CHEVROLET NCS AT LAS VEGAS 1: Post-Race Report

NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
MARCH 16, 2025

Suarez Leads Chevrolet with Runner-Up Result at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Chevrolet Claims Seven Top-10 Finishes

 TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd – Daniel Suarez
4th – William Byron
5th – Ross Chastain
7th – Alex Bowman
8th – AJ Allmendinger
9th – Kyle Larson
10th – Chase Elliott

  • Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez drove his No. 99 Chevrolet to his best finish of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – leading Chevrolet to the checkered flag with a runner-up result in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.
  • A series of cautions in the final stage made pit strategy the name of the game. With a caution on lap 244, the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet pit crew put down a monster performance on pit road to give Suarez the win off pit road and a front-row starting position for the restart with 20 laps remaining. Suarez battled side-by-side with race winner, Josh Berry, for a handful of laps before settling into the runner-up position.
  • The Bowtie brand had a monstrous presence in the top-10 of the final leaderboard, with Suarez leading the manufacturer to seven top-10 finishes at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval – a season-best for Chevrolet with five points-paying races complete. Among those results were representation by three different Chevrolet organizations including two top-five finishes for Trackhouse Racing; all four Hendrick Motorsports entries with top-10 results; and Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger in the eighth position.
  • Larson proved to be a contender all race long, with the 32-year-old Elk Grove, California, native also collecting his second stage win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, making the Chevrolet driver the first repeat stage winner in the division with now five points-paying races complete.
  • In just his fifth points-paying start with Spire Motorsports, Michael McDowell earned the pole position for today’s 267-lap race – laying down a lap of 28.883 seconds in his No. 71 Chevrolet. The lap delivered Chevrolet its second-straight pole win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, as well as Spire Motorsports’ first-ever pole win in NASCAR’s top division.

UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Straight Talk Wireless 400 on Sunday, March 23, at 3 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes:

Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 5th

“Yeah, it got him (Daniel Suarez) clear to the lead. I was fully committed to him and happy to do it. Got him a good push down the frontstretch and through the restart zone; another one into (turn) one and another one into three. We stayed connected well. It was aggressive, but it got him to the lead. And then he just bottomed out too hard with his car and let Josh (Berry) inside of him a couple laps into that run. Bummer because he had a better car than we did and had a shot to win. It just slipped away from us.”

How important was this day for Trackhouse Racing to get both cars into the top-five here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway?

“Yeah, it’s huge. That’s what I said to Daniel (Suarez) – it’s pretty cool to be talking about what we could do better than second and fifth and legitimately running up there. It’s so frustrating though because you could see how close Daniel was. He had the better Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet today, and for him to be so close, it’s a bummer.”

Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 21st

“Our Sea Best team battles and fights and gets better and better every time, every minute we work together. We’re developing a trend of getting stronger as we go, so that’s exciting for the future. We had some opportunities to probably have a better finish there, but from where we were at the beginning of the race to the end, it was a lot better. I’m very happy with our effort. We’ll keep going and getting better. I’m very pleased.”

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 4th

How much of an issue were tires today, and how much were you conserving it? How much did that strategy play into your finish today?

“Yeah, when everything got flipped with the fuel strategy – not really pit strategy, but you had to pit to make it to the end of the race. Everything just got flipped around and we were on the bad side of that, having to restart in the 20s and then have to drive back through the field. I thought we did a good job getting back through the field. Our car was a lot tighter in traffic. There’s definitely some things for us to improve and work on because I feel like once we lost the first couple of rows, it was a completely different race car. We just have to continue to improve on that.

Overall, happy with the result for the No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet team. We had a good car. We definitely had one of the best cars, if the race would have played out normally. We just didn’t really have a chance to get back up there at the end.”

Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 16th

“It was an up-and-down day for the No. 71 Group 1001 Chevy team. We had a little issue there early on with the diffuser flap falling down. We didn’t figure it out until about the end of Stage Two. Once we got that back, we were kind of back in the game but just a couple adjustments behind. I thought we would have a shot at the top-10, but on the last run, the car just got really tight. It’s unfortunate to lose spots there at the end.. you never want to do that. But we’ll keep building and keep working on it; keep making notebooks and get it right.”

Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 34th

“Our day was going pretty good there at the start. I was learning to move around and started to go forward. Just made an adjustment that didn’t go our way and never recovered. It’s a shame, my Red Bull Chevrolet had plenty of potential and I felt like I could’ve been okay. My teammates ran really well, so our car was good. Just learning to put myself in the right spots. We’ll be ready for Homestead next weekend.”

Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 2nd

“Definitely a little disappointed, but first of all, congratulations to Josh Berry and the No. 21 team. They did a great job and they’ve been fast. The No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy team did everything right. The pit crew did an amazing job with the pit stops. We did everything right with the strategy. Our Chevy was fast, but we just struggled a little bit on the short runs. I mentioned to my crew chief – before the last run, I told him that if we’re going to be up front, we’re going to need a better car for the short run. I was having too much contact over there in (turns) one and two. Unfortunately, I think that’s why we lost the race. We just had a little bit too much contact. I almost wrecked in one and two.

But overall, just very, very proud of everyone at Trackhouse Racing. The entire organization has been working very hard and it’s showing. Thank you to Chevrolet, Freeway Insurance, Coca-Cola, Quaker State – all of our partners that help us to get to the track every weekend. It was a solid effort.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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