John Hunter Nemechek wins Xfinity Race at Las Vegas

A pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates showed up at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday and dominated The LiUNA! Chandler Smith had led 74 laps including leading the first 49 and sweeping both stages. Despite the fast car he had, Smith would come up short and finish third. Nemechek would lead a race-high of 99 laps that led him to the 10th Xfinity win of his career, as he is driving full-time in the Cup Series this season with Legacy Motor Club.

“Hats off to all the guys on this 20 team for Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Nemechek after the race.

“Man, it’s awesome to come out here and win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a limited number of starts. Our goal is to come and win as many as we possibly could. Nothing else matters.”

Chandler Smith was showing he had the fastest car on the track, but that changed in the later stages of the race.

“We just over-adjusted a little bit,” said Smith, “We were trying to stay ahead of the race track, and it feels actually like it might have gotten a little colder as well.”

“It felt like track definitely freed up, and we went in that same direction, thinking it was going to tighten up. So you live and you learn… We were pretty dominant and we just over-adjusted, but I’m happy that a Joe Gibbs Racing car still won.”

Defending Champion Cole Custer would finish second, Smith third, and Austin Hill and Riley Herbst would round out the top five. AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones, and Justin Allgaier finished out the top 10.

Shane van Gisbergen had a rough going on Saturday, as his No. 97 Chevrolet had overheating problems after 27 laps. SVG would go on to finish 37th.

Sam Mayer of Jr Motorsports was always taken out of the race on Lap 8 while running 10th. Parker Retzlaff turned sideways in front of him, causing Mayer to run into him and take him out of the race.

The Xfinity Series will head next to Phoenix on Saturday, March 9th, joining the Cup Series for that weekend.