Kyle Larson who drives the #5 Chevrolet for owner Rick Hendrick won and led 103 of the 267 laps run in the Pennzoil 400 and celebrated with two donuts, one on the backstretch and one on the frontstretch.
This was Larson’s first win in NASCAR since he lost his former ride in the #42 for using a racial slur on the popular virtual racing sim iRacing. He was able to celebrate in style in front of the limited number of fans who were in attendance for this race unlike the previous fall race.
This year’s replacement for the #42 was Ross Chastain who is also a very successful watermelon farmer and he finished 23rd.
The hometown Busch brothers finished in third with Kyle Busch having a very good final stint of the race where he was able to gain multiple positions, and Kurt Busch was able to bring home a 19th place finish which is not as successful as his win that he achieved in the past fall race. Kyle Busch was running a special Las Vegas based Ethel M Chocolates scheme as the company was celebrating their 40th year anniversary. He noted that he also had fond memories visiting Ethel M Chocolates as a child accompanied by his grandmother.
Joe Gibbs Racing who was looking for their second win of the season had Kyle Busch as their best finisher with his teammates Denny Hamlin in fourth, Martin Truex Jr in sixth and Christopher Bell in seventh.
Bubba Wallace, the driver for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s new team 23XI Racing that is also a Joe Gibbs Racing affiliate finished 28th. Wallace, who is the only black driver to participate full time in the Cup Series, experienced difficulties that he had to rebound from early on in the race which put him multiple laps down. Wallace drove the historic #43 in previous seasons, but he took this opportunity to win races, and the replacement in the #43 car Eric Jones finished in an impressive tenth.
Daniel Suarez, the driver for the new Trackhouse Racing Team was able to lead laps somewhere in between Larson’s somewhat dominant victory as he finished 22nd. This new team is partially owned by the successful musical star Pitbull and the duo brings south of the border heritage into their success.
The winner of the Daytona 500 Michael McDowell finished in 17th his worst finish of the season, but he did manage to lead laps again at Las Vegas.
The 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliot, who is also owned by Rick Hendrick and is Larson’s teammate, spun out but managed to keep from ending his race and was able to finish in 13th. Last week’s winner at Homestead Miami William Byron managed to finish in 8th place, and the final Hendrick entry Alex Bowman finished in 27th.
The Xfinity series race saw AJ Allmendinger win and the Camping World Truck Series race saw John Hunter Nemechek winning.
Top 10 at Las Vegas’s Pennzoil 400:
Kyle Larson #5
Brad Keslowski #2
Kyle Busch #18
Denny Hamlin #11
Ryan Blaney #12
Martin Truex Jr #19
Christopher Bell #20
William Byron #24
Joey Logano #22
Erik Jones #43