Larson wins again at Las Vegas track
Kyle Larson managed to double-down at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Larson held off Tyler Reddick in a 27-lap shootout in the Pennzoil 400, driving his No. 5 Chevrolet to his third career victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson, 31, led 181 laps and beat Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota by 0.441 seconds and won his 24th NASCAR Cup Series race. Ryan Blaney finished third.
Fourth-place finisher Ross Chastain qualified 20th, but a problem with the wrap on his No. 1 Chevrolet forced the Trackhouse Racing team to re-wrap his car, sending him to the rear before the race’s start.
Ty Gibbs finished fifth in the six-caution race.
The win looked similar to last Oct. 15, when Larson led 133 laps in Vegas in winning the postseason’s seventh race.
But Reddick made it tough on the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage,” said Larson. “Thankfully, I was able to air-block him for a couple of laps to get him tight.
“Cool to get a win at Vegas again, back-toback, swept all the stages. Can’t ask for much more.”
Reddick said Larson made it difficult to pass.
“Kyle did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap,” said Reddick, who recorded his first top-five LVMS finish. “He was running in the middle of the racetrack, which made it pretty efficient to block both lanes.”
Pole winner Joey Logano struggled to find grip in his Team Penske Ford and finished ninth.
Hometown favorite
Kyle Busch had a fast Chevrolet, but he pitted over the line with just over 50 laps left and served a penalty. His No. 8 ended up 26th.
Following cautionproducing tire incidents by Christopher Bell and
Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez — last week’s three-wide winner at Atlanta — stayed out and was at the point again on a 1.5-mile track.
But as tear wear began, Busch and Larson took turns at the front before Larson assumed the lead late in the 80-lap Stage 1.
Verstappen wins F1 opener: The drama around Red Bull had no effect on its three-time reigning world champion as Max Verstappen routed the field by 22 seconds in the seasonopening Formula 1 race Saturday, AP reported.
Verstappen started the Bahrain Grand Prix on pole position and was never seriously challenged on his way to a commanding one-two win for Red Bull with teammate Sergio Perez.
On Wednesday, the team’s parent company dismissed a complaint of alleged misconduct by team owner Christian Horner toward a team employee. A day later during practice in Bahrain, a file alleged to contain evidence against Horner was emailed to nearly 200 people in the F1 paddock, including F1 and media outlets.