FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: LAS VEGAS PLAYOFF ADVANCE
This weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will mark the first time all three series will be running playoff races in 2020. It all begins on Friday with the second postseason race for the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and continues with the first playoff event for the NASCAR XFINITY Series on Saturday. The weekend concludes with the first race in the Round of 12 as five Ford drivers remain in contention for the NASCAR Cup Series title.
This Week’s Schedule:
Friday, Sept. 25 – NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Series, 9 p.m. (FS1)
Saturday, Sept. 26 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
Sunday, Sept. 27 – NASCAR Cup Series, 7 p.m. (NBCSN)
ROUND OF 16 SWEEP
Kevin Harvick’s victory on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway was his career-best ninth of the season and completed a Round of 16 sweep for Ford. That gives the Blue Oval a manufacturer-high 17 wins this season, which is its third-highest single-season win total in the modern era (1972-present). With seven races remaining, Ford needs only two more wins to match its total of 19 from two seasons ago and three more to tie its all-time mark of 20 victories in 1994. Here is a look at Ford’s best seasons since 1972.
YEAR-WINS
1994 – 20
2018 – 19
1997 – 19
2020 – 17
2005 – 16
1992 – 16
1998 – 15
FORD SETS A WINNING PACE
Harvick’s second playoff win of the season last weekend continued Ford’s string of success in 2020, and particularly since NASCAR returned to action. Overall, Ford drivers have combined to win 17-of-29 NASCAR Cup Series races (59%) and 15-of-25 points events (60%) since Harvick won the first race back at Darlington on May 17. Ford also holds a 67-point lead in the series manufacturers’ standings with seven races remaining.
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT LVMS
· Ford leads all manufacturers with 13 series wins in 25 all-time events.
· Roush Fenway Racing tops all organizations with 7 victories, including the first three.
· Ford has won four of the last five at LVMS (Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano twice).
ROUND OF 12 NCS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 8 advance after Charlotte)
1. Kevin Harvick +62
3. Brad Keselowski +30
4. Joey Logano +17
9. Aric Almirola +0
12. Clint Bowyer -1
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT LVMS
· Ford has 10 NASCAR XFINITY Series wins at LVMS.
· Jeff Burton and Mark Martin lead the way with 2 wins apiece.
· 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 +48
2. Chase Briscoe +48
FORD IN THE NASCAR GANDER RV & OUTDOORS 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.
ROUND OF 10 NGOTS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 8 advance after Talladega)
4. Grant Enfinger +24
6. Matt Crafton +13
7. Ben Rhodes +6
10. Todd Gilliland -8
LOGANO AND BRISCOE GOING FOR 2020 VEGAS SWEEPS
Joey Logano has won two of the last three Las Vegas Cup Series races and has an opportunity for a season sweep this weekend. Logano earned the chance after he and crew chief Paul Wolfe decided to stay on the track when caution came out with six laps to go earlier this year. That enabled him to inherit the lead, which ultimately produced a good restart that enabled Logano to take the white flag seconds before the caution flag waved, which essentially ended the race. Briscoe won the NXS race in the spring, 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 Briscoe’s pit crew, which got him off pit road first and allowed him to lead the final 36 circuits to post his first win of the season.
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 Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series triumphs.
TEAM PENSKE ON VEGAS ROLL
Team Penske has dominated the NXS and NCS events at LVMS in recent years with three drivers combining for eight wins. Sam Hornish Jr. started this streak with his win in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race in 2013 before Brad Keselowski swept the NXS/NCS weekend in 2014. Keselowski won Cup events in 2016 and 2018 while Joey Logano claimed an NXS victory in 2017 and a pair of Cup triumphs in 2019 and 2020.
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 (1)
FORD NASCAR GANDER RV & OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT LAS VEGAS
1997 – Joe Ruttman
1999 – Greg Biffle
2007 – Travis Kvapil
2016 – Tyler Reddick
2018 – Grant Enfinger (2)
