Practice #1 : Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• Thursday, March 13th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Christopher Bell goes for historic NASCAR Cup win at Las Vegas

Understandably, much of the focus during NASCAR’s tripleheader weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will fall squarely on Christopher Bell.

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four straight NASCAR Cup Series races, if he’s first to the finish line in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Bell feels his team, headed by crew chief Adam Stevens, can win at any race track. True enough, the 30-year-old from Norman, Oklahoma, has claimed victory in the last three Cup Series races—on a drafting track (Atlanta Motor Speedway), a road course (Circuit of the Americas) and a one-mile flat track (Phoenix Raceway).

With those triumphs, Bell became the first driver to win three consecutive Cup Series races since NASCAR introduced the Next Gen car into its top division in 2022.

Bell is one of only four drivers to win three of the first races in a Cup Series season. The only driver to win four of the first five was Bill Elliott in 1992. Bell also is responsible for Joe Gibbs Racing’s last five victories.

The Pennzoil 400 is the first race of the season on a 1.5-mile intermediate speedway. In last year’s Playoff race in Sin City, Bell led a race-high 155 laps before finishing second to Joey Logano by 0.662-second.

“Vegas is a true barometer of the intermediates,” Bell said. “It’s kind of like the last style of track that we haven’t been to yet this season. It’s an important race because you have a lot of points to be gained or lost on the intermediate-style tracks.

“But what makes Vegas even more important is that it’s in the Round of 8 (of the Playoffs). That race, when you come back in the fall, is super important to have a really solid points day and contend for a win. That fall Vegas race is everything, and there’s no better tune-up for it than the spring Vegas race.”

Indeed, Logano won last year’s Playoff race at Las Vegas and used that as a springboard to his third series championship. It’s also safe to say that Logano could be a major impediment to Bell’s quest for a fourth straight win.

Logano has won three of the last 10 races at LVMS. Another serious contender, Kyle Larson, has won three of the last eight. Only one Toyota driver has been to Victory Lane in the last 10 events at the track—Bell’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin in the fall race of 2021.

Larson won the two Las Vegas races before Logano triumphed last fall.

“Las Vegas has been a great track for us since I joined the No. 5 HendrickCars.com team,” Larson said. “We got our first win here together, and we have added a couple more since then.”

If Bell has been living at the front of the field, there are three drivers in particular who could use strong performances at Las Vegas to turn their seasons around.

After four races, Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs and Cole Custer are 33rd, 34th and 35th in the Cup Series standings, respectively. By way of contrast, Johnson who finished third in his only start of the season (the Daytona 500), is 36th, just 13 points behind Keselowski.

Las Vegas should suit the co-owner/driver of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. Keselowski has three victories at LVMS, along with nine top fives, and 13 top 10s in 23 starts, with an average finish of 12.7.

Gibbs also has reason for hope, having finished fifth in last year’s spring race at Las Vegas. Gibbs is facing a busy weekend. He’ll make his High Limit Racing debut in a 410 winged sprint car at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, as will Bell.

The High Limit series, owned by Larson and brother-in-law Brad Sweet, races at the Dirt Track on Thursday and Saturday.

Having returned to the Cup Series after a two-year hiatus in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Custer has never scored a top 10 in seven Las Vegas starts. His best finish at the track is 16th.

• Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Michael McDowell
• Age: 40
• Team : No 71 - Group 1001 Chevrolet
• Owner: Jeff Dickerson
• Crew Chief: Travis Peterson
• Michael McDowell won the Pole Award for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube with a lap of 28883 seconds, 186961 mph
• This is his seventh pole in 506 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his first pole and second top-10 start in 2025
• This is his first pole in 23 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Joey Logano (second) posted his fourth top-10 start of 2025 and his 20th in 24 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Austin Cindric (third) posted his fifth top-10 start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway It is his third in five races this season
• Shane Van Gisbergen (28th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Sunday, March 16th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Josh Berry grabs first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas

Winning an intense battle against Daniel Suárez after a restart with 19 laps left, Josh Berry pulled away to a convincing victory in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The win was Berry’s first in the NASCAR Cup Series at a track where he won twice in a NASCAR Xfinity Series car. Berry is the fourth straight Wood Brothers Racing driver to pick up his first Cup win in the No. 21 Ford.

“Oh, man, I don’t even know what to think,” Berry said after climbing from his car on the frontstretch. “Just awesome. I love this track. Las Vegas has been so good to me. So many great moments here.

“Just struggled in the Next Gen car here. But (crew chief) Miles (Stanley) and this whole 21 team, everybody at Wood Brothers Racing, they gave me a great car today. Just battled and battled and battled. Man, it was our day. I just can’t believe it.

“Such a battle with Daniel there at the end, beating and banging on a mile-and-a-half—crazy! Whoever was going to get out front was probably going to win. We were able to get in front.”

Berry and Suárez restarted side-by-side on Lap 249 of 267. Suárez didn’t surrender the lead until Lap 252, when Berry nosed ahead at the start/finish line. Lap 253 was nearly a dead head with Berry ahead by inches, but the No. 21 Mustang cleared Suárez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet through the tri-oval on Lap 254.

“We did everything right, you know?” Suárez said “The team did an amazing job on the strategy, pit stops. We did everything right. Our car was fast. We just struggled a little bit in the short run.

“I mentioned to my crew chief just a little bit ago, before the last run, I told him, ‘Hey, we want to be up front, I need a little bit better short run. I am having too much contact (with the bumps in the racing surface) in (Turns) 1 and 2.

“Unfortunately, I feel like that’s why we lost the race, just a little bit too much contact. I mean, I almost wrecked in 1 and 2.”

After clearing Suárez, Berry widened the gap in clean air and crossed the finish line 1.358 seconds ahead of the runner-up, earning a victory that also ended Christopher Bell’s three-race Cup winning streak.

Berry got his chance when a Lap 195 caution for a seven-car wreck on the backstretch interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops and wrested control of the race from Stage 2 winner Kyle Larson, who had led 61 laps before pitting on Lap 197.

With the field flipped, Larson restarted 18th and could only work his way back to ninth before the race ended.

Berry, on the other hand, restarted seventh on Lap 201, worked the top of the track masterfully and snatched the lead from Suárez for the first time on Lap 234, before surrendering it to Cup champion Joey Logano two laps later.

Noah Gragson’s hard contact with the Turn 2 wall on Lap 243 caused the ninth and final caution of the race and took fuel consumption out of the equation. Suárez regained the lead with a blistering four-tire stop, with Berry second off pit road, as Logano lost 19 positions during a fraught pit stop.

But it didn’t take Berry long to set sail toward the 101st victory for the Wood Brothers, who got No. 100 last year at the hands of Harrison Burton.

Ryan Preece ran third on Sunday, followed by series leader William Byron, who paced a group of four Hendrick Motorsports drivers in the top 10. Tire strategy helped Ross Chastain secure fifth place.

Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Larson and Chase Elliott completed the top 10 on a day when pit road resembled a comedy of errors. Both Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch jettisoned loose wheels onto the track, though Briscoe rebounded from four laps down to finish 17th.

In a race that featured 32 lead changes among 13 drivers, Austin Cindric was second to Larson in laps led with 47, followed by Logano with 40, Tyler Reddick with 34, Bubba Wallace with 20 and Berry with 18.

For practical purposes, Christopher Bell’s bid for a fourth straight Cup Series victory came to an end during pit stops under caution for Shane van Gisbergen’s spin off Turn 2 on Lap 107.

By then, Bell, who started from the rear because of an unapproved throttle body change, had advanced to second in the running order, but his front tire changer failed to secure the left-front wheel before Bell left his stall, located near the entrance to pit road.

After frantic radio communication, Bell pulled into the pit of teammate Chase Briscoe, where the front tire changer on the No. 19 team tightened the loose lug.

Bell dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for receiving service outside his pit box and could make no progress in dirty air after two subsequent restarts. His No. 20 Toyota was running 29th when the No. 34 Ford of Todd Gilliland bounced off the Turn 4 wall on Lap 147 to cause the fifth caution of the afternoon.

Complaining of a loss of rear grip, Bell finished Stage 2 in 27th place, his chances for a rare four-race winning streak all but gone.

Bell subsequently ran as high as sixth after a two-tire stop on Lap 189 to gain track position, but he lost spots when the field flipped for the Lap 201 restart and could only recover to 12th at the finish.

“It was a grind today for sure,” Bell said. “I don’t really know how I feel yet, but we certainly didn’t do what we did the last couple of weeks, and that was just have a nice clean race.

“I think the Interstate Camry was definitely capable of competing for the win when we were at our best, but just going to the back and to the front and to the back and to the front, we just didn’t get a handle on the balance, because it changes so much from being back there. I felt like we were in position in Stage 2 to contend for another win, but it got away from us.”

• Drivers Entered: 36
• Laps Scheduled: 267
• Margin of Victory: 01.358 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 13 Minutes 13 Seconds
• Average Speed: 124.368
• Cautions: 9 for 53 laps
• Lead Changes: 32
• Green Flag Passes: 3,361 (15.7 passes per green flag lap)

• Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube
• Race Winner: Josh Berry
• Age: 34
• Team : No 21 - Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford
• Owner: Eddie Wood
• Crew Chief: Samuel Stanley
• Josh Berry won the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube, his first victory in 53 Cup Series races
• This is his first victory and second top-10 finish in 2025
• This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in four races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Daniel Suarez (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in 16 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway It is his first top-10 finish in 2025
• Ryan Preece (third) posted his first top-10 finish in 11 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Riley Herbst (19th) was the highest finishing rookie
• William Byron leads the point standings by 29 points over Christopher Bell