Las Vegas — Kyle Larson has been lucky of late in Las Vegas, where he opens the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs on top of the Cup Series standings and the favorite to win Sunday’s race.
Larson heads into the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as both the defending race winner and the victor of the spring race there this season. A victory on Sunday would be three straight at Vegas, a season sweep, but most importantly, give Larson an automatic berth into the championship finale.
The playoff field started at 16 drivers and the three-race round of eight begins in Las Vegas to set the winner-take-all championship four finale. The third round next goes to Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway in Virginia before the finale at Phoenix.
“Las Vegas has been one of our better tracks,” Larson said of his chances Sunday. “On paper, all three tracks in the round of eight stack up pretty well … but we still have to go out and execute. I would like to run well and win.”
Larson already has two wins through the first two rounds of the playoffs, at Bristol Motor Speedway in the first round and then last week’s elimination race on the hybrid/road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That victory was his Cup Series-best sixth win of the season.
Larson left victory lane at Charlotte celebrating a Hendrick Motorsports sweep because teammates William Byron, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott all advanced to put four Chevrolet teammates in the third round. But NASCAR ruled that Bowman’s car failed postrace inspection and he was disqualified, which knocked Bowman out of the final eight.
Joey Logano of Team Penske advanced instead of Bowman to join teammate and reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney in the round of eight. They represent the only two drivers from Ford.
Toyota has the remaining three spots with Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, as well as regular-season champion Tyler Reddick of Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing.
Larson said the entire Hendrick organization felt the sting of Bowman’s disqualification, and now Logano can’t be overlooked. Logano is the only two-time Cup champion in the playoff field and a three-time winner at Las Vegas.
“Obviously I’d love to have Alex in the round of eight. Joey is dangerously good,” Larson said. “You can never count him out anywhere. So when he’s the guy who gets the benefit of the disqualification, it’s like, ‘Dang, he’s a tough competitor.’”
Qualifying
Christopher Bell won the pole in Saturday qualifying for the opening race of the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs.
Bell turned a lap at 185.344 mph in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing to take the top starting spot Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bell is one of eight drivers attempting to earn a spot in the Cup Series championship finale.
“I feel really good. I feel really comfortable,” Bell said. “I know we’re going to have a shot at it.”
A win by any of the playoff drivers at Las Vegas on Sunday, or the next two weeks at Homestead-Miami Speedway or in Martinsville, Virginia, will earn an automatic berth in the finale. The fourth slot will go the highest ranked driver in the Cup Series standings.
Tyler Reddick, the regular season champion, qualified second in a Toyota for 23XI Racing. Alex Bowman, who lost his spot in the playoff field when his car failed post-race inspection last Sunday at Charlotte and he was disqualified, qualified fourth.
Denny Hamlin, teammate with Bell at JGR, qualified third as Toyotas took three of the top four qualifying positions.
Current points leader Kyle Larson, the defending race winner, was fifth as he and Bowman put a pair of Chevrolets from Hendrick Motorsports in the top-five.
William Byron qualified seventh for Hendrick, while Joey Logano of Team Penske was 10th in a Ford. Logano was moved into the round of eight following Bowman’s disqualification last week.
Chase Elliott was the slowest of all the playoff drivers with an 18th-place qualifying lap. But he’s not the lowest starter of the title contenders: Reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney will start last after a crash early in his 20-minute practice session ended his Saturday.
The No. 12 Ford seemed to blow a tire and spun into the wall in a driver-side impact.
“I had no warning,” he radioed his team. “I’m sorry.”
Team Penske needed to start preparing a backup Ford that wasn’t ready for qualifying. Plus, Blaney took a hard hit that made it sound as if his wind was knocked from him when his car slammed into the wall.
“Hard hit. But I live,” Blaney said. “I’m all right, just blew a tire and it stinks. Shame it ended our practice early, we’ve got our work cut out for us. There’s definitely a lot to overcome, starting from the back and no laps with this backup car.”
Xfinity
AJ Allmendinger won a two-lap sprint to finish Saturday night for his first victory of the season and an automatic berth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship finale.
Allmendinger won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by leading a race-high 102 laps in the No. 16 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing, then holding off Ryan Sieg in a final sprint.
A caution with six laps remaining gave Sieg a late chance to snatch the win from Allmendinger, but he got a huge shove from Justin Allgaier on the restart and pulled away to beat Sieg by 0.156 seconds.
Allmendinger started the race – the opener of the semifinal round of the Xfinity playoffs – seventh out of eight and below the cutline.
The veteran, who will make a full-time return to the Cup Series next year, was in need of either a victory or three good finishes to make the championship finale. Allmendinger raced for the Xfinity title in 2021.
“It’s good to get to Phoenix after the year we’ve had,” Allmendinger said. “Let’s go win a championship! Let’s go!”
He dedicated the win to team owner Matt Kaulig, saying he had promised his boss he’d win the race as a birthday gift for Kaulig.
Sieg, who is not in the playoffs, finished second in a Ford and was followed by playoff-driver Allgaier in a Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
Chandler Smith, another playoff driver, finished fourth in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The next two spots went to non-playoff drivers Riley Herbst and Parker Kligerman, who were both eliminated last week at Charlotte.
Cole Custer, who is still in title contention, finished seventh. The remaining playoff drivers were Jesse Love (ninth), Austin Hill (12th), Sam Mayer (13th), and Sammy Smith (26th).
Formula One
McLaren’s Lando Norris edged Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for the pole at the United States Grand Prix at Austin, Texas, as Formula 1 returned from its autumn break with those two resuming their fight for the drivers’ season championship.
Verstappen won the sprint race earlier in the day to stretch his lead over Norris to 54 points with six grand prix and two more sprint races left in the season. Verstappen is chasing his fourth consecutive championship, Norris his first.
Norris took the top starting spot Sunday, fighting back to beat Verstappen by 0.31 seconds on his first lap of the final session at the Circuit of the Americas.
Verstappen was in the middle of a scorching final lap that looked destined to take the front spot, but had to abandon it when Mercedes’ George Russell crashed and the session ended under a yellow caution flag.
“That happens,” Verstappen said. “Qualifying is not always in your control.”
Norris called his pole lap the best qualifying of his career.
“It came together perfectly … I didn’t expect to be here,” said Norris, who took his fourth pole position in five races. “I’m lucky and I’ll take it. Tomorrow is going to be a tough race.”
Starting from the front will be a boost for Norris and McLaren after Verstappen easily controlled the sprint race and extended his championship lead by two points when Norris finished third.
The sprint race was Verstappen’s first win of any kind in nearly four months. His last grand prix win came in Spain in June. He won the sprint race in Austria a week later and has struggled ever since.
Norris has been chipping away at Verstappen’s commanding championship lead ever since raising doubts as to whether Verstappen could hold on. Norris has two wins and three other podium finishes since Verstappen’s last grand prix victory, and McLaren has overtaken Red Bull in the team constructor’s championship.
The sprint victory should renew Red Bull’s confidence that it has improved a car that Verstappen has called “undrivable” and “a monster” in his winless streak. Red Bull brought several upgrades to the car this week.
The early returns were promising.
Verstappen was able to easily hold off Norris in the early stages of the sprint race and eventually won the 19-lap race by nearly 4 seconds. And even without taking pole, Verstappen car showed flashes of its old speed and control.
“Feels a bit like old times,” Verstappen said after the sprint race win.
After the qualifying session that left him second, Verstappen said he liked the performance rebound and would not be frustrated on missing pole.
At the previous race in Singapore, Verstappen finished second but 21 seconds behind Norris.
“We’re on the front row at least. The potential is there,” for a victory, Verstappen said.
Verstappen has not started from pole position in Austin since 2021. He still won the race in 2022 and 2023.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz will start third on Sunday.
