Chastain to pilot No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford in Newman’s absence
Roush Fenway Racing has tabbed popular NASCAR competitor Ross Chastain to drive the team’s No. 6 Ford Mustang while their fulltime driver Ryan Newman recovers after an accident Monday on the last lap of the Daytona 500.
Newman was released from Daytona Beach’s Halifax Medical Center on Wednesday.
Chastain is contending for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship this year driving the No. 10 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing. He is a three-time winner in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and finished runner-up in the 2019 championship. He has a pair of Xfinity Series victories – his first coming at Las Vegas in the fall of 2018, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. His second came last summer at Daytona in while driving a partial series schedule for Kaulig Racing.
The 27-year old Alva, Florida, native has made 72 Cup Series starts with a best showing of 10th-place in the 2019 Daytona 500. He raced in Monday’s rain-delayed Daytona 500, finishing 25th in a car prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing and Spire Motorsports.
In four previous Cup starts at Las Vegas, Chastain’s best finish is 20th coming in the 2018 fall race.
“No one could ever take the place of Ryan Newman on the track and I can’t wait to have him back,’’ Chastain said on Twitter Wednesday afternoon. “As we continue to pray for a full and speedy recovery, I’ll do my best to make him and everyone at Roush Fenway Racing proud.’’
Hamlin playing with a full house in Vegas
Denny Hamlin shows up at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube understandably liking his odds for a first career victory at the 1.5-mile track.
The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is coming off a win in Monday’s rain-delayed Daytona 500, making him the first back-to-back winner in the race since Sterling Marlin accomplished the feat in 1994-95. It is Hamlin’s third Daytona 500 win in the last five years. Only one other driver has won that many Daytona 500s in that short of a time frame – NASCAR Hall of Famer and the sport’s winningest driver, Richard Petty, who won in 1971 and back-to-back in 1973-74.
Hamlin led a race-best 79 laps and won in a photo-finish – only 0.14-seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney – the second closest finish in the history of the Great America Race.
In 16 starts at Las Vegas, Hamlin has earned only two top-five finishes – the best of those, a third-place effort, came in only his second Las Vegas start in 2007. The 39-year old Virginian has seven top-10 finishes, including a 10th-place showing in this spring race last year.
Toyota has won two of the last six races, the only manufacturer other than Ford to win during that time. Both of those victories (spring, 2017 and fall, 2019) were by Hamlin’s current Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr.
The last time a driver won the first two races of a season was 2009 when former JGR driver Matt Kenseth won at Daytona and then at Fontana, Calif.
“Our team is picking up where we left off last year and really clicking so far,’’ Hamlin said. “I’m very happy with our performance, but we still have a lot of work to do and a lot more challenges coming our way. We’ll be ready to get back at it this weekend in Las Vegas and hopefully take the checkered flag.’’
Team Penske playing the odds
Joey Logano has plenty of reason to like his chances this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He is the defending winner of the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube and his No. 22 Team Penske Ford will be donned in the Pennzoil yellow. He and teammate Brad Keselowski have won three of the past six races at the 1.5-mile track.
And Logano is statistically-speaking best in class at Las Vegas. The 2017 Cup champion boasts the best average starting position (8.9) and best average finishing position (8.5) in the field. And his average running position is also tops among the competition at 9.162.
Logano has five top-five and nine top-10 finishes – only Kevin Harvick (10 top 10s and seven top fives) has more. And a very telling statistic, Logano has never suffered a DNF in 13 starts.
The 2018 Cup Series champion had a difficult Daytona 500 – starting third and finishing 26th after a late-race accident.
He’ll be buoyed, no doubt, by the past performance of his Team Penske team which shows up undoubtedly as a pre-race favorite. Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford has three victories at Las Vegas – second all-time to Jimmie Johnson’s four wins. His seven top-five finishes tie Harvick and Kyle Busch for most all-time. He is one of only five drivers to win from the front row, earning the 2014 Vegas trophy from second.
As with Logano, Keselowski was fast all day in Monday’s Daytona season-opener only to be collected in a multi-car accident. His 30 laps out front was second only to race winner Denny Hamlin. But his day ended early when he was caught in a 19-car accident with 16 laps remaining in regulation.
Vegas, however, should give him reason to believe in redemption. He was runner-up to his teammate Logano is this race last year and answered that with a third-place finish in the fall Playoff race. Keselowski has not finished worse than seventh in the last nine races, including three wins, a runner-up and a pair of third-place finishes in that time.
Certainly, feeling capable of running with his veteran Penske teammates will be 26-year old Ryan Blaney, whose finish in the Daytona 500 was his second runner-up showing in the sport’s biggest race in the last four years. He’s coming off a career 2019 season, when he scored a personal best 11 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. His win at the Talladega Playoff race marked the third consecutive season he’s celebrated in Victory Lane and his seventh place in the Cup Series championship was an all-time high mark for him as well.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been a productive venue for Blaney, who has an impressive three top-five and five top-10 finishes in seven starts.
Busch brothers are hometown Vegas heroes
Las Vegas natives Kurt and Kyle Busch are unquestionably the fan favorites this weekend. For the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle, it’s about adding to his winnings. He’s already won a Cup Series race, two in the Xfinity Series and a pair of Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series races at the track.
Unfortunately for Kyle Busch, 34, he suffered another early exit from the Daytona 500 – making the two-time Cup champion 0-for-16 in the sport’s biggest race. He couldn’t be more motivated to get back on track at his hometown track, where in 2009 he won from the pole position to become its youngest Cup Series winner (23 years, nine months, 27 days). He remains the only driver to win from pole position at Vegas.
He’s finished seventh or better in four of the last six Cup races at Las Vegas, including third-place in this race last March. Twice he’s finished runner-up (in 2005 and 2018). His seven top-five finishes are tied for tops among those on the grid this week.
He’s entered in a Late Model race Thursday night at Las Vegas’s famed “Bullring” and will compete in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race on Friday night as well.
“Vegas always means a little bit more pressure – more pressure on myself – just because it’s the hometown and you want to win there,’’ Busch conceded. “Thankfully, I have won there, and I’ve knocked that one off the list, but certainly you want to win there every year.
“I love Vegas, the atmosphere and everything going on around that place.’’
For older brother Kurt, 41, the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion, it’s about finally finding a way to Las Vegas Motor Speedway Victory Lane. He has won a pair of pole positions (2010, 2016), but his best finish in 20 starts is third-place in 2005. Busch scored his only other top-five in this race last year, finishing fifth and leading 23 laps in his Vegas debut for Chip Ganassi Racing.
After leaving the Daytona 500 last week in the 19-car crash on Lap 184 of the race, Kurt Busch comes to Las Vegas eager to turn his fortune around.
“Lady Luck was not on our side,’’ Kurt Busch said at Daytona.
“That’s a roulette wheel people. The roulette wheel spins, and it grabs your number and it grabbed my number. Maybe Vegas will be a little better.’’