Fresh off his best finish of the season, Josh Berry and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway with momentum on their side. Berry scored a fourth-place finish last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, a result that showcased the continued progress of the Wood Brothers Racing team early in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Las Vegas is a track where Berry has enjoyed past success, earning two Xfinity Series victories at the 1.5-mile oval. Now, in just his second full-time season at the Cup level, he looks to build on that experience and deliver another strong performance in the desert.

“Vegas has been a good track for me—I’ve won there twice in the Xfinity Series—so I’m looking forward to getting back there this weekend,” Berry said. “The mile-and-a-halfs with the Next Gen car are intense, and Vegas always puts on an exciting race, especially with how crazy the restarts can be.”

Berry and his crew have developed strong chemistry in recent weeks, and with the right execution, Las Vegas could provide another opportunity to showcase the strength of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang.

“The biggest thing for us is to qualify well, hopefully pick up some stage points, and keep our track position to stay up front,” Berry added. “If you can run in the top 10, you can give yourself a shot at it, as long as you execute on pit road and avoid mistakes. We feel pretty good about our preparation and everything heading into the weekend.”

The action kicks off on Saturday with practice and qualifying, scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.

The green flag for the Pennzoil 400 is set to wave just past 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, with broadcast coverage carried on FS1.

About Motorcraft®
Motorcraft offers a complete line of replacement parts that are recommended by Ford Motor Company. From routine maintenance to under hood repairs, Motorcraft parts offer value with high quality and the right fit at competitive prices. Motorcraft parts are available nationwide at Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers, independent distributors and automotive-parts retailers, and are backed by the Service Parts Limited Warranty* of Ford Motor Company. For more information, visit www.motorcraft.com.
*See your dealer for limited-warranty details.

About Quick Lane® Tire & Auto Center
Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center offers extraordinary service for routine maintenance, serving all vehicle makes and models. Quick Lane provides a full menu of automotive services, including tires, oil change and maintenance, brakes, batteries, alternator and electrical system, air conditioning system, cooling system, transmission service, suspension and steering, wheel alignment, belts and hoses, lamps and bulbs and wiper blades plus a thorough vehicle checkup report. Service is performed by expert technicians while you wait at any of nearly 800 locations in the U.S., with evening and weekend hours available and no appointment necessary. For more information about Quick Lane, please visit www.quicklane.com.
*See your dealer for limited-warranty details.”

About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan, committed to helping build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. The company’s Ford+ plan for growth and value creation combines existing strengths, new capabilities and always-on relationships with customers to enrich experiences for customers and deepen their loyalty. Ford develops and delivers innovative, must-have Ford trucks, sport utility vehicles, commercial vans and cars and Lincoln luxury vehicles, along with connected services. The company does that through three customer-centered business segments: Ford Blue, engineering iconic gas-powered and hybrid vehicles; Ford Model e, inventing breakthrough EVs along with embedded software that defines exceptional digital experiences for all customers; and Ford Pro, helping commercial customers transform and expand their businesses with vehicles and services tailored to their needs. Additionally, Ford is pursuing mobility solutions through Ford Next, and provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. Ford employs about 177,000 people worldwide. More information about the company and its products and services is available at corporate.ford.com.

About Ford Performance
Ford Performance is based in Dearborn, Mich. It is responsible for Ford’s performance vehicle development and major racing operations globally, including NASCAR, IMSA, SRO British GT, FIA World Rally Championship, Supercars Championship, World of Outlaws, Ultra4, SCORE-International, FIA Rally-Raid, Formula Drift, NHRA, Rebelle Rally, Thailand Super Series and our latest commitment in Formula 1 with RedBull Ford Powertrains. Ford Performance also maintains a constantly evolving fleet of electric performance demonstrators to showcase the limits of electrification technology. In addition, the organization also oversees the development of Ford’s racing engines, as well as the outreach programs with all Ford Clubs and Ford enthusiasts. For more information regarding Ford racing’s activities, please visit Performance.Ford.com or follow @FordPerformance on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, TikTok and YouTube.

About Wood Brothers Racing
Founded in 1950 by Hall of Famer Glenn Wood in Stuart, Virginia, Wood Brothers Racing holds a special place in NASCAR history as the sport’s longest-running team. Over eight decades, the team has earned 100 victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, along with 120 poles, and remains proud of its longstanding relationship with Ford Motor Company, fielding only Ford products since its inception. Glenn’s brother, Leonard Wood, played a key role in shaping modern racing by developing the techniques behind today’s pit stops. With a rich legacy rooted in innovation and tradition, Wood Brothers Racing continues to honor its heritage while adapting for the future as it competes in NASCAR’s premier series with Josh Berry.

Cody Ware Brings Confidence to First Intermediate-Style Track of 2025

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 13, 2025) – This weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the first of seven intermediate-style tracks on the Cup Series schedule. Intermediates serve as the bread-and-butter of the calendar, where ovals from 1.3 miles to 2 miles comprise 25 percent of the races. The 1.5-mile Las Vegas oval and it similarly-sized sister track, Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, host two races apiece, with each of their second races coming in the 10-race playoffs.

Last year, Rick Ware Racing (RWR) displayed quiet confidence at intermediates. Its collective driver roster of Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie and Cody Ware scored nine top-25 finishes, a number headlined by Haley’s 13th-place run June 30 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. When LaJoie took over for Haley for the final seven races of 2024, he also showed strength in RWR machinery, finishing 15th Sept. 29 at Kansas and 14th Oct. 20 at Las Vegas.

Ware was a contributor too, even with a limited, nine-race schedule. He finished 21st Aug. 19 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn and then repeated that result two months later at Las Vegas. Those efforts, augmented by a career-best fourth-place finish Aug. 24 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, earned Ware the second-best average finish among drivers who ran a limited Cup Series schedule. Ware’s average result of 21.0 was second only to A.J. Allmendinger, who competed in 16 races and earned an average finish of 20.5.

“Looking back at 2024, our intermediate-track program was a strong suit,” said Ware, driver of the No. 51 Evel Knievel/Parts Plus Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RWR. “Justin, Corey, me – we all had some good, respectable runs. We worked hard to create a good baseline for this year.”

Las Vegas will be the first true test to see where that baseline stands in regard to the competition.

The first four races of the 2025 season were anomalies. The Cup Series has raced on back-to-back superspeedways at Daytona and Atlanta, a road course at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas, and a flat, mile-long oval in Phoenix. The ovals that make up the majority of the NASCAR calendar haven’t been represented. Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube changes that.

“We started the year with three straight wild-card races, where seemingly anything can happen,” Ware said. “It just felt like there were a lot of variables out of our control. Last week at Phoenix was probably the first race where I felt like we controlled our destiny a little more, and we came out of there with a respectable finish. Vegas will give us a gauge of where our performance is relative to the rest of the field.

“We’ve been pretty decent at Las Vegas, and that gives me the confidence to fire off in practice and qualifying to extract the most speed out of the car so we can see where we really are. Once we get this Vegas race underneath us, we’re going to have a better idea, directionally, of the places where we can work to make our cars better.”

Las Vegas is a fast, sweeping racetrack. Drivers lap the 1.5-mile oval in under 30 seconds with an average speed that approaches 185 mph. With its corners banked at 20 degrees, two- and three-wide racing is common, and its aged asphalt provides enough grip for drivers to search different lines in an effort to find more speed.

“Vegas is one of my favorite tracks to go to on the schedule. It’s one of the few 1.5-mile tracks that we go to that I feel has remained mostly unchanged in the last 10 years,” Ware said.

“It’s got a lot of character. Being out in the desert, it can be a little bit dusty, and you have some pretty significant bumps, especially over in the corners. You have to be very cognizant of your corner entry and the line you’re taking, because if you hit those bumps in turns one and two just the wrong way, it could end your day pretty quickly.

“And with the different lines you can run, you can find ways to make the car work for you even if your car isn’t exactly where you want it. If you don’t have a good handle on your car, there’s about a lane-and-a-half you can use in turns one and two. But if your car is handling well, you can take those bumps aggressively. That opens up a lot of racing opportunities from the bottom of the racetrack all the way to the wall.

“I’m interested to see if it’s going to be a race of raw speed, or if we’re going to have long green-flag runs where we’ll see a lot of strategy come into play.”

Ware will get his first hint of what Las Vegas has to offer when he wheels his No. 51 Evel Knievel/Parts Plus Ford Mustang Dark Horse around the track for practice on Saturday at 10:35 a.m. PDT/1:35 p.m. EDT. Qualifying follows at 11:40 a.m. PDT/2:40 p.m. EDT. That will set the starting lineup for Sunday’s 36-car field, with the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube going green at 12:30 p.m. PDT/3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

About Rick Ware Racing:

Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age 6 when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver’s seat and into full-time team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with his wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that competes full-time in the elite NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track and FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX).

Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sunday, March 16, 2025
1.5-Mile Tri-Oval
3:30 PM ET
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
TV: Fox
Event: NASCAR Cup Series (5 of 36)
RADIO: SiriusXM

5 KYLE LARSON
 Age: 32 (July 31, 1992)
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Last Week: 3rd (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
Standings: 11th

No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet

• Kyle Larson’s three victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway are tied for his most NASCAR Cup Series wins at a track with Michigan International Speedway.
• His 629 laps led at the desert track rank second all-time to Kevin Harvick (679). Of those, 64% laps led have come in the Next Gen car (405).
• Larson’s eight top-three finishes at Las Vegas are his most at a track.
• The 2021 Cup Series champion’s six Las Vegas stage wins lead all drivers and are tied with Homestead-Miami Speedway and Darlington Raceway for his most at a track.
• Larson has led 21% of all laps raced on 1.5-mile tracks in the Next Gen car – 1,225 of 5,957.
• The Elk Grove, California, native’s average finish of 9.41 in 17 races at the Nevada track is best among all drivers with at least four starts.
• The 32-year-old has the most wins in the Next Gen car on 1.5-mile tracks with four.

9 CHASE ELLIOTT
 Age: 29 (Nov. 28, 1995)
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia
Last week: 10th (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson
Standings: 5th

No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet

• Last weekend, Chase Elliott earned his second top-10 finish of the season, placing 10th at Phoenix Raceway.
• He currently sits fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings through four races, only 41 markers behind the leader, teammate William Byron.
• The 29-year-old driver has the fifth-best average finish (12.25). He’s one of only five drivers to finish on the lead lap in all four events.
• In last fall’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Elliott turned laps inside the top 10 before finishing stage one in 12th. He started the second stage from row two but was collected in a multi-car incident that relegated him to a 33rd-place finish.
• Elliott’s three stage wins at Las Vegas are tied with five other tracks for his second most behind Martinsville Speedway (seven).
• His best finish of second at the desert tri-oval came in the fall of 2021.
• The Dawsonville, Georgia, native’s most recent points-paying win came on a 1.5-mile track. He captured the victory at Texas Motor Speedway last spring.

24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 27 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Last Week: 6th (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 1st

No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet

• Capturing the pole for Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway, Byron led laps early before collecting the stage one win. He continued to run up front before an untimely caution ruined the No. 24 team’s pit strategy. Byron was able to battle back to secure a sixth-place finish.
• So far in 2025, the 27-year-old driver has an average starting position of 9.25 (best of all drivers) and an average finish of 9.0 (second best). He also has collected 49 stage points this season, most by any driver.
• The Charlotte, North Carolina, native is the only driver to have led a lap in every points-paying event this season. In fact, Byron has led laps in the last six races, dating back to last year. He’s also paced the field in the last four races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• In addition, he has run 467 laps in the top five and 713 laps in the top 10 in 2025 – both tops in the field.
• In 10 of the last 11 points-paying races, Byron has finished inside the top six. The only exception is Atlanta Motor Speedway where he was contending for the win in the closing laps before being involved in an incident.
• On 1.5-mile tracks, Byron has four consecutive top-10 finishes, the fourth longest streak in the field.
• Byron has one win at Las Vegas in the Next Gen era, 201 laps led (third best) with an average finish of 6.67 (second best).

48 ALEX BOWMAN
Age: 31 (April 25, 1993)
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Last Week: 7th (Phoenix)
Crew Chief: Blake Harris
Standings: 6th

No. 48 Ally Chevrolet

• Alex Bowman currently sits sixth in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings heading into Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 48 points behind the leader.
• Over the past nine years, the Tuscon, Arizona, native has made 15 starts at the 1.5-mile track with one win (2022), four top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes.
• Bowman has finished in the top 10 in each of the last five races on 1.5-mile tracks, tying him for the longest active streak.
• For the Best Friends Animal Society programming, Ally and Bowman will be partnering with Hearts Alive Village in Las Vegas as their selected shelter for this weekend. 
• Ally and HendrickCars.com are teaming up again to give fans the chance to win prizes with this year’s “Open Road Sweepstakes.” Fans can win VIP experiences at various races throughout the season and one lucky winner will hit the open road in a Chevy Silverado LT Trail Boss with an Airstream camper. Fans can stop by the Ally Fan Zone to enter the sweepstakes in-person and check out the camper. Fans can also enter here. 

Hendrick Motorsports
 

 
*Most all time
**Tied for most all time

• Last week at Phoenix Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports placed all four drivers in the top 10 for only the second time at the track (2023).
• Kyle Larson’s third-place finish at Phoenix gave the organization a sixth-straight race with at least one car in the top three. That’s its longest streak since 2021.
• A Hendrick Motorsports driver has won each of the last four spring races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Larson winning two of those (2021 and 2024) and Alex Bowman (2022) and William Byron (2023) each winning one.
• With four, Hendrick Motorsports has more wins at Las Vegas in the Next Gen era than any team at any track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The organization’s drivers have combined to lead 37% of all laps at 1.5-mile tracks over that time (2,196 out of 5,957).
• Hendrick Motorsports is the all-time leader in wins (10), top-five finishes (35) and laps led (2,425) at Las Vegas.

QUOTABLE /
 
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, on success at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) has been a great track for us since I joined the No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM team. We got our first win here together and we have added a couple more since then. I think we have a couple runner-up finishes, also. The track is great but also getting to come to a cool city is fun, as well. This is probably in my top-three places to come to.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet, on racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend: “I’m looking forward to heading to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) this weekend. I felt like, as a team, we made a lot of headway on our mile-and-a-half program last year. And really, last fall, I felt like that was the best we had been at Vegas in this new car.”

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, on the season thus far: “I know I keep saying it, but the No. 24 team is executing at a really high level right now. That makes me confident every time I get in the car. We’re heading to a track where we have a good notebook and have success at so that makes me extra excited to get there and see what we can do.”

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, on Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “I’m confident heading into Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) this weekend. I would say it’s one of my better tracks. Obviously, winning there back in 2022, but I feel like I’ve been successful there even prior to the Next Gen era. Last year in the fall, we had a strong qualifying and race effort, qualified third and finished fifth. We were able to run up front majority of the race. (Crew chief) Blake (Harris) made some strategic fuel strategy calls and we were there at the end to finish fifth. Hopefully we can bring it home and get that win that Blake and I were so close to getting back in 2023.”