March 4, 2024 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Larson holds off Reddick in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Based on the box score alone, you might think Kyle Larson dominated Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

You’d be wrong.

Yes, Larson led 181 of 267 laps at the 1.5-mile track. Kyle Busch led the second-most—18. And, yes, Larson swept the first two stages and took the checkered flag to secure his third victory at Las Vegas, tying Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski for most among full-time active Cup drivers.

The truth is that Larson had to use all his consummate skills behind the wheel to hold off Tyler Reddick after a restart with 27 laps left. Larson had the short-run speed, enough to build significant advantages early in a run.

But Reddick soon would begin closing the gap, so much so that with two laps left, Reddick was a scant 0.143 seconds behind Larson at the stripe, roughly one car-length.

Larson, however, was adept at putting his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in a position to block the progress of Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Toyota, and when the race ended two laps later, Larson had increased the margin to 0.441 seconds.

“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage,” said Larson, who won for the first time this season and the 24th time in his career. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me, because I felt like it was going to time out where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end.

“Thankfully, (I) was able to air block him a couple laps and get him tight. I thought him and (23XI teammate) Bubba (Wallace) were going to get working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen.

“But all in all, such a great job by this Hendrick Cars Chevy team and just their execution, pit road, restarts—all that was great. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back, swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”

The closing laps brought a familiar pattern that had developed during the race. In both the first and second stages, Reddick was closing fast on Larson but couldn’t get close enough before the stages ended. The end of the race was déjà vu.

“Yeah, Kyle did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap,” said Reddick, whose cause was hurt by pit road issues, including a slide through his stall. “Yeah, he seemed pretty good in the middle, and I was obviously really good on the bottom. He just never let me have it.

“I kept trying to run higher and higher, and he was kind of running right in the middle of the race track there, was kind of pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I kind of got close, we’re running just wide open enough in Turn 1 and 2 that he could kind of defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never up front really all day long until it got to the stage end.”

The victory was Larson’s second straight in Sin City and the 10th at LVMS for team owner Rick Hendrick, whose cars have won four straight spring races at the intermediate track. It was the third straight win for Chevrolet to start the season.

Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney finished third, followed by Ross Chastain, who started from the rear of the field because of an unapproved adjustment to his No. 1 Trackhouse Chevrolet (replacing a dislodged portion of the wrap on his car). Chastain also overcame a pit road speeding penalty incurred during a green-flag stop on Lap 121.

Ty Gibbs rallied from an uncontrolled tire violation to finish fifth, followed by Noah Gragson, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, pole winner Joey Logano and DAYTONA 500 winner Willam Byron, who fought back from a lap he lost in removing a large trash bag that had attached to the nose of his car on the windswept track.

Larson took over the series lead from Busch, who finished 26th after drawing a penalty for pitting outside his box midway through the final stage. Blaney is second in the standings, eight points behind Larson. Busch dropped to sixth, 23 points back.



NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 3
Race Results for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube - Sunday, March 3, 2024
Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV - 1.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 267 Laps - 400.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 3/3/2024 @ 07:10 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 2 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 267 1 1 60 Running 8 181 7
2 18 45 Tyler Reddick Nasty Beast Toyota 267 2 2 53 Running 1 1
3 15 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Pennzoil Ford 267  4 41 Running  
4 20 1 Ross Chastain Kubota Chevrolet 267 8  36 Running 2 2
5 8 54 Ty Gibbs He Gets Us Toyota 267 6  37 Running  
6 30 10 Noah Gragson Fanttik Ford 267   31 Running  
7 7 19 Martin Truex Jr. Resers Fine Foods Toyota 267 3 5 44 Running 1 4
8 28 11 Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 267 5 3 43 Running 1 16
9 1 22 Joey Logano Pennzoil Ford 267  9 30 Running 1 2
10 4 24 William Byron Z HP Chevrolet 267   27 Running 2 15
11 16 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 267   26 Running 2 15
12 11 9 Chase Elliott LLumar Chevrolet 267  6 30 Running  
13 25 6 Brad Keselowski Solomon Plumbing Ford 267   24 Running  
14 22 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 267  10 24 Running  
15 14 77 Carson Hocevar # Premier Security Chevrolet 267   22 Running  
16 19 3 Austin Dillon BetMGM Chevrolet 267  7 25 Running  
17 13 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Smiths/Tree Top Chevrolet 267   20 Running  
18 23 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 267  8 22 Running 1 3
19 34 31 Daniel Hemric South Point Hotel and Casino Chevrolet 267   18 Running 1 1
20 26 4 Josh Berry # Mobil 1 Take 5 Ford 267   17 Running  
21 6 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Tractors Ford 267   16 Running 1 1
22 27 42 John Hunter Nemechek Albertsons Toyota 267   15 Running  
23 36 41 Ryan Preece HaasTooling.com Ford 267   14 Running  
24 31 38 Todd Gilliland gener8tor Ford 267   13 Running  
25 12 34 Michael McDowell Loves Travel Stops Ford 267   12 Running 1 4
26 21 8 Kyle Busch BetMGM Chevrolet 267 4  18 Running 1 18
27 35 51 Justin Haley Ohanafy Ford 267   10 Running  
28 33 16 Derek Kraus Western States Flooring Chevrolet 267   9 Running 1 2
29 3 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 267 9  10 Running  
30 29 21 Harrison Burton Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 267   7 Running  
31 32 15 Kaz Grala # N29 Capital Partners Ford 267   6 Running  
32 17 7 Corey LaJoie USANA Chevrolet 266 7  9 Running  
33 10 20 Christopher Bell Interstate Batteries Toyota 265 10  5 Running  
34 37 44 * JJ Yeley(i) Urban Youth Racing School Chevrolet 261   0 Running  
35 5 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota 254   2 Running  
36 24 71 Zane Smith # Focused Health Chevrolet 254   1 Running  
37 9 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 27   1 Accident 1 2

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 0 Mins, 25 Secs. Average Speed: 133.192 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.441 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 5, 45, 19, 8, 11, 54, 7, 1, 2, 20
Stage 2 Top 10: 5, 45, 11, 12, 19, 9, 3, 48, 22, 43

Caution Flags: 6 for 35 laps; Laps: 11-15 (Possible fluid on track [None]); 28-35 (#17 incident turn 1 [Red Flag: Lap 33; 10:39] [71]); 82-88 (Stage 1 Conclusion [24]); 158-161 (#20 spin turn 2 [16]); 167-172 (Stage 2 Conclusion [23]); 236-240 (#7 incident turn 2 [31]).

Lead Changes: 24 among 15 drivers; J. Logano 1-2; K. Larson 3-12; D. Hemric 13; C. Buescher 14-15; C. Briscoe 16; W. Byron 17-30; K. Larson 31; D. Suarez 32-42; K. Busch 43-60; K. Larson 61-84; M. Truex Jr. 85-88; D. Hamlin 89-104; K. Larson 105-119; R. Chastain 120; T. Reddick 121; K. Larson 122-158; A. Bowman 159-161; K. Larson 162-210; W. Byron 211; D. Suarez 212-215; M. McDowell 216-219; D. Kraus 220-221; K. Larson 222-239; R. Chastain 240; K. Larson 241-267.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: March 10, 2024 - Phoenix Raceway

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