Practice #1 : Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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

Austin Hill hopes to rebound from misfortune at Phoenix Raceway

A race-ending mistake last Saturday at Phoenix Raceway cost Austin Hill the NASCAR Xfinity Series lead.

Just 61 laps into the fourth event of the season, Hill bounced off the inside wall in Turn 3 and collected the cars of Sheldon Creed and Dean Thompson. Hill finished 37th and fell to fourth in the standings as Richard Childress Racing teammate Jesse Love took over the points lead with a ninth-place finish.

“I was right behind the No. 8 (Sammy Smith) and just messed up,” Hill said ruefully. “I misjudged the inside wall, and that may be the dumbest move I’ve had happen to me in racing…

“We’ll rebuild for Las Vegas and try to have a good outcome there.”

Hill will look to regain the form that earned a victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the series lead in Saturday’s The Liuna! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Hill is the only former Las Vegas winner in the field for Saturday’s race, but he’ll have plenty of competition from perennial contender Justin Allgaier. The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has more second-place finishes (4), top fives (11), stage wins (3) and laps led (330) than the rest of the field combined, despite being winless at the track.

Last week’s winner, Aric Almirola, will make his third start of the season in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, seeking his first top-10 finish at LVMS in his seventh start there.

• Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• The LiUNA!
• Pole Winner: Sammy Smith
• Age: 20
• Team : No 8 - Pilot Chevrolet
• Owner: Dale Earnhardt, Jr
• Crew Chief: Phillip Bell
• Sammy Smith won the Pole Award for the The LiUNA! with a lap of 29435 seconds, 183455 mph
• This is his third pole in 80 NASCAR Xfinity Series races
• This is his first pole and second top-10 start in 2025
• This is his first pole in five races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Carson Kvapil (second) posted his fourth top-10 start of 2025 and his first in one race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Connor Zilisch (third) posted his first top-10 start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway It is his fourth in five races this season
• Carson Kvapil (second) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Saturday, March 15th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Justin Allgaier holds off Aric Almirola for first win at Las Vegas

On Friday night, Justin Allgaier saw the Eagles in concert. On Saturday, he was flying.

Holding off Aric Almirola over a 102-lap green-flag run, Allgaier finally claimed victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after finishing second four times at the 1.5-mile track.

Allgaier’s victory in The Liuna! was his first of the season, the 26th of his career and the 90th for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The reigning series champion crossed the finish line 1.067 seconds ahead of Almirola, who lost ground trying to run the outside lane with just over three laps left.

The decisive moment in the race, however, may have come much earlier. Allgaier lost the lead to Almirola during an exchange of pit stops midway through the final stage, but he regained it in traffic on Lap 152 and remained out front the rest of the way.

With the victory, Allgaier qualified for the first Xfinity Dash4Cash race next Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, along with third-place finisher Jesse Love, fourth-place Austin Hill and fifth-place Sam Mayer. The highest finisher among the four earns a $100,000 bonus.

Almirola isn’t scheduled to run the Homestead race.

“It was amazing,” said Allgaier. “This whole team—I just can’t say enough. Aric and I were going at it. Hats of to him; he ran a heck of a race…

“Rick Brandt (of sponsor Brandt) was here last night. He took us to a great concert, Eagles concert … Everyone at JR Motorsports, I can’t say enough about how proud I am of what we have here. It’s been special.”

After Allgaier took the lead on Lap 152, he opened an advantage of more than two seconds over Almirola, who spent the next 40 laps whittling the margin down to a car-length. But Almirola couldn’t find a way past Allgaier in the closing laps.

“You always hate to finish second, but Justin and that team was I felt like the class of the field today,” Almirola said. “We were close, but they could just take off so much faster than I could. I think that’s really the difference.

“I thought my only hope was to cycle in front of him on the green-flag stop, and we did, but I just got caught up behind some lapped traffic there that I misjudged. I wasn’t sure which way they were going, and he got by me and built such a big gap that I used my stuff up trying to get back to him.”

The green-flag stops in the final stage proved costly to Sunoco rookie Connor Zilisch, who streaked into the lead on Lap 100 and held it until Allgaier nosed ahead at the start/finish line on Lap 127.

During the stops on Lap 145, however, Zilisch drew a speeding penalty and served a pass-through that dropped him to the back of the lead lap. He rallied to finish ninth, the last driver on the lead lap.

Allgaier led 102 of the 200 laps, followed by Almirola (51) and Zilisch (28). Brandon Jones, Ryan Seig, Harrison Burton, Zilisch and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10.

Allgaier, who won the first stage by 8.262 seconds and finished second in Stage 2, took over the series lead by 19 points over Love.

• Drivers Entered: 38
• Laps Scheduled: 200
• Margin of Victory: 01.067 Seconds
• Time of Race: 2 Hours 8 Minutes 30 Seconds
• Average Speed: 140.078
• Cautions: 3 for 18 laps
• Lead Changes: 7
• Green Flag Passes: 1,483 (8.1 passes per green flag lap)

• Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• The LiUNA!
• Race Winner: Justin Allgaier
• Age: 38
• Team : No 7 - Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet
• Owner: Kelley Earnhardt-Miller
• Crew Chief: James Pohlman
• Justin Allgaier won the The LiUNA!, his 26th victory in 476 Xfinity Series races
• This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in 2025
• This is his first victory and 19th top-10 finish in 22 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Aric Almirola (second) posted his first top-10 finish in seven races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway It is his third top-10 finish in 2025
• Jesse Love (third) posted his second top-10 finish in three races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Connor Zilisch (ninth) was the highest finishing rookie
• Justin Allgaier leads the point standings by 19 points over Jesse Love