2019 Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Pennzoil 400

Post author By Jeff Gutowski
Post date February 24, 2019
44 Comments on 2019 Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Pennzoil 400

Well, the first race with the new aero package is in the books, and I for one am not a fan at the moment. It seemed like about 20 laps into a run and the tenth place driver was more than 10 seconds back. There really wasn’t a lot of passing opportunities after the first 4 or 5 laps of a restart either. However it did seem to help some of the less funded teams compete a little more, but still it seemed like track position after a caution was a make or break situation.

PENNZOIL 400

So, we now head to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the running of the Pennziol 400. This is another of the mile and a half tracks on the circuit and we will see if these teams learned anything about setting up the cars on this type of track. It still looks like the Ford teams have the upper hand so far this season with speed and handling overall.

Martin Truex Jr.
Martin looked really good at Atlanta last weekend and has led more laps than any other driver in the last three races at Las Vegas. He also has four top five finishes in his last five starts here including a win here in the spring of 2017. He is my pick to win once again this weekend.

Kevin Harvick
Kevin has won two of the last five races at Las Vegas and led 214 laps here in winning here last spring. It still looks like the “Big 3” from last year are still the three driver to beat this year. I look for Kevin to run towards the front all race long this week.

Brad Keselowski
Brad has won three of the last six races here including the race last fall. The Penske teams look like they are picking up where they were at the end of last season making major improvements and being able to compete with the Stewart-Haas teams.

Kyle Busch
Kyle had a bit of a rough weekend last week at Atlanta, crashing in the final practice, going to a backup car and then crashing again in the race, but he still ran well even after that. Kyle has four top seven finishes in his last six starts and has led laps in five of those races.

Kyle Larson: Kyle looked really good last weekend at Atlanta lead the most laps until he got caught speeding on pit road. That penalty took him right out of the race because of how difficult it is to pass with the new aero package. He has three straight top three finishes at Las Vegas and if last week was any indication he will be a contender once again this weekend.

Ryan Blaney: Ryan was another driver who had a great run going at Atlanta until he had issues in the pits late in the race. Another of the Penske cars that looked good in that race. Ryan has finished in the top seven in the last four races at Las Vegas. Look for him to run well on the intermediate tracks this season.

Joey Logano
The third Penske driver in the field, Joey has run very well at Las Vegas during his career with six straight top ten finishes. Joey took advantage of not having pitted late in the race to take the lead after having multiple problems on pit road early in the race last week. Then he ended up having a loose wheel and that was the end of his chances.

Aric Almirola
Aric finished in the top ten in both races here last year in his first season with Stewart-Haas Racing. He seems to be getting better and better every week and this is the type of track where he runs consistently well. Look for him to come away with another top ten finish this week.

Denny Hamlin
Denny ran a bit better than I thought he would last weekend and he has always run better at Las Vegas than at Atlanta. He could be a bit of a surprise to me once again this weekend where he has only finished in the top ten in two of his last eight starts. Maybe the Gibbs teams have something figured out with the new aero package.

Paul Menard
Paul is my dark horse this weekend. He finished in the top ten in both races here last season in his first year with Wood Brothers Racing and they do run Penske engines. Paul could pull another surprise this weekend and is someone you could probably have on your roster this week to save some starts for some of your more consistent drivers.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

Martin Truex Jr.
Kyle Larson

Driver Group Game Group B

Ryan Blaney
Paul Menard
Aric Almirola
Daniel Suarez

Driver Group Game Group C

Chris Buescher
Daniel Hemric

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Martin Truex Jr.
Kevin Harvick
Brad Keselowski
Kyle Larson
Ryan Blaney

Dark Horse: Paul Menard

Stay Away From: Jimmie Johnson

Big 18: Martin Truex Jr.

44 replies on “2019 Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Pennzoil 400”

Erik Jones? Clint Bowyer? Thoughts?

Jones struggled early and finished well and Bowyer was fast in practice but didn’t race well. I would take Jones over Bowyer this week.

Also, Thoughts on the group C drivers overall?

I thought there were a bunch of them that ran well last week. Buescher, Preece, and Hemric ran on the lead lap all day and all could have finished in the top ten. I want to wait a bit on Hemric, because I think he has the better equipment overall and more room to improve because of it.

4-19-18-2 my pick

Who is your pick for the Pole Winner?

The 10 won it last week and this is a similar track. Go with the 10.

Not very similar actually – lol.

As a matter of fact, Aric just got eliminated in Rd. 1. WTH? Weird

4-19-18-2-42-22-12 are gone my pick?

Why are Blaney & Almirola under your B driver picks? Also Chris Buescher is listed as B driver.

Because Blaney and Almirola are B drivers; and Buescher is a C as listed above. Check your monitor settings. 😉

Those are the groups they are in for the original DGG. There are settings where the commissioner of your league could move drivers to which ever group they wanted. I’m not sure how your league is set up.

Menard or Suarez?

I like Menard this week.

This package is so different from recent years.

This qualifying is crap. They are ruining the racing. Nascar sucks if they keep this up

I just have to wonder out loud, is this what NASCAR was expecting? If so, what drug of choice are they using?
I will maintain hope that the product will change and return to my car and team against yours.

Agreed

If what we saw in qualifying is what we can expect to see every wk I am not a fan. 2 Daytonas &2 ‘Degas are enough. Making picks for fantasy is a crap shoot. Do we pick our best drivers or do we “save” them? I hope we get to see practice. Weather?