Pennzoil 400: Kyle Larson Dominates Las Vegas

Kyle Larson takes the checkered flag at Las Vegas. — Despite Tyler Reddick's best effort, nobody had anything for Kyle Larson in Sin City. (Photo: Meg Oliphant | Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS - After sweeping the first two stages in dominating fashion, Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson led 181 of 267 laps to win the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet visited Las Vegas Victory Lane for the second consecutive time and third overall in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Larson had one of the fastest cars all weekend and the speed carried over into the race.

"I knew Tyler (Reddick) was going to be the guy to beat," Larson said. "From the first stage, he was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt it was going to time out to where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end. Thankfully, I was able to air-lock him a couple of laps and get him tight.

"All in all, such a great, great job by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, restarts, pit road.. all of that was great. Cool to get a win here in Las Vegas again, back-to-back, and swept all the stages. Can’t ask for much more than that."

The only car that seemed to be on Larson's level in this race was the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota of Tyler Reddick, who was extremely frustrated after his second-place finish. He was second in each stage, just one spot behind Larson each time.

"Kyle did a really good job there taking away pretty much every option I had there to close the gap," Reddick said. "He seemed pretty good in the middle and I was obviously really good on the bottom, and he just never let me have it, right? I kept trying to run higher and higher and you know, he's kind of running in the middle of the race track, which is pretty efficient to block both lanes.

"Every time I sort of got close, I mean, we’re running just wide open enough in Turn 1 and 2, you can kind of defend pretty well," Reddick added. "It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never up front really all day long, until it got to the stage ends. We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry."

Reddick also commented on something that 23XI has struggled with since the team's debut season in 2021, errors on pit road.

"Just stupid mistakes on pit road," Reddick said. "Same shit, different year, right? Kind of frustrating. We’ll continue to work on it, but a good rebound for our team today."

2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney finished third, Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain was fourth and Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs drove to a fifth-place finish without having first gear.

31 cars finished on the lead lap as well, which is the most ever at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track, according to statistician Trey Ryan.

Results from the 2024 Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Derek Kraus made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet and led two laps in his first of six scheduled starts this year at the premier level.

A red flag came out early in the race after Chris Buescher lost a wheel and smacked the wall hard, causing a welding truck to be called onto the track. In 2024, the Cup Series has now had a red flag in the first three races of the season for the first time in at least 35 years.

Despite Chevrolet winning the first three races of the season, Toyota drivers have quietly remained at the top of the standings to start the season. In fact, seven of the eight full-time Toyota drivers are currently in the top 16 in points.

Martin Truex Jr. (third)
Ty Gibbs (ninth)
Denny Hamlin (10th)
Tyler Reddick (12th)
Bubba Wallace (14th)
Erik Jones (15th)
John Hunter Nemechek (16th)
Christopher Bell (21st)*

Las Vegas native Noah Gragson scored a top-10 finish at his home track with Stewart-Haas Racing, finishing sixth.

"These guys are good, it feels good to do it in front of the hometown crowd," Gragson said. "I was battling Ty and Ross (Chastain) there at the end for a top five. I really wanted a top five, but coming from 30th to sixth I’m just really proud of everyone’s effort."

Each car had a Wendell Scott sticker to honor the first Black driver to win a race in the Cup Series.

HendrickCars.com sponsorship won two of three races this weekend at Las Vegas as Rajah Caruth won the Craftsman Truck Series Race on Friday night, driving the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

Caruth became the third Black driver to win a national series race, joining Scott and Bubba Wallace.

GRID Ranking

The 2024 GRID Ranking will be the eighth year of the premier motorsport ranking in the world, and it will be released during the week of April 7.

Before the official ranking releases on the first Sunday of April, drivers in the seven racing series that participate in the ranking (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, World Rally Championship, Repco Supercars, MotoGP) earn GRID Ratings, which help determine their initial seeding when the GRID Ranking releases.

For NASCAR, Ryan Blaney is at the top of the GRID Rating after Las Vegas. The rest of the NASCAR GRID Rating is currently being calculated.

The next race for the NASCAR Cup Series will take place on Sunday, March 10 at Phoenix Raceway. Coverage of the Shriners Children's 500 will begin at 3:30 E.T. on FOX.