Nascar returns to Vegas

The real season as many call it begins this weekend as NASCAR takes to the Las Vegas motor speedway. This is the first of many tracks on the circuit that don’t run the racing packages that we saw at Daytona and Atlanta, so there is more chance to spread out and the drivers are in more control. 

   Drivers now have more of a opportunity to control their own destiny this weekend as now that the tapered spacers, (a part used to restrict horsepower and create pack racing), is taken off, we should see a more traditional race approach from drivers. The skill set is placed more into the drivers hands than the draft so it will be interesting to see how the points shake up this weekend.

      Starting off the season with two drafting tracks has led to some heavy hitters running at the bottom half of the standings coming into this weekend like Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, two drivers who made the playoffs last year but currently run 31st and 34th in points. The two former winners at Las Vegas surely hope that they can pull off a much needed performance to shake off any jitters.

        This track also is a playoff track and I’m sure any track time will help especially for William Byron and Daniel Suarez since they’ve pretty much locked themselves into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs unless we have over 16 winners, so they come in with less stress and can try some things this weekend that might carry over to the playoff race. 

    The weather looks good for Sunday and NASCAR has some positive momentum from Atlanta so this looks like the perfect opportunity to see a good race. The track is good with the next gen car and teams are a little bit more scrambled compared to years pass with 2 straight drafting tracks kicking off the season. This is also the first test of the season as far as things that changed with teams or the cars (different nose for Toyota and Ford). This weekend is the first real test for the Toyotas and Fords, and after Chevy has swept both weekends so far, both manufacturers are eager to get on track this weekend.

       Hopefully the Cup race this weekend is a good one, but with that being said I’m predicting Hendrick will get a win with either William Byron or Kyle Larson. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daytona 500 Review

Another Daytona 500 is in the books and this one had a bit of everything. NASCAR’s Super Bowl was scheduled to start an hour early due to rain but due to some pre race festivities, the race got off to a later than desired start. A few rain delays later, we were able to see what we all tuned in Sunday for. 500 miles of high octane racing, and from start to finish you didn’t know what to expect. However what started as a day of highs ended in a day of frustration for many. Let’s look into it. The race was moved up an hour due to rain, and was scheduled to start however due to a guest appearance by the President of the United States Donald Trump, the race start was delayed. After his pre race festivities ended Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric led the field to green. The urgency level immediately looked high with rain in the area, but it wasn’t for long as the 1st caution of the race fell on lap 11 due to rain. The cars were brought down pit road where they sat and waited out the hours of ...
Read more

Cookout Clash Review

Well, the weekend has came and went for the first “unofficial” week of the 2025 NASCAR season and if anything it gave us a pleasant preview of what’s to come this season, which is intense racing. Coming into the weekend I didn’t know what to expect out of Bowman Gray stadium but the place put on a show Sunday evening. There was passing, bump and runs, tempers flaring, drivers even making the outside line work, and a fan favorite in victory lane to cap off the event. Let’s get into what all happened during the Cookout Clash. The night started off with an eventful LCQ that saw Ty Dillion and Zane smith lead the field to the green of the 75 lap race. The two were side by side until Ty gave a bump to Zane smith to move on by. Shortly after Ty Gibbs was able to get to the inside and pass Ty Dillion for the win, immediately followed by contact between Austin Dillion and Ty Dillion. So much for being brothers. In the mist of the chaos Kyle Larson was able to pass multiple cars to move u...
Read more

Another Crossroads

Yesterdays race at Kansas Speedway was suppose to be a breath of fresh air as the race track has been looked at as one of the better tracks or maybe even the best track in the Next Gen era. The car races well, there’s multiple grooves, the tires wear decently and there’s strategy at times. The restarts can be chaotic which leads to cautions breed cautions moments as well so there’s something honestly for every fan to enjoy. However at least on social media, the discourse wasn’t too thrilled about the race. The discourse really didn’t like the fact that it didn’t seem like much passing towards the front of the field as they would have liked which is understandable, but also a lot of concern about the grandstands which also had people wondering if Kansas should go to one race instead of 2. This is also the 4th race in a row where the discourse hasn’t been pleased about the Cup series product as of late. Let’s take a closer look. Ever since the Next Gen car debuted in 2022 the racing on t...
Read more