Las Vegas Race Review


Denny Hamlin

    The best drivers in the Cup Series are often able to overcome a lot of adversity to get good finishes. Denny Hamlin was busted for speeding at the start of stage 2, but overcame that to win at Las Vegas for the 2nd time in a row. Hamlin would end up finishing stage 2 5th after restarting around 20th. He quickly moved his way to the front in stage 3 and was able to fend off Chase Elliott who was charging late. Hamlin's car was not the best on the long run, as was evident when he lost the lead to William Byron just before the Connor Zilisch caution in the middle of stage 3.

    Hamlin's win puts him in sole possession of 10th on the all time wins list, surpassing Kevin Harvick. Hamlin is now just 2 race wins off of Kyle Busch, who has 63 career wins and sits 9th on the all time wins list. Hamlin is likely to retire after the 2027 season, but he realistically should pass Kyle Busch especially with how much Busch has struggled at RCR. Hamlin will likely be one of the favorites at most intermediate tracks and a lot of the short tracks the rest of this season.

    This win means a lot to Hamlin I am sure as well. Hamlin lost his father back in a fire during December which was very emotional. Throw in the lawsuit that he won back in December as well, and I think it's safe to say that he has been through the most out of any driver in the last few months. Yet, through it all, Hamlin continues to persevere no matter what is thrown at him. Hamlin is also the oldest driver in the Cup Series, yet he continues to win. Guys like Keselowski, Busch, Truex, and Harvick all struggled to win during the Next Gen Era. Hamlin has won a race in all 5 seasons of the Next Gen Era which is crazy to me, but he's been great since this car debut in 2022.


Top Finishers

  • 1. Denny Hamlin
  • 2. Chase Elliott
  • 3. William Byron
  • 4. Christopher Bell
  • 5. Ty Gibbs
  • 6. Chris Buescher
  • 7. Kyle Larson
  • 8. Chase Briscoe
  • 9. Bubba Wallace
  • 10. Brad Keselowski
  • 11. Ryan Preece
  • 12. Austin Dillon
  • 13. Tyler Reddick
  • 14. Zane Smith
  • 15. Joey Logano
  • 16. Ryan Blaney
  • 17. Ross Chastain
  • 18. Daniel Suarez
  • 19. Austin Cindric
  • 20. Erik Jones
  • 21. John Hunter Nemechek
  • 22. Carson Hocevar
  • 23. Riley Herbst
  • 24. Aj Allmendinger
  • 25. Justin Allgaier
  • 26. Michael McDowell
  • 27. Cole Custer
  • 28. Kyle Busch
  • 29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
  • 30. Noah Gragson
  • 31. Josh Berry
  • 32. Connor Zilisch
  • 33. Ty Dillon
  • 34. Todd Gilliland
  • 35. Cody Ware
  • 36. Shane Van Gisbergen

    Hendrick Motorsports had a really solid day outside of Justin Allgaier (25th). Chase Elliott didn't collect a ton of stage points, but he easily had his best run at Vegas in the Next Gen Era. He comes home with a 2nd place finish and almost ran Denny down at the end. I could see Chase being a legit title contender because of consistent he is. He rarely makes mistakes and if he does wreck, it's usually because of other people. William Byron was up in the top 5 for most of the race and comes home 3rd. Kyle Larson looked to be on track to get his first win since Kansas in 2025, but he faded at the start of stage 3 and lost 4 spots on pit road following the Zilisch caution. He did collect 18 stage points and finished a respectable 7th.

    The rest of Joe Gibbs Racing had really good days as well except for Chase Briscoe. Ty Gibbs got hit with a speeding penalty at the end of stage 1, and it took him a while to get back into the top 10. That said, he was able to rally to get his 3rd top 5 finish in a row after finishing 5th. Gibbs has looked really fast so far this season, but he needs to carry it into the summer. Christopher Bell collected the most stage points today alongside Larson, but he faded a bit on that final run. He still comes home with a strong 4th place finish, giving him his 3rd straight top 5 finish as well. Chase Briscoe was dinged for speeding during green flag pit stops in stage 1, and it took him the entire race to get back on the lead lap, but he was super quick once he got back on it. He managed to get up to 8th place, giving him his 2nd top 10 finish of the year.

    RFK Racing has been pretty quiet so far this year, but they were easily the best Ford team today. Chris Buescher ran up in the top 10 for much of the day. He gathered a few stage points in stage 2 and had legit top 5 speed there near the end. He ultimately comes home with a 6th and his best finish of the season. Brad Keselowski ran between 10th and 15th for much of the day, and ultimately gets rewarded with a top 10 finish. Ryan Preece finishes a solid 11th and collected stage points in stage 1. I'd like to see RFK fire off with a little bit more speed, as their usually consistent enough to finish in the top 15 at most tracks. That said, they lack qualifying speed at the moment. 

    Team Penske struggled a lot today. Ryan Blaney was up in the top 10 for a good chunk of the race, but he got trapped a lap down when the Zilisch caution occurred. As a result, Blaney had to take the wave around and could only get up to 16th place. Joey Logano was a no show today, running around 15th for most of the race. He wasn't great, but this isn't a track type that I expect him to be great at. Austin Cindric did crack the top 10 a couple times today, but was ultimately trapped a lap down like Blaney during the Zilisch caution. Cindric ended up with a 19th place finish, his first top 20 of the year.

    I'll give a quick shoutout to both Austin Dillon and Zane Smith, who didn't have amazing days, but they ran up inside the top 15 the entire day. Dillon seems to be running a lot better than Busch so far this season, even though Dillon's finishes haven't been as good. As for Zane Smith, he's about the only thing keeping Front Row Motorsports afloat as Gilliland and Gragson have struggled so far.

    As for the lowlights, Trackhouse Racing is the one that stands out the most. Shane Van Gisbergen nearly spun on the opening laps, but he was able to save it. That said, he got splitter damage and ran outside the top 30 for much of the race. Connor Zilisch, as mentioned before, was caught up in the only caution for incident on the day. He ran in the mid 20s for much of the race, so he wasn't exactly having a great day up until that point. Both he and SVG finished worse than 30th this week. Ross Chastain has been pretty solid at Vegas since 2022, but he was mediocre at best today. He had an average finish of 7.6 at Vegas prior to today, but he ran between 15th and 20th for most of this race and he ended up 17th.

    Chastain also got into it with Daniel Suarez post race, as the two got into it a bit. I don't really know what happened to cause the disagreement on track, but Suarez did make it clear post race that the two's relationship had been fractured even when they were both at Trackhouse. Suarez finished 18th and led the Spire cars. Carson Hocevar wasn't great today either, as he got hit with a speeding penalty which hurt him. Hocevar finished 22nd. 

Standings

DriverPoints+/- vs Daniel Suarez
Tyler Reddick255+138
Bubba Wallace194+77
Ryan Blaney188+71
Denny Hamlin177+60
Chase Elliott168+51
Christopher Bell164+47
Kyle Larson157+40
William Byron157+40
Chris Buescher146+29
Ty Gibbs140+23
Joey Logano135+18
Brad Keselowski127+10
Ryan Preece125+8
Michael McDowell122+5
Carson Hocevar118+1
Shane van Gisbergen1170
Daniel Suarez1170
AJ Allmendinger1170
Zane Smith108-9
Ross Chastain94-23
John H. Nemechek91-26
Kyle Busch90-27
Riley Herbst86-31
Austin Dillon81-36
Ty Dillon80-37
Chase Briscoe76-41
Erik Jones76-41
Noah Gragson73-44
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.72-45
Austin Cindric71-46
Todd Gilliland68-49
Josh Berry56-61
Cody Ware52-65
Cole Custer52-65
Connor Zilisch50-67
Alex Bowman23-94
   
    Currently, SVG is the last driver that is in with Daniel Suarez is the first driver that is out. The driver that gained the most spots this week was Denny Hamlin (+8), Chase Briscoe (+7), Ty Gibbs (+5) and Austin Dillon (+5). As for the drivers that lost the most spots, that would include Shane Van Gisbergen (-11), Michael McDowell (-6), Aj Allmendinger (-5), and Todd Gilliland (-5). I expect Darlington to provide some more normality to the standings.

Overall Thoughts

    This race was pretty average if I'm being honest. The best cars were at the front for most of the race and there weren't many comers and goers throughout the field. It was about the most straightforward NASCAR race that we've had in a while. There were 3 cautions all race, with 2 of them being for stage breaks. That's not a bad thing, but it just makes it hard to get a lot of movement throughout the field especially with how even a lot of cars were today. The Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Toyotas were really fast along with Hendrick Motorsports. It was a pretty predictable race for who was going to be up front as Hamlin, Byron, Bell, Larson, Wallace, and Reddick were up in the top 10 all day. 

    To me, Las Vegas has lost some of the aura that it had before. It's probably the most mundane mile and a half track on the schedule currently. It's not a bad track by any means, but it's been the most average track in the Next Gen Era. That said, I do think the cars need a change at the mile and a half tracks to improve the racing. I wouldn't mind them going to 750 horsepower and getting rid of the diffuser, as everyone can pretty much go full throttle around the race track. I don't think Las Vegas needs to be reconfigured or anything, but I'd like to see a change to the cars to see if that could improve the racing.

    There were some good moments in this race, like the 3 wide battle between Elliott, Larson, and Bell that last a couple of a laps. Hamlin winning is a really cool feel good story especially after everything he went through this past offseason. He deserves a lot of good to come his way and I expect him to be a major title threat come the end of the season. I would give the race today a 5 or 5.5 out of 10, as I thought it was just an average race. Darlington is on deck and the drivers have mentioned that this race could get really crazy especially with the increased horsepower!

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