Las Vegas producing memorable NASCAR races, and it's not slowing down with Pennzoil 400

Joey Logano (22) celebrates after winning the Pennzoil 400 NASCAR cup race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday, March 3, 2019. Photo by Steve Marcus

Las Vegas Motor Speedway staged one of the most dramatic and impactful races of the year the last time the NASCAR Cup Series was in town.

Veteran driver Joey Logano overtook the lead for the first time with only six laps to go as a result of a deft fuel-preservation strategy, and held on for victory in last October’s South Point 400. The win made him the first driver to clinch in a spot in the Championship Four, which he went on to win despite having been briefly eliminated a week before the Las Vegas race.

A penalty assessed post-race to another driver, Alex Bowman, ultimately elevated Logano back into the field, and he used the second chance to make a shocking run at the title.

“What an incredible turn of events here,” Logano said after his South Point 400 victory.

Those types of exclamations have become commonplace after recent races at the local 1.5-mile asphalt tri-oval that’s now one year away from turning 30 years old. Las Vegas Motor Speedway has become one of the more exciting stops on the entire NASCAR circuit.

The track never produced dull action, but it was easy to overlook and blend in with similar courses during its early years—and the same names seemed to win repeatedly.

Jimmie Johnson most memorably prevailed in the Pennzoil 400 three straight years from 2005 to 2007, and then again in 2010. He’s one of four racers who have gone back-to-back with victories at the event.

But it hasn’t happened since NASCAR introduced its “Next Gen car” in 2022, with three different winners—Bowman, William Byron and Kyle Larson—grabbing the checkered flag in the annual spring Las Vegas race.

“Winning has certainly become harder,” current NASCAR Cup season leader Christopher Bell said of the influence of the Next Gen car earlier this month. “More guys are capable of it. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is debatable, but it’s the sport that we live in and compete in right now.”

Bell wound up on the losing end of Logano’s unbelievable victory last fall. He finished second despite having the fastest car and leading 155 of 267 laps—almost three times more than anyone else in the field.

It was the first chapter in a disappointing end to the season as Bell went from championship favorite to not even making the final four, largely thanks to Logano catching him in Las Vegas.

But the 30-year-old Toyota driver appears to be back for vengeance this season. Despite being thick in NASCAR’s age of parity, Bell claimed back-to-back victories in Atlanta and Austin in the second and third races of the season in the weeks before Las Vegas.

He’s putting forth a case to be considered NASCAR’s best all-around driver, a description Kyle Larson has held relatively comfortably for the last four years. The 32-year-old Larson, who drives a Chevrolet, more or less started his ascent to the very top of the sport with a victory at the 2021 Pennzoil 400.He won it again last year, and also claimed the South Point 400 in October 2023. There might be more competition than ever before at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but Larson is still always considered the top man to beat.

With two second-place finishes in his last three races in Las Vegas, however, Bell is closing the gap.

“It’s time to start putting it all together,” Bell said after his second win of this season. “I have the opportunity of a lifetime in front of me.”

That’s a lot more hopeful tone than the one Bell struck after Logano stunned him in the South Point 400. Bell described failing to win for the first time in Las Vegas as a “bummer” and alluded to needing to regroup.

It didn’t happen last season, but he’s off to the best start in the Next Gen car era this year. But in NASCAR, the margin between victory and defeat can come down to fractions of seconds or minuscule decisions.

Few locations have illustrated that duality better than Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.