Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
South Point 400 Advance | Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske in the NASCAR Cup Series, will be competing in the Round of 8 which begins this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The two-time champion opens the round in eighth place, 11 points below the cut line. He was a guest earlier today as part of a NASCAR conference call in which he answered media questions. Following is a full transcript:

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU HEARD THE 48 WAS BEING DISQUALIFIED AND YOU WERE IN THE ROUND OF 8? “I was obviously surprised. I heard rumors before that of a delay in tech and some of those things going on. Usually, nothing happens. It was kind of a surprise to hear that. Typically, by the time you roll the car off the scales, they give them the opportunity to put weight in the cars and you’re usually fine, but in this case that wasn’t the case and I was like, ‘Well, would we be in?’ That’s the first question you have to ask and obviously the answer was yes, and then you’re still kind of cautiously optimistic because you’re thinking, ‘Well, there probably will be an appeal if there is and we may not know until later,’ so you kind of keep going on with your life and preparing for the next race. Obviously, it came out yesterday that they’re not appealing, so we move on and into the Round of 8 and off we go.”

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT SOMEONE FAILING TECH FOR BEING TOO LIGHT? “I can’t speak on the specifics of what happened and how it happened. It’s obvious that NASCAR gives us half-a-percent of the total weight of the vehicle after the race. That rule is there for multiple reasons. In the past, obviously, there are games played there. What they are and how it works, you’re talking to the wrong guy on that, but some rules are gray that you can interpret two different ways and some are black and white. When it comes to numbers and the weight of a vehicle, it’s a little bit easier to look at and say it’s either black or white, but I can’t speak to the specifics of how it happened or what games are played and how often it happens. I can’t answer those.”

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS SECOND CHANCE? HOW DO YOU ATTACK IT? “The same way we would have if we’d made it any other way. You go out there and you attack. The positives, I feel like we’ve been steadily getting better and improving throughout the season to where we are now. I feel confident in the speed we have in our car. Kansas, we had a lot of speed and almost won the first stage there. We have to clean up a couple issues on the execution side. Talladega is Talladga. We got caught up in the big crash there, but the speed we also had this weekend at the Roval looked pretty solid to me, to where we are a Championship 4 caliber race team. The stats may not look like it. It may look like we’re underdogs from the outset looking in, but internally we feel very confident in our race team that we can make a run at this thing and get ourselves into the Championship 4. We’ve seen it in the past where you get in there and anything can happen at Phoenix. The goal right now is to look at the next three races and how do we maximize that. We can point our way in. We’re only 11 out, so it’s not a lot of points by no means. It can happen very quickly, so one race at a time. Right now, the focus is Vegas and we’ll try to maximize the day there.”

YOU ARE A THREE-TIME WINNER AT VEGAS. DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE A STRONG OPPORTUNITY THERE TO WIN OR GET YOURSELF SOLIDLY IN THE TOP FOUR? “We’ve done it before, we can do it again.”

ON PIT ROAD YOU SAID YOU WERE ANGRY AT THE MOMENT. WHAT WERE YOUR EMOTIONS IN THE CAR ON THE WAY HOME WHEN YOU STARTED TO HEAR THE RUMORS? “I was starting to move forward. You get there literally the moment we get out of the race car. It takes a little bit to get your thoughts collected and, honestly, by the time I was driving home my wife and I were talking about something far more important than what we were doing at the racetrack. My mind was already starting to shift on what were the next moves and kind of getting over the race. Then I started hearing the rumors from there and the phone started to ring shortly after.”

WHEN YOU GET A RARE SECOND CHANCE IS THAT MOTIVATING EVEN JUST A LITTLE BIT? “I don’t know if they let us in. The race is something that starts the day they start building the race car. That’s when the race starts. You guys see the results every weekend and what goes on during the race, but weeks beforehand is when the race starts and so that all matters. We talk about how this is a team sport and it takes everybody that builds the race car to make this work, and we were able to do what we needed to do at the Roval to move forward. Now, does it motivate us more that we’re in still? No. I mean, we’re a motivated race team any way you look at it. The parts that I was most proud about after the Roval was that we showed up with our backs up against the wall in a situation where we needed to really show up and we qualified well, we scored the second-most points on the day. The goal was to score a bunch of points. We missed that by one point. I feel like we had a championship-winning execution when it comes to road courses when you have to not flip the stages and you have to take the stage points and put yourself behind at some point. It’s really hard to get a solid finish after doing that and I’m proud of the team for being able to accomplish that.”

WE’VE SEEN THE PENSKE TEAMS GET STRONGER AS THE PLAYOFFS MOVE FORWARD IN PAST YEARS. HOW DOES THAT COMPARE TO WHAT YOU’RE SEEING THIS SEASON? “Trends are trends for a reason, right? I don’t know why or what that is, but it does seem like Team Penske does a good job rising to the occasion when it matters during the playoffs. I feel like that happened a little sooner this year. We started to make that turnaround a little bit quicker than last year and still last year Blaney was able to win the championship. Yeah, I feel great about it because we’ve done this before. Like I said before, from the outside looking in you look at it and say, ‘Well, they haven’t had as many top fives. They haven’t had as many top 10s. They haven’t been as competitive.’ Who cares? We’ve lived this story many times before. Yeah, would it be easier if you had more playoff points? Yeah, but you know what? You win this weekend and you’re sitting as the favorite going into Phoenix, so it changes like that and that’s with the playoff system that we have. Every point matters throughout the whole season. I’m not discounting that, but you have to be your absolute best at this point in the season or else those points don’t even matter, so I feel confident in our team that we’ve got that. We’re still alive. We’re still going and that’s the name of the game in these playoffs. You just have to stay alive long enough. I said it last year that we did not accomplish that. This year, we’re gonna keep the pressure on all the way through.”

HENDRICK HAD UNTIL 5 PM TO APPEAL. WHAT WAS THAT UNCERTAINTY LIKE AS YOU WENT THROUGH YOUR NORMAL PROCESS THAT THINGS COULD CHANGE AGAIN? “To be honest with you, you control the things that you can control. I don’t work at Hendrick. I don’t know the situation that happened and how it happened. I can’t sway their opinion on whether they’re gonna appeal it or not, so what am I gonna do? All I can do is do us at that point – do what we typically do, which is our typical Monday and go through it and prepare for the next weekend. Does the goal change because we’re in the Round of 8 versus not? No, because we were still in the owner’s championship anyway. We still had that that we needed to continue to fight for, so the goal doesn’t change, the strategy wouldn’t have changed. Nothing changes in our minds because that owner’s piece of this whole thing is ultra important. That’s where the money is at. We don’t talk about it much, but it’s important, so we wouldn’t have changed our mindset one bit.”

CAN YOU EMPATHIZE WITH WHAT ALEX BOWMAN MUST HAVE FELT WHEN HE FOUND OUT BECAUSE YOU GUYS DON’T PREPARE THE CAR? “Yeah. It’s hard. I’ve been there. If you’ve done this stuff long enough you as a driver find yourself in these scenarios and it’s not easy from any level. One, you’ve got to answer questions from you guys. The impact that it makes for your race team. There’s nothing good that comes out of it and it’s frustrating on top of it, but, like I said, I don’t know how it happened – if it’s a mistake or something, I don’t know. Is it was something that was intentional? Is it something they just pushed too far? I don’t know. That probably affects the way you think after something like this happens.”

WHAT ARE THE EMOTIONS LIKE KNOWING YOU ARE GOING TO ONE OF YOUR BEST TRACKS IN VEGAS? “Like I said, you’re right back in it and the goal was the same, whether we were in the driver’s championship still or not. The owner’s side of it still mattered to us, so the mindset doesn’t change. The energy doesn’t change. We’re still going out there to maximize the day and win it if we can. That’s the goal, so I can’t say it changed much. Did it bring some excitement that this piece of it is still there? Yeah, absolutely. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel that way, but it doesn’t change much from the way it affects us as a race team.”

WHAT IS THE KEY TO WINNING AND HAVING SUCCESS AT HOMESTEAD? “I would say Miami, I think every driver loves going there because there are just so many options. You can run the very bottom. You can run the very top. There’s a lot of tire fall off. It makes it very challenging to set up your race car because do you want to be good on the short run or the long run? I always pick both. Can we get everything? But a lot of times you have to compromise and pick something to be stellar and it’s fun because you have a lot of those challenges you have to go through throughout the day and strategy. I can’t say I’ve completely looked at the strategy yet and the tire limits of how that works there, but there if there are a lot of cautions you can run up against your tire allotment pretty quickly there because you’re gonna want them pretty much any chance you can, so it makes for a really fun track. I think everyone enjoys going to Miami. I think the teams, not just the drivers, I think everyone likes going down there this time of year anyways.”

IS THIS SORT OF A SURREAL YEAR FOR YOU? “It’s NASCAR, man. I don’t know what to tell you. Expect the unexpected. You’ve got to go and just roll with the punches and go with the flow and just continue on. I feel like these days more and more there are just seasons like this. There’s just more crazy things that can happen than ever before and a lot of that is due to the Next Gen car, but it just seems like the simple – last night I was putting my son to bed and he likes reading those yearbooks on how the season went. We were reading one from ‘20 or ‘21, I’m not sure, and he started reading the finishing order and the top 10 was almost the same every weekend. It was the same top 10 drivers and now you look at the top 10 and it’s different every week. There are people in and out of that thing. It’s not like you’re clicking off twenty-something top 10s. There’s 10 cars doing that throughout the year. It doesn’t happen anymore. The game has changed. This car has completely changed everything that we used to know about NASCAR and now, like I said, I just go with it because it’s just the craziest things we do now. You look at the way we race on the track, the tracks that we go to, you name it and it can happen.”

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY DOING WHEN YOU COME TO VEGAS BESIDES THE TRACK, AND LARSON HAS WON TWICE IN A ROW THERE. IS HE ONE OF THE GUYS TO BEAT THIS WEEKEND? “The Vegas entertainment part, you’re talking to someone who might be a little boring when you’re talking about Vegas since you’re just going there for a work trip. I’m there to win a race, so if you want to know what the most fun thing to do there is there’s a place inside the racetrack called Victory Lane. That’s the best place to be in Vegas, so I’m gonna try to drive my car there and enjoy my time when I get there. Until then, I’m not gonna be working. As far as the competitor there, yeah, you look at the top eight right now and you can pick and choose any of them. They’re all really strong. You can look at it and if you were to look at the playoffs when they started, those are probably gonna be the majority of the cars that everyone would pick to be in this round. There is no one that is knocked out of the playoffs right now that you would say, ‘Man, that is a big surprise.’ There’s no one that had a ton of playoff points that got knocked out is what I’m trying to say, so all the cars that are in it are tough. I don’t think you can discount anybody going to Vegas.”

TEAM PENSKE WON THE IMSA WEATHERTECH GTP CHAMPIONSHIP. DO ANY OF THE ENGINEERS OR PEOPLE WITH THAT TEAM WORK WITH YOUR TEAM? “No, as closely as a lot of us work together it’s still so different. Those cars are light years different than what we race. I know we are a step closer to that direction with the Next Gen car, but you hear some stories about their races and race cars in talking to drivers and you’re like, ‘Huh.’ That’s still a lot different, so I don’t there’s a whole bunch of information that is transferred back and forth between those cars. They’re still very different.”

WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT MARTINSVILLE. AS A DRIVER CAN YOU TAKE ME THROUGH WHAT IT’S LIKE FROM THE TIME YOU WAKE UP UNTIL WHEN THE RACE ENDS? “It depends on the scenario you’re in because by the time you get to Martinsville you know what you have to do. You already went through Vegas. You already went through Miami, so you have an idea of like, ‘OK, am I do or die? Do I have to win the race or I’m out? Or, maybe you’ve already won and you don’t have to worry about it at all, or you’re pointing your way in or a similar scenario that we were in at the Roval, so it’s too early to say how you’re gonna feel that morning, but that’s what you’re gonna have to work through. We’ve seen crazy things happen there. What Ross did a couple years ago. You never know what’s gonna happen.”

NOAH GRAGSON
Las Vegas Advance
No. 10 Fanttik Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Event Overview

● Event: South Point 400 (Round 33 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 20
● Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Noah Gragson is a Las Vegas native and the South Point 400 NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway serves as a homecoming for the 26-year-old racer. Gragson’s racing career began on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway campus, specifically at The Bullring located just outside turns one and two of the 1.5-mile oval. The Bullring is a .375-mile asphalt oval that hosts a variety of racing series, from Bandoleros and Legend Cars to Late Models, the NASCAR Southwest Series and the ARCA Menards Series West. It was in Bandoleros – a small, spec-series racecar that puts out 30 horsepower via a Briggs & Stratton 570cc Vanguard engine – where a 13-year-old Gragson made his first laps on his road to the NASCAR Cup Series.

● With only 71 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, Gragson is still relatively new to the Cup Series, but he is not new to NASCAR. Gragson spent 2015 and 2016 in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, known today as the ARCA Menards Series. He then ran the full NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule in 2017 and 2018 before graduating to the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In four fulltime seasons (2019-2022) in the stepping-stone division to the elite Cup Series, Gragson won 13 races and finished among the top-10 in points each year, earning the series’ most popular driver award in his final season. Gragson made it to the Championship 4 twice, finishing third in 2021 and second in 2022 with a series-high eight victories.

● Gragson won twice in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in October 2017 and Kansas Speedway in May 2018 – and finished second in the 2018 championship, where he picked up the Truck Series’ most popular driver award. Those Truck Series results were a continuation of the kind of talent Gragson showcased in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. Gragson raced in this developmental league, regionally split into two divisions – K&N Pro Series East and K&N Pro Series West – for two years (2015-2016), winning six races between the two entities and narrowly missing out on the 2015 West title by a scant seven points, but handily securing the rookie-of-the-year title.

● The South Point 400 will mark Gragson’s fourth career NASCAR Cup Series start at Las Vegas. Gragson earned a solid 11th-place finish in October 2022 during his Las Vegas Cup Series debut when he drove for Hendrick Motorsports in place of the injured Alex Bowman. In Gragson’s return to Las Vegas in March 2023, he finished 30th driving for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. In his most recent Cup Series start at Las Vegas in March, Gragson put on an impressive drive, rallying from his 30th-place starting spot to finish sixth.

● In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Gragson proved to be a strong bet at Las Vegas. In eight career Xfinity Series starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Gragson never finished worse than sixth. In fact, his sixth-place drive in September 2019 – which came in just his second Xfinity Series start at Las Vegas – was his only finish outside of the top-five. Even though Gragson never won an Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas, he finished second three times (September 2020, March and October 2022). And with two other third-place results, Gragson’s average Xfinity Series finish at Las Vegas is a stout 3.4 with 142 total laps led.

● Gragson has also made three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts at Las Vegas with a best finish of 12th in March 2018. Gragson led laps in each Truck Series race he competed in at Las Vegas, pacing the field for 12 laps in September 2017, another 12 laps in March 2018, and then 33 laps in September 2018.

● Fanttik, the trailblazing and award-winning brand in the automotive accessories industry, will serve as the primary partner for Gragson and the No. 10 team of Stewart-Haas in the South Point 400. Fanttik is a youthful, dynamic brand dedicated to outdoor, household, sports and automotive products that cater to every need for the perfect adventure. In a short span of time, Fanttik has garnered extreme acclaim from enthusiasts, social media influencers, digital media and consumers. It has earned the internationally revered Red Dot Design Award multiple times, along with the prestigious IF Design Award. Fostering the motto, “We explore, we innovate and we make it happen,” Fanttik has brought trailblazing experiences in the automotive arena to the most diverse audience. For more information, please visit Fanttik online at Fanttik.com and on social at Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit and Quora.

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Fanttik Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You finished sixth at Las Vegas earlier this year, which was just your third start with Stewart-Haas. How important was that result to establish yourself at Stewart-Haas and also get it at your hometown track?

“It was cool. We had a really good car that day and I wish I qualified a little better, but we had a smooth, solid day, gained positions all throughout the race. We qualified 30th, mainly due to my lack of experience qualifying there. I just didn’t want to wreck in qualifying, so I really underdid it. But yeah, we had a strong day, which was good to start the season off that way.”

What’s the key to having another strong performance at Las Vegas?

“You definitely have to have good handling there. You always want to carry momentum at all these places, but having a car driving good and being able to hook the line in (turns) three and four and get it down there without skating off the bottom is really key. So yeah, definitely, handling is important, especially through the bumps in turns one and two.”

Your prior race at Las Vegas took place in early March. In the seven months that have passed since that race, how have you evolved this year at Stewart-Haas, and how do you feel your time spent at Stewart-Haas sets you up for next year when you’re with Front Row Motorsports?

“Just collecting notes from this year and building chemistry with the team and understanding how these cars work better, and just trying to learn as much as possible on the track, off the track, all that will definitely start me off better for next year.”

What does it mean to race in your hometown of Las Vegas?

“It’s exciting to go back to Vegas. It feels different. For me, it’s always been special and I feel like it’s a different special because it’s home for me. I probably don’t get excited about the things that other people who aren’t from there get excited about just because it’s normal, but I get excited just because I get a ton of support from the hometown crowd and a lot of friends and family come out to the race. I try to go out there a couple of days ahead of time and spend time with my friends and family before it’s time to get to work. And I enjoy the Vegas track, regardless of it being in Vegas, and have always run well there, which is a good thing.”

You’ve literally grown up at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway complex, beginning with Bandoleros at the Bullring to today at the 1.5-mile oval. What’s it been like to have so many career moments at your hometown track?

“It’s special. Outside of turns one and two is the Bullring. It’s a three-eighths-mile short track. That’s where I ran my first-ever racecar, a Bandolero, when I was 13 years old. I kind of got a late start, but I always remember pulling into the pits and being at that track where you can see the banking on the big track not far away, just across the street, on the other side of the parking lot. That was always the goal, to get any kind of laps on the big track, whether it be in the NASCAR Experience ride-along cars, I always thought that would be cool to do one day. And then to actually be able to race a real stock car around there with a race team, getting over there in the Truck Series. Cut my teeth in Bandoleros, Legend Cars, Late Models, ran all those things at the Bullring. I had a lot of wins and a lot of good memories there, and to be at the big track now, it’s something I’d always dreamed of when I first started, and now it’s a reality, so it’s very special.”

You’re competing in the NASCAR Cup Series after successfully climbing the NASCAR ladder. What was it like racing in all the different feeder series on the way to your ultimate goal of racing in Cup?

“I love the feeder series up into the top-three series of NASCAR. You’ve got the K&N Series back in the day, and then the ARCA Series, racing Super Late Models, that’s what we grew up doing, Legend Cars, Bandoleros. Every next step was always what I was eyeing. If I’m in Bandoleros, I’m eyeing to get to a Legend Car one day, hopefully. Then you get to a Legend Car and you’re like, ‘Man, I’m good at this,’ and then you start winning in that and you feel good and look at Super Late Models or K&N and start winning in that. I kind of got a late start compared to most guys. I started when I was 13 years old where they start in karts when they’re 4, 5, 6 years old. So having the support from friends and family and my team, and then my own drive, as well, I was always driven to be the best that I could be. Those days, I miss them, they’re fun. Those are the real fun days because you’re just going and racing and having fun with your team.”

No. 10 Fanttik Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Noah Gragson

Hometown: Las Vegas

Crew Chief: Drew Blickensderfer

Hometown: Decatur, Illinois

Car Chief: Jerry Cook

Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Engineer: James Kimbrough

Hometown: Pensacola, Florida

Spotter: Andy Houston

Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder

Hometown: Sioux Center, Iowa

Rear Tire Changer: Trevor White

Hometown: Arlington, Texas

Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard

Hometown: King, North Carolina

Jack Man: Sean Cotten

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Fuel Man: James “Ace” Keener

Hometown: Fortuna, California

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Chris Trickett

Hometown: Grafton, West Virginia

Mechanic: Beau Whitley

Hometown: Carmel, Indiana

Tire Specialist: Jacob Cooksey

Hometown: Westbrookville, New York

Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller

Hometown: Monroe, New York

Transporter Co-Driver: Steve Casper

Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Matt Murphy

Hometown: Augusta, Georgia

Martin Truex Jr.
Las Vegas Advance
No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing

Event Overview

● Event: South Point 400 (Round 33 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20
● Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Four To Go: After a 21th-place finish last weekend on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, Truex sits 14th in the driver standings with 2,146 points heading to this weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

● Truex has two wins, seven top-five finishes, 16 top-10s and has led a total of 317 laps in 25 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas. Truex’s average Las Vegas finish is a strong 9.8, best among active drivers with Joey Logano a close second with an average finish of 9.9.

● Truex notched his most recent Las Vegas victory in September 2019, when he led 32 laps. It was his second win on the 1.5-mile oval and first at Las Vegas since joining Joe Gibbs Racing.

● Looking for 35: Truex’s July 2023 win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon was his most recent Cup Series win, the 34th of his career, tying him with 2004 champion Kurt Busch for 25th on the all-time Cup Series win list.

● Ahead at this Stage: Truex has accumulated 64 stage wins since the beginning of the stage era in 2017. He is the only driver with 10 or more stage sweeps, with his latest sweep coming at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn in August 2023. Truex scored his fourth stage win of the season last month at Watkins Glen, leading the field across the line at the end of Stage 1.

Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE

What are you expecting at Las Vegas this weekend with your No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Camry XSE?

“I expect it to be a great race out in Vegas. I love going out there and it’s a great racetrack. Vegas is a great track that’s wide and you can run all over. We saw a lot of guys run high there the last couple of years and we’ve also gotten better as a team at being able to get through the bumps and moving around. I’ve won there before and I’m always confident we can go out there and run up front and have a shot to get our Bass Pro Shops Camry to victory lane.”

Does “Sin City” still live up to its name when you race out there?

“Not really. Honestly, for us on a two-day weekend, it’s all business. I don’t even leave the track when we go there. It’s not like the banquet – that was fun. When we go to racetracks, it’s all business for everyone. It’s just too serious. There is too much on the line and the commitment level and the focus it takes is higher than it has ever been.”

How has the level of parity changed in the Cup Series?

“I think it has changed a lot since I’ve been here. The last few years with the NextGen car has been the biggest change, I would say. It has constantly evolved since I’ve come into the sport as far as trying to tighten things up, but the NextGen car just has taken it to a new level. You are talking about everybody having the same parts and pieces – that’s never been a part of this sport. That’s definitely been the game changer.”

Talk about tire strategy at Las Vegas, and how late-race cautions affect your strategy.

“It’s an interesting place, it’s fast and high-speed and has tire falloff but, for whatever reason, it’s a place that has unique asphalt, and when the tires cool off, you can fire off and run one or two fast laps. These days, with these cars, if you can get that clean air and get those two to three car lengths out in front of guys who are on better tires behind you, and guys between you and the four-tire guys, you have a huge advantage for a few laps. It’s all about what the other guy does. You can be the only guy on two tires and you are a sitting duck, but if you have four to five guys behind you on two tires, you have a bit of a buffer, so it just depends on what goes on around you.”

No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Martin Truex Jr.

Hometown: Mayetta, New Jersey

Crew Chief: James Small

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

Car Chief: Chris Jones

Hometown: Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Race Engineer: Jaik Halpainy

Hometown: Blockville, New York

Spotter: Drew Herring

Hometown: Benson, North Carolina

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Ryan Martin

Hometown: Mechanicsburg, Virgina

Mechanic: Todd Carmichael

Hometown: Redding, California

Interior/Tire Specialist: Tommy DiBlasi

Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Engine Tuner: Beau Morton

Hometown: Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Transporter Driver: Kyle Bazzell

Hometown: Fairbury, Illinois

Transporter Driver: Eddie DeGroot

Hometown: Baldwinsville, New York

Over-The-Wall Crew Members

Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell

Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Jackman: Caleb Dirks

Hometown: Riverside, California

Tire Carrier: CJ Bailey

Hometown: Outer Banks, North Carolina

Front Tire Changer: Thomas Hatcher

Hometown: Middleburg, Florida

Rear Tire Changer: Lee Cunningham

Hometown: Leaf River, Illinois

Las Vegas II Event Info:
Date: Sunday, Oct. 20
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Format: 267 Laps, 400.5 Miles, Stages: 80-85-102
TV: NBC
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)

Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 4:35 p.m. ET, Practice (USA, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 5:20 p.m. ET, Qualifying (USA, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 2:30 p.m. ET, Race (NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Pace Laps:

• Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosts its annual fall race date this weekend with now just four races remaining in the 2024 NASCAR season.
• Jack Roush has seven wins in the Cup Series alone at Vegas and 16 overall.
• Last fall, Brad Keselowski led 38 laps and finished top five, while Chris Buescher qualified top five and finished 11th in this race.

6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: King’s Hawaiian

17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: Castrol Edge

Keselowski at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Starts: 22
Wins: 3 (2014, 2016, 2018)
Top-10s: 13
Poles: 2 (2013, 2017)

• Keselowski is a three-time winner at LVMS, one of 11 tracks he has multiple wins at on the circuit. Overall he has an 11.6 average finish with 13 top-10s and nine finishes inside the top five in 22 starts.
• Most recently he finished fourth last fall after leading 38 laps. This spring he ran 13th after starting 25th.
• Keselowski first won in Las Vegas in 2014 after starting from the second position and leading 53 laps. He followed that with wins two years apart in 2016 and 2018.
• The Michigan native has an average starting position of 12.6 with two poles (2013, 2017). Overall he has nine top-10 qualifying efforts.
• Keselowski also has a win at Vegas in the Xfinity Series (2014) with four overall top-10s in 10 NXS starts. He also made one truck start back in 2005.

Buescher at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Starts: 15
Wins: —
Top-10s: 1
Poles: —

• Buescher makes his 16th Cup start at Las Vegas this weekend, where he carries an average finish of 18.6 with one top-10 (ninth – 2020).
• Most recently, Buescher had a strong run going earlier this year but lost a tire and finished 37th. He qualified ninth in that race and had already led a pair of laps through the opening 27 laps.
• His best qualifying effort stands as the P5 starting spot last October. Overall he has a 20.9 average starting position.
• Buescher made two Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas and recorded a best finish of ninth (2014) in the No. 60 entry for Jack Roush.

RFK Historically at Las Vegas
Cup Wins: 7 (Mark Martin, 1998; Jeff Burton, 1999, 2000; Matt Kenseth, 2003, 2004; Carl Edwards, 2008, 2011)

• Early JACKpot: RFK hit the Vegas jackpot right off the bat, winning the inaugural Cup event at Las Vegas in 1998. Mark Martin led 82 laps in the victory that served as a banner day for RFK.
• Inaugural Sweep: RFK placed all five of its Cup entries inside the top 10 of that inaugural Las Vegas Cup race in 1998, including three inside the top five, four inside the top six, one in the winners circle and the runner up (6 – 1st, 99 – 2nd, 26 – 4th, 16 – 6th and 97 – 10th).
• Continued Success: RFK won the first three Cup races at LVMS from ‘98-’00, with Jeff Burton winning back-to-back events in ’99 and ’00. RFK also took three of the first nine Xfinity Series events at LVMS.
• Victory Lane at Vegas: In addition to the first three Cup races at LVMS, RFK again found the winners’ circle in 2003 and 2004 at the 1.5-mile track with Matt Kenseth. Carl Edwards took the checkered flag at the 2008 and 2011 events to give RFK seven Cup wins at Las Vegas with four different drivers.
• Back to Back at Vegas: RFK has won back-to-back Cup races at LVMS on two separate occasions in ’99-’00 and ’03-04’ and once in the Xfinity Series in ‘99 and ‘00.
• Across the Board at Vegas: All in all, RFK has tallied 16 total NASCAR wins, while turning 41,000+ laps in NASCAR action at LVMS for 61,000+ miles, while leading over 2,700 laps at the track in NASCAR’s top three divisions. At the same time the organization has finished inside the top-10 in nearly 50 percent of its 192 NASCAR starts at LVMS.

RFK Las Vegas Wins

1998 Martin Cup

1999 Burton Cup

2000 Burton Cup

2003 Kenseth Cup

2004 Kenseth Cup

2008 Edwards Cup

2011 Edwards Cup

1999 Martin NXS

2000 Burton NXS

2002 Burton NXS

2005 Martin NXS

2009 Biffle NXS

2012 Stenhouse NXS

1997 Ruttman NGOTS

1999 Biffle NGOTS

2007 Kvapil NGOTS

Last Time Out
ROVAL: Keselowski was running well inside the top-10 for much of Sunday’s race at the ROVAL, but was spun midway through while running fourth, ultimately relegating him to 23rd. Buescher finished 17th.

RYAN PREECE
Las Vegas Advance
No. 41 Bonanza Cabernet Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Event Overview

● Event: South Point 400 (Round 33 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 20
● Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Ryan Preece and the No. 41 Bonanza Cabernet Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing head west this weekend for the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 267-lap race around the 1.5-mile oval will mark Preece’s 10th NASCAR Cup Series start at Las Vegas and his fourth with Stewart-Haas racing. Best among his previous nine outings was his 15th-place finish in March 2021, which came on the heels of his previous best finish of 19th in September 2020, both while driving for JTG Daugherty Racing. His first three outings with Stewart-Haas resulted in finishes of 23rd in the past two March races, and 26th in October 2023.

● Preece has three Las Vegas starts outside of the NASCAR Cup Series – two in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and one in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Best of his Xfinity Series outings was his sixth-place finish for Joe Gibbs Racing in September 2018, which bettered his 18th-place finish for owner Johnny Davis in March 2018. Preece’s lone Truck Series race at Las Vegas in March 2022 resulted in a fourth-place finish from the fifth starting position with three laps led in a David Gilliland Racing entry.

● Joining Preece at Las Vegas is Bonanza, a California Cabernet Sauvignon created by Chuck Wagner of Caymus Vineyards. The wine’s name is inspired by the “bonanza” of the great state of California, where diverse vineyard land that produces delicious Cabernet can be found. Preece got to enjoy the fruits of his labor quite literally in June 2023 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. Preece competed in the ARCA Menards Series West race and dominated from start to finish. He won the pole and led twice for a race-high 50 laps, including the final 32 tours around the 1.99-mile, 10-turn road course to take the victory by a commanding 9.675 seconds over runner-up Sammy Smith. It was Preece’s first ARCA victory and the first ARCA win for Stewart-Haas. From his race-winning chalice in victory lane, Preece sipped on Bonanza, soaking in the moment amid TV interviews and photographs.

● Chuck Wagner and his late parents, Lorna and Charlie Sr., opened Caymus Vineyards in 1972, starting off with 240 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon. Based at its original “home ranch” in Rutherford, California – deep in the heart of Napa Valley Wine Country – Caymus Vineyards remains a hands-on family affair. In addition to their celebrated Cabernet Sauvignons, Chuck and two of his children – Charlie and Jenny – produce diverse wines from Napa Valley, other parts of California and beyond. Said Preece about partnering with Caymus Vineyards and its Bonanza brand: “Representing Caymus Vineyards and Bonanza at Sonoma allowed me to see just how hands-on the Wagner family is when it comes to their winemaking. It’s impressive, and it’s something I can really appreciate. I’m hands-on with my racecars because I want them to be the very best. They have the same mindset at Caymus. That’s why they’re a great partner for our race team.”

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 Bonanza Cabernet Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’ve had a good stretch of runs on intermediate-style tracks. Do you feel that bodes well for your prospects this weekend at Las Vegas?

“Las Vegas is tricky because as much as the mile-and-a-half tracks are what people like to call cookie cutter, there are a lot of characteristics and other elements that play a factor in your setup, as well as how the car drives and what the strengths of it are. But I’m excited. I say that because I feel like, between Indy and Pocono and Kansas, we’ve been going down a good path that I think will benefit us going into Las Vegas. I do feel like we can go to Vegas and use it to continue building on a strong end to the year.”

What sets Las Vegas apart from the other 1.5-mile ovals in the NASCAR Cup Series?

“Vegas, with its tunnel turn and the bumps and all those things, I would say it’s definitely different from some of the other mile-and-a-halves. As grippy as it can be, it can be a challenge, so I would say it’s its own animal.”

You’re down to the home stretch of the season with just four races remaining. What do you want to accomplish before season’s end?

“We just need to continue focusing on consistency, getting the most out of practice and qualifying, and running well during the race. That means I’ve got to be on it, we’ve got to be on it with strategy and on pit road. All of it keeps coming together and, even though all of the results don’t show it, we’re getting there. This team is working really hard on putting it all together and capitalizing on that. We just want to be consistent all the way through to the end of the year.”

Would you consider yourself a Las Vegas person – the kind who hits the blackjack table and finds a good restaurant each night, or are you the kind who tries to find quiet places while keeping your body clock on Eastern Time?

“I think I’m a little bit of both. I’m somebody who likes the quiet, so when I do find a blackjack table or a roulette table, it’s pretty empty for the most part. I do enjoy playing your typical casino games. I’m a racecar driver, so I gamble every day of my life. It’s no different when I go to Vegas and decide to visit a casino to see if I can make some money.”

No. 41 Bonanza Cabernet Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Ryan Preece

Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut

Crew Chief: Chad Johnston

Hometown: Cayuga, Indiana

Car Chief: Jeremy West

Hometown: Gardena, California

Engineer: Marc Hendricksen

Hometown: Clinton, New Jersey

Spotter: Tony Raines

Hometown: LaPorte, Indiana

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Devin Lester

Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Rear Tire Changer: Austin Chrismon

Hometown: China Grove, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Chad Emmons

Hometown: Tyler, Texas

Jack Man: Sherman Timbs

Hometown: Indianola, Mississippi

Fuel Man: Dwayne Moore

Hometown: Griffin, Georgia

Road Crew Members

Front End Mechanic: Joe Zanolini

Hometown: Sybertsville, Pennsylvania

Interior Mechanic: Robert Dalby

Hometown: Anaheim, California

Tire Specialist: Matt Ridgeway

Hometown: Carrollton, Georgia

Engine Tuner: Jimmy Fife

Hometown: Orange County, California

Transporter Co-Driver: David Rodrigues

Hometown: Santa Clarita, California

Transporter Co-Driver: Charlie Schleyer

Hometown: Youngsville, Pennsylvania