Eyes of the racing world shift to
Las Vegas this weekend
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[September 13, 2019]
After 26 races of hard-nosed
determination and hard-knocks competition, the 16-driver field for
the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set and the
drivers begin their final trophy hunt in Sunday's South Point Casino
400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (7 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM
NASCAR Radio).
Kyle Busch wrapped up his second consecutive regular-season
championship two weeks ago at Darlington, and the 2015 series champ
begins pursuit of his second Monster Energy Series title this week
at his hometown track. The 15-point bonus he received for winning
the regular season turned out to be a well-timed boost for the
four-time winner this season. His last of those four victories came
on June 2 at Pocono, Pa.
After his worst showing of the season at Indy last week - a blown
engine relegated him to 37th-place finish - Busch is hopeful the
overwhelmingly good vibes of 2019 return for this 10-race playoff
stretch. The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota won races
at ISM Raceway, Fontana, Bristol-1 and Pocono-1, and he leads the
series in top-10s (21) he is tied with his JGR teammate - and fellow
four-race winner - Denny Hamlin for top-five finishes (13).
He and the rest of the field anticipate having to beat reigning
series champion Joey Logano and Logano's Team Penske Ford teammates
Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney when it comes to competing at Vegas.
Busch has a series-best seven top-five finishes at the track, but
it's been primarily a Penske show in Vegas for the past few seasons.
Keselowski is the defending winner of this playoff opener. Logano
won at Vegas in March, and the 25-year old Blaney boasts one of the
best average finishes (10.7) in this Sunday's field.
Among the playoff drivers, Busch has had the longest span since his
win at the track in 2009. Keselowski boasts the most wins (three)
among the championship-eligible drivers with trophies in 2014, 2016
and 2018. Last week's Indianapolis regular-season finale winner
Kevin Harvick - a three-race winner this year - is the only other
playoff driver in the field with multiple Las Vegas wins (2015 and
2018). And JGR's Martin Truex won at Vegas en route to his 2017
Monster Energy Series championship.
Also among those to watch out for is Hamlin, who begins the playoffs
ranked right below his teammate Busch and full of positive momentum.
After winning his second Daytona 500 in the 2019 season opener,
Hamlin has been steady and successful all year - winning again at
Texas and Pocono-2 and then again only three weeks ago at Bristol
from the pole position. With 13 top-fives already, he's on good pace
to eclipse his previous best mark of 15 (2009 and 2017), and with 17
top-10 finishes, he also is on pace to set a personal record. In
2016 and 2017 he had 22 top-10s.
What Hamlin seeks most, however, is that championship trophy. The
driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota was runner-up to seven-time champion
Jimmie Johnson in 2010 and third behind champion Harvick in 2014.
Four times, the winner of the playoff opening race has gone on to
celebrate a championship: Kurt Busch (2004), Tony Stewart (2011),
Keselowski (2012) and Truex (2017).
XFINITY SERIES WRAPS UP REGULAR SEASON, SETS PLAYOFF FIELD
This Saturday's Rhino Pro Truck Outfitters 300 (7:30 p.m. ET on
NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) brings the regular season to a
close and formalizes the 2019 playoff lineup. And while three
drivers - defending series champion Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell
and Cole Custer - have dominated the win column, none of the three
has won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before in this series.
Reddick won the 2016 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at
Vegas but has not hoisted an Xfinity Series trophy there. Yet. He's
highly motivated coming off his worst showing of the season last
week (30th) following an accident with fellow title contender Bell
in the final laps of the Indianapolis race. Bell finished 29th.
And still the Richard Childress Racing driver's consistency this
season - 19 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes through the opening 25
races - likely will land him the regular season championship (he
needs to earn 11 points this weekend to clinch). Reddick holds a
50-point lead over Joe Gibbs Racing's Bell and an insurmountable
113-point edge over Stewart-Haas Racing's Custer heading into this
week's season finale.
Certainly the top of the standings is a known quantity with these
three accounting for 16 victories already - Reddick (four), Bell
(six) and Custer (six). But the playoffs present a sort of reset.
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The 12 drivers currently holding postseason spots are clinched on
points, but this regular-season finale could prove interesting if a
driver outside that group of 12 wins the race and the automatic
playoff spot that accompanies it. RSS Racing's Ryan Sieg sits in
that precarious 12th position.
The other drivers who have clinched a postseason bid are Team
Penske's Austin Cindric; Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi's Chase
Briscoe; JR Motorsports teammates Michael Annett, Justin Allgaier
and Noah Gragson; and Kaulig Racing's Justin Haley. In position to
clinch this week are Brandon Jones, rookie John Hunter Nemechek and
Sieg.
Of note, Haley will have a celebrated teammate at Kaulig Racing this
week as longtime Xfinity Series championship challenger Elliott
Sadler will make his final NASCAR national series start. Sadler - a
three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race winner and 13-time
Xfinity Series winner - retired from full-time competition last year
and has announced his race Saturday will be his last in NASCAR's
highest tiers of competition. He has four top-fives in 13 Las Vegas
Xfinity Series starts.
GANDER TRUCKS DRIVERS FACE PLAYOFF CUTOFF
The first elimination of the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck
Series Playoffs happens this week following Friday night's World of
Westgate 200 (9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
2016 Gander Trucks champion Johnny Sauter is on the wrong side of
the cutoff; however, this is a tightly packed playoff field - only
six points separate third-place holder Stewart Friesen and
seventh-place Sauter with six drivers advancing to the second round
of the playoffs.
Brett Moffitt has reminded everyone why he's the defending series
champion, winning the first two playoff races - at the Bristol
half-miler and the Bowmanville, Ontario, road course - and he's
technically the only racer with a sure bet spot in the next round.
He has never won a truck race on this week's 1.5-mile Las Vegas high
banks, however. And regular season champion Grant Enfinger is
actually the defending winner of this September race.
Ross Chastain, a three-time winner this season, won the NASCAR
Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas last fall and is second to Moffitt
in the championship standings by 22 points.
Freisen is third, 44 points behind Moffitt with two-time series
champ Matt Crafton on his heels, just one point off Friesen. Austin
Hill is fifth in the title run, only a point behind Crafton, and
Enfinger is only two points behind Hill. Sauter is two points behind
Enfinger and Tyler Ankrum is 12 points behind Enfinger, who holds
that sixth and final cut-off position.
Moffitt finished as runner-up to Kyle Busch in the March truck race
at Vegas with Crafton and Friesen in third and fourth place. Sauter
was eighth, Chastain 10th and Hill 30th. At that point in the early
season, the now 18-year-old Ankrum wasn't old enough to compete on
the 1.5-mile speedway.
Among the championship eight, only Enfinger (last year) and Sauter
(in 2009) have celebrated in Las Vegas' victory lane. Ben Rhodes
joins the pair as the only other driver entered this weekend who has
won at Vegas.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: South Point 400
The Place: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
The Date: Sunday, Sept. 15
The Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
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Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 400.5 miles (267 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 80), Stage 2
(Ends on lap 160) and Final Stage (Ends on lap 267)
Defending race winner: Brad Keselowski
What to Watch For: This week's event marks the first race of a
10-race playoff to decide the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup
championship. Joey Logano is the defending series champion and won
at Las Vegas this March. ... Logano's Team Penske teammate Brad
Keselowski is the defending race winner of this September playoff
opener. ... Kevin Harvick's dominating win in March 201, set a
record for most laps led (214 of 267). ... Jimmie Johnson is the
all-time winningest driver at Vegas with four victories. He won
three consecutive races from 2005-07, answering a two-race sweep by
Matt Kenseth immediately prior (2003-04). Jeff Burton is the only
other driver to win back-to-back (1999-2000). ... Six drivers have
won multiple times at Vegas - Johnson (4), Kenseth (3), Brad
Keselowski (3), Harvick (2), Burton (2) and Carl Edwards (2). That
means 16 of the 23 Vegas races have been won by six drivers. ...
Since 2005, Jimmie Johnson boasts the best driver rating (104.6) at
the track ... Only one time has a race at the Las Vegas track been
won from the pole position - Kyle Busch in 2009. ... The Las Vegas
native Busch brothers - Kyle and older brother Kurt - have won two
pole positions each and are the only active multi-time pole-winners.
Kasey Kahne holds the record with three. .... Ford has earned the
most pole positions (10), followed by Chevrolet and Dodge (four) and
Toyota (three). ... The closest margin of victory is .045-seconds
when Johnson beat Kenseth in 2006. ...Aric Almirola (March 2007) and
Kyle Busch (March 2004) both made their Cup debuts at Las Vegas. ...
Joey Logano has the best average finish (8.5) in this weekend's
field, followed by Ryan Blaney (10.7). ... Kyle Busch has the most
top-fives (seven) and Kyle Busch, Harvick, Johnson and Ryan Newman
are tied for most top-10s (nine). ... Johnson has never had a DNF in
19 starts. ... Ford has won four of the past five races and five of
the past seven and is currently on a three-race winning streak.
...No non-playoff driver has ever won the opening playoff race. ...
The deepest seed a driver has started the playoffs and gone on to
win the title is seventh - Harvick won the 2014 title and Logano won
the 2018 title after being ranked seventh to start the playoffs. ...
The first Cup race on the track was 1998 and won by NASCAR Hall of
Famer Mark Martin. ... The youngest winner was Kyle Busch (23 years,
nine months, 27 days) in 2009. The oldest Vegas winner was Sterling
Marlin (44 years, seven months, 32 days) in 2002. ... Roush Fenway
Racing has earned the most wins (seven) for an organization. ... The
second starting position has produced the most winners (four) of any
starting spot. ... The farthest back on the grid a winner has
started is 25th Kenseth, 2004). ... Ford has the most race victories
at 12, followed by Chevrolet (seven) and Toyota (three).
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NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: Rhino Pro Truck Outfitters 300
The Place: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
The Date: Saturday, Sept. 14
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 300 miles (200 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 45), Stage 2
(Ends on lap 90) and Final Stage (Ends on lap 200).
Defending race winner: Ross Chastain
What to Watch For: Ross Chastain is defending winner of this race
and Kyle Busch won the spring race at Las Vegas. ... This is the
regular-season finale for the series. Tyler Reddick currently holds
a 50-point advantage over Christopher Bell and a 113-point advantage
over Cole Custer. None of these points leaders have won an Xfinity
Series race at Las Vegas, although Reddick won the 2016 Gander
Outdoors Truck Series race there. ... The best showing by one of
those three is Bell's runner-up effort to Kyle Larson in March 2018.
... Justin Allgaier, who is still looking for his first win of 2019,
has the most top 10s (eight). ... Kyle Busch, who will not be
competing in the series this weekend, has led the most Xfinity
Series race laps at Vegas (619). ... NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark
Martin has the most wins (four). ... The only two drivers to score
their career first series win at Las Vegas are the track's very
first Xfinity Series winner Jeff Green (1997) and the most recent,
Chastain (2018). ... Only four times has the race winner started
from a grid position outside the top-10. Six of the past seven race
winners started fifth or better. ... Leading laps has been a
consistent sign of triumph at Vegas. Six of the past seven race
winners have led at least 100 of the 200 laps, including a record
199 laps led by Kyle Busch in his 2016 win. ... There has never been
a back-to-back race winner. ... Chevrolet leads all manufacturers in
wins (12). Ford has nine and Toyota has two. ...The most lead
changes in a race is 25, occurring in the 1997 inaugural. ... In the
past 10 races, only once has the winner not led the most laps. Mark
Martin led one lap in 2011 en route to the trophy. Kyle Busch had
led the most laps on the day (84) but was involved in an accident
and finished 30th. ... The smallest margin of victory is
.101-seconds when Jeff Burton beat Kyle Busch in 2007. ... The
largest margin of victory is 8.428-seconds when Jeff Burton beat
Michael Waltrip in 2002. ... The farthest back on the starting grid
a driver has won from is 29th - Joe Nemechek in 2003. ... Perennial
Xfinity Series championship challenger Elliott Sadler, who retired
from full-time competition at the end of 2018, will be making his
last NASCAR start this weekend driving the No. 10 Kaulig Racing
Chevrolet. He has four top-five finishes in 13 Vegas starts in the
series.
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series
Next Race: World of Westgate 200
The Place: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
The Date: Friday, Sept. 14
The Time: 9 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 201 miles (134 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 30), Stage 2
(Ends on lap 60) and Final Stage (Ends on lap 134).
Defending race winner: Grant Enfinger
What to Watch For: The 2019 regular season champion Grant Enfinger
is the defending winner of this September race. It's one of only two
venues where he's scored a victory. ... This race is the first
elimination event of the 2019 playoffs. Six of the eight
championship-eligible drivers will advance. Currently, veteran
Johnny Sauter and young driver Tyler Ankrum are ranked seventh and
eighth. Sauter, the 2009 Vegas race winner, trails sixth-place
Enfinger by only two points. Ankrum is 14 points behind Enfinger.
... Defending series champion Brett Moffitt leads the championship
and has won the first two playoff races coming to Vegas. ... There
are only three former Vegas winners entered this weekend (Enfinger,
Sauter, Ben Rhodes). ... Only three drivers have ever won multiple
races at Vegas - Jack Sprague (who won the inaugural event in 1996
and then again in 1998), Mike Skinner (2006 and '08) and Vegas
native Kyle Busch (2018 and '19). ... Former two-time series
champion Matt Crafton has led the most laps (140) of anyone in
Friday's field and has the most top-five (eight) and top-10 (12)
finishes. Crafton has never won at Vegas, however. .... The driver
who leads the most laps has won only four of the past 10 races. ...
Twice in that time (in 2015 and '13) Crafton led the most laps but
did not win. ... Todd Bodine and Mike Skinner hold the record for
most laps led in a race (114 laps) and they did it in back-to-back
years - Bodine in 2005 and Skinner in 2006. ...John Wes Townley's
win here in 2015 was the only victory of his NASCAR career. ... Nine
times the pole winner has won the race - the most victories of any
starting position on the grid. ... The farthest spot on the starting
grid a winner has started is 21st - Shane Hmiel in 2004. ...The most
lead changes in this race is 21 (September 2018). ... The closest
margin of victory is .020-seconds when Mike Skinner beat Erik
Darnell in 2008. ... The largest margin of victory is 5.588-seconds
when Austin Dillon beat Johnny Sauter in 2010.
--By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media.
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