
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT LVMS
· Ford has 11 NASCAR XFINITY Series wins at LVMS.
· Chase Briscoe won both races in 2020.
· Jack Roush leads all car owner with 6 series victories at LVMS.
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.
THE ONE AND ONLY
One example of NASCAR Cup Series parity can be found in the fact that Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang, is the only one to post top-10 finishes in each of the first two races. Almirola finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500 and backed that up with a sixth-place run last week at Auto Club Speedway. Almirola, who is in his final year of full-time competition, has three top-10 finishes in 17 career starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
FORD AND TEAM PENSKE ON TOP OF CUP STANDINGS
It’s been a good start to 2022 for Team Penske, which has all three of its drivers in the top 5 of the point standings after two events. Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric tops everyone in first place while teammate Joey Logano is eight points behind in second place. Ryan Blaney rounds out the trio in fourth.
SHR AND RFK ALSO IN TOP 10
Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Chase Briscoe and Aric Almirola also sit comfortably in the top 10 of the point standings after two races. Briscoe, on the strength of a third-place finish in the Daytona 500, is fifth while Almirola is seventh. Brad Keselowski, who is in his debut season as co-owner and driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, is 10th overall and rounds out a group of six Ford drivers in the top 10.
FORD’S LAS VEGAS HIGHLIGHTS
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, who achieved the feat in 2020, won the 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 8.8 average finish in 17 career starts, including 9th and 11th-place finishes last season. 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 Keselowski 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, RFK 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, RFK has three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series triumphs.
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 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)
