Nationwide Series drivers are racing 300 miles in 200 laps in the Boyd Gaming 300 at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday, March 8th. Television coverage begins at 4 pm ET on ESPN2 with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM, channel 90. Catch every moment when the Green Flag waves at 4:15 pm ET.
With all the hoopla about Sprint Cup drivers racing in the Nationwide Series, fans will want to see all the action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The last two series’ races at the track have seen series regulars celebrating in victory lane. Ricky Stenhouse Jr won in 2012 and Sam Hornish Jr was victorious in 2013. There are a handful of drivers most likely to pull off a third series’ regular win this weekend.
Over the last nine races at Las Vegas, Trevor Bayne, Ty Dillon, Brendan Gaughan, Elliott Sadler and Brian Scott appear in the top-five of several loop data stats, including driver rating, quality passes, green-flag speed, fastest laps run on restarts, laps led, laps in the top-15 and average running position.
At the ‘Diamond in the Dessert,’ Bayne has four starts and never finished lower than sixth. He led 21 laps in last year’s race before finishing fourth for the second consecutive season. Before the 2013 season, Bayne’s best finish was ninth in 2012 of three starts.
With only one series’ start, Dillon finished 11th after starting fifth. In Camping World Truck Series, Dillon has finished tenth and fourth.
Gaughan finished fifth in the Nationwide race last season at Las Vegas; his best finish in three starts. Along with winning the Truck Series race in 2003, Gaughan has five top-ten finishes and in all national series, he has 18 starts.
With 19 national series’ starts, Sadler has the most starts in Vegas among his peers, having competed at the track in only the top-two series. In seven Nationwide Series races, he’s only finished outside the top-15 once, but has a third-place finish in 2012. In Sprint Cup, Sadler has a career-best of sixth-place during the 2004 season.
Last year in the series, Scott posted his best finish of ninth in Vegas. In his three starts, he place 31st, 14th and 34th. His average-finish stat in three Truck events is 20.7.
And for those anxious for a Nationwide Series regular to win on Saturday, Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch has never won in a Nationwide event at his home track.
The series’ rookies are rolling into Vegas on a roll, with two races already in the books. Led by Ty Dillon, Dylan Kwasniewski and Chase Elliott, they are all within four points of each other in a tight competition for Rookie of the Year honors.
Dillon leads the rookie standings (26 points) after a tenth-place showing at Phoenix, and a seventh the week before at Daytona. He’s also fourth in the overall standings, 12-points behind leader Regan Smith. At Las Vegas and of the three rookies, Dillon is the only one to have a Nationwide start under his belt, finishing 11th, last year.
At Phoenix last week, Kwasniewski finished in the same spot, he started – 13th. The weekend before, at Daytona he finished eighth. In the K&N Pro Series West at the Las Vegas Bullring, Kwasniewski has posted two runner-up finishes. Just four points behind Dillon, (tied with Elliott) and fifth in the championship standings, Kwasniewski is looking for a strong finish in front of his hometown crowd.
With the more starts he has under his belt, Elliott continues to grow. In Phoenix, he placed ninth (the highest-finishing rookie) one week after finishing 15th in Daytona. Elliott is now eighth in the championship standings (-29), coming into Las Vegas.
Falling short of his title hopes in 2013, Elliott Sadler was not in the championship conversation for most of the year. After two races this season, it seems the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has rebounded.
Sadler is third in the point standings, just six-points behind leader Regan Smith and one behind, Trevor Bayne. At Daytona, Sadler finished fifth after starting fifth, and in Phoenix he finished sixth as the highest-finishing championship contender.
Sadler was the point standings runner-up in 2011 and 2012 and has two top-five finishes in seven starts at Las Vegas. In last year’s race, Sadler finished fifth.
With the Camping World Truck Series teams taking some time off their schedule, several regulars are moonlighting in the Nationwide Series at Las Vegas.
After a solid showing in the Nationwide Series last year – three top-ten finishes in as many starts – the defending Camping World Truck Series driver, Matt Crafton is making his fourth series’ career start this weekend. At Kentucky Speedway, Crafton finished third in both races and tenth at Chicagoland in July.
Johnny Sauter, a fellow ThorSport Racing teammate, has already made one Nationwide start this season in the opener at Daytona. Sauter has three career series’ wins and Ryan Blaney – scheduled to make 15 starts later this season – picked up his first series win last season at Kentucky.
Brendan Gaughan and Dylan Kwasniewski are both hometown heroes this weekend. And NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr is returning to the series for the second time this season, after finishing 11th at Daytona’s season opener. David Ragan is making his 100th Nationwide Series start this Saturday in Vegas.