Kyle Larson Dominates to a Win at Las Vegas

It was an exciting race of twists and turns at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, however, there was one team in particular that had everything down that led them to a win at the Pennzoil 400. That team was Kyle Larson’s. The 2021 Champion had to hold off a charging Tyler Reddick in the closing laps to earn his first win of the season, leading 181 of the 267 laps and sweeping both stages.

This win marks Larson’s third win at the track and the 24th win of his career. Larson had to give it his all in the closing laps, as Tyler Reddick came within a car length of taking the lead and stealing the win with two laps left. Larson was able to put up enough of a block to make the No. 45 Toyota lose momentum, giving Larson the chance to pull away with a win.

“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage,” said Larson after celebrating with his kids. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was going to time out where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end.”

“Thankfully, I was able to air-block him a couple of laps and get him tight. I thought he and Bubba (Wallace) were going to get working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen.”

“But all in all, such a great job by this Hendrick Cars Chevy team and just their execution, pit road, restarts — all that was great. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back, swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”

Tyler Reddick was met with a similar pattern throughout the race, where at the end of both stages, he was reeling in Kyle Larson for the stage win but wasn’t able to get around Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet. Not to mention that Reddick was also hit with pit road issues, including sliding through his pit stall.

“Yeah, Kyle did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap,” Reddick said after the race. “Yeah, he seemed pretty good in the middle, and I was obviously really good on the bottom. He just never let me have it.”

“I kept trying to run higher and higher, and he was kind of running right in the middle of the race track there, was kind of pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I kind of got close, we were running just wide open enough in Turns 1 and 2 that he could kind of defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never up front really all day long until it got to the stage end.”

Defending Champion Ryan Blaney would finish third with Ross Chastain in fourth and Ty Gibbs in fifth. Noah Gragson, Martin Truex Jr, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, and William Byron rounded out the top ten. Some of those top finishers had to overcome adversity such as Chastain having to start in the rear due to an unapproved adjustment, and William Byron having to unexpectedly pit due to a large trash bag covering up the nose of his car.

Chris Buescher’s day ended early when his right front came off and he slammed into the wall in turns one and two. The race was red-flagged for a few minutes to repair the wall from the impact, as Buescher’s crew did not secure the tire.

A team that shined in the spotlight during the majority of the race was Spire Motorsports. While Zane Smith had a flat in the opening laps of the race, Corey Lajoie and rookie Carson Hocevar impressed many as Lajoie ran inside the top ten for most of the race until having a late spin that would result in a 32nd-place finish. As for Hocevar, he ran inside the top 15 for a lot of the race, including sneaking into the top ten on a couple of occasions. Spire’s truck team has had a hot start and the Cup team is starting to show that they have the speed to contend with NASCAR’s top teams. Trackhouse broke out in 2022, and RFK broke out in 2023. Is 2024 the year Spire breaks out?

The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 10th at 3:30 pm EST.