LAS VEGAS 1
Saturday, March 14 – NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, 5:30 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, March 15 – NASCAR Cup Series, 4 p.m. ET (FS1)
Ford Racing heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway after putting together its best weekend of the year in which Ryan Blaney drove to victory and Joey Logano scored the pole at Phoenix Raceway. Both drivers figure to be competitive again at LVMS, where Logano has won a career-best four times and Ford is the defending winner after Josh Berry won a year ago.
BLANEY CAPTURES FIRST CUP WIN OF 2026
Ryan Blaney gave Ford Racing its first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. The win was Blaney’s 18th career triumph and second straight at the one-mile racetrack. It also moved him into a tie for 16th place on the all-time Ford Cup Series win list with Fireball Roberts. In addition, it marked Team Penske’s 108th series win with Ford. Blaney will try to make it two in a row this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he has a career-best finish of third in 19 career series starts.
450 CAREER WINS FOR DOUG YATES
Blaney’s victory also marked a milestone for Roush Yates Engines CEO Doug Yates as it was his 450th career NASCAR victory (Cup, O’Reilly, and Truck combined) since starting his career with Robert Yates Racing in 1990. Yates, who was recently presented with the Spirit of Ford Award on behalf of the Yates Family for contributions to motorsports, has served as CEO at RYE since the operation began in 2004.
BERRY RETURNS TO SITE OF FIRST CUP WIN
It didn’t take Josh Berry long to adjust to his new surroundings at Wood Brothers Racing, taking the team to Victory Lane in only his fifth start after winning last year’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Berry passed Daniel Suarez and led the final 16 circuits to post his first NASCAR Cup Series victory and give WBR its 101st all-time triumph. The win is Berry’s only top 10 at LVMS in five starts.
VEGAS PROVES TO BE LOGANO’S BEST
Joey Logano has four career victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is tied for the most he has at any track on the circuit (Phoenix Raceway). In 25 career starts at the intermediate track, Logano has a finishing average of 9.6, which ranks as his statistical best on tracks where has made at least 10 series starts. Much of the success the driver of the No. 22 has enjoyed is a result of qualifying well. Logano has an average starting spot of 7.7 at Las Vegas, which is also a personal-best, and includes three pole positions.
HOMECOMING FOR GRAGSON
Las Vegas is home for Ford Racing’s Noah Gragson, who kicked off race week by driving a Ford Bronco Raptor from Phoenix. Gragson, who is still looking for his first Cup Series victory, has won 15 times combined in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (13) and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (2), but none of those have come at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sunday’s race will mark his seventh career series start at the 1.5-mile track with his best finish coming in this event two years ago when he ran sixth.
RYAN PREECE: “Honestly, Las Vegas has just been really good to me here as of late, as well as our entire group, with everything that we have going on, so I feel really excited about going there We’ve been firing on all eight cylinders when it comes to our mile-and-a-half program, so I’m excited about it.”
JOEY LOGANO: “Vegas has just been a good one. I think our Ford Mustangs have always been fairly strong there and it’s a track that seems like it kind of fits my style. We’ve been able to figure out how to move around that racetrack fairly well from top to bottom and we think that’s opened up our options. We’ve won there in completely different ways almost every time, whether it’s speed, strategy, tires at the end, staying out at the end, fuel mileage. It seems like we’ve gotten to the end of that one just about every way you can, but it’s been a good place.”
ZANE SMITH: “The intermediates for us last year were great, so I’m looking forward to getting back to those. I feel like we should have some good progression throughout the offseason to be better on those as well. Outside of that, I feel like we’re pretty consistent with being good on all of them, but the road courses. The road courses have been the main area where we need work, but I’m excited for the mile-and-a-halves.”
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 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at the 1.5-mile facility. The organization has posted seven NCS wins and six NOAPS 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 O’Reilly Auto Parts 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.
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)
2024 – Joey Logano (2)
2025 – Josh Berry (1)
FORD’S LAS VEGAS NOAPS 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)
2023 – Riley Herbst (2)
As the spirit of America, the Ford Mustang is the world’s best selling sports car and one of the planet’s most popular race cars. With Mustang-based race cars competing in international sports car competition (GT3 and GT4), NASCAR, NHRA, Formula Drift, in Supercars, at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and in its own bespoke regional one-make series – Mustang Cup and Mustang Challenge – the platform has an unprecedented global reach. This weekend, 12 Mustang race cars are scheduled to race across all disciplines. Learn more about Mustang at www.FordRacing.com.
