FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: LAS VEGAS PLAYOFF ADVANCE
The Round of 8 begins this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series. Ford leads all manufacturers with 13 Cup wins in 29 races, which includes three victories by Brad Keselowski and two by Joey Logano. Here’s a look at where Ford drivers stand in the playoffs and their history at LVMS.
This Week’s Schedule:
Saturday, Oct. 15 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 3 p.m. (NBC)
Sunday, Oct. 16 – NASCAR Cup Series, 2:30 p.m. (NBC)
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT LVMS
· Ford leads all manufacturers with 13 series wins in 29 all-time events.
· Roush Fenway Racing tops all organizations with 7 victories, including the first three.
· Round of 8 driver Joey Logano has 2 career Las Vegas Cup Series wins.
ROUND OF 8 NCS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 4 advance after Martinsville)
- Joey Logano +11
- Ryan Blaney -3
- Chase Briscoe -9
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT LVMS
· Ford has 11 NASCAR XFINITY Series wins at LVMS.
· Ford’s last winner was Chase Briscoe in 2020 (season sweep).
· Car owner Jack Roush has 6 series victories at LVMS.
FORD’S ROUND OF 8 CUP LINEUP
Ford will have three drivers in the Round of 8 as Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney join Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe in their bid for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Logano begins the round seeded in second place and is 11 points ahead of the fifth-place Blaney, who is only three behind the final transfer spot. Briscoe is seeded eighth and heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a nine-point deficit.
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 8.9 average finish in 18 career starts, which includes a 14th-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.
BLANEY AND BRISCOE AT LVMS
Even though Ryan Blaney has yet to win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he’s been consistently at the front of the field. In 12 career Cup Series starts, Blaney has eight top-10 finishes and five top-5 runs. Briscoe has competed in only three Cup events at LVMS with his best finish being 14th in this event on year ago, but he registered two wins in five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts from 2018-20.
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)
