LAS VEGAS SPEEDWAY NOTES
Friday, March 3 – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 9 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, March 4 – NASCAR Xfinity Series, 4:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, March 5 – NASCAR Cup Series, 3:30 p.m. ET (FOX)
The second leg of NASCAR’s western swing is scheduled for this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as all three top series will compete. Ford goes into the action with a combined 30 wins at LVMS (Cup, 14; NXS, 11; NCTS, 5).
BUESCHER AND KESELOWSKI IN TOP 10
Four Ford drivers are in the Top 10 of the NASCAR Cup Series standings heading into Sunday’s scheduled race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, including both drivers from Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. Team Penske’s Joey Logano is second and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick is fourth while the RFK duo of Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski are sixth and 10th, respectively. Logano has posted consecutive Top 10 finishes to start the season (2nd at Daytona; 10th at AC) while Harvick (5th at AC), Buescher (4th at Daytona) and Keselowski (7th at AC) have one apiece.
VEGAS PROVES TO BE LOGANO’S BEST TRACK
Joey Logano has three career victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and those wins have helped make the track his best statistically on the circuit. Logano sports an 8.5 average start and finish in 18 career starts, including a victory in last season’s playoff race. 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 three victories, Logano has 7 top-5 and 12 top-10 finishes at LVMS since joining the circuit in 2009.
ROUSH RULES
There have been two RFK 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 Craftsman 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.
HERBST OFF TO SOLID START
Riley Herbst has posted back-to-back Top-10 finishes to start the season for the second year in a row. He’s coming off a seventh-place effort at Auto Club Speedway after a sixth-place showing in the season-opener at Daytona. If you throw in his 10th-place run in the Daytona 500, Herbst has nothing but Top-10 runs in three overall starts in 2023.
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.
DEEGAN READY TO REBOUND
Hailie Deegan was a victim of circumstances in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season-opener at Daytona, getting caught up in a multi-truck accident on lap 29 that ended her day before the finish. This weekend, Deegan will be sporting a Screen to Speed liveried Ford F-150 as she supports a women’s racing initiative sponsored by Ford and Pennzoil. Women from all over the world have been qualifying through iRacing for a spot in the live Screen to Speed finale, where 20 females will battle at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Deegan will be on hand for the live broadcast and the winner will earn a track day test with the Kelly Moss Race team, $15,000 and a Next Level Racing simulator.
SMITH GOING FOR SECOND STRAIGHT WIN
Zane Smith is in the same position he was a year ago at this time, coming off a victory in the season-opening NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway, as he goes for consecutive wins to start the year for the first time in his career. Smith nearly pulled it off last year, running second to winner Chandler Smith before being dropped to 36th after a post-race lugnut infraction.
FORD’S LAS VEGAS CUP SERIES WINNERS
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)
2022 – Joey Logano (2)
FORD’S LAS VEGAS XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
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’S LAS VEGAS TRUCK SERIES WINNERS
1997 – Joe Ruttman
1999 – Greg Biffle
2007 – Travis Kvapil
2016 – Tyler Reddick
2018 – Grant Enfinger (2)
