The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for its first stop on a three-race west coast swing – Sunday’s Kobalt 400. Following Las Vegas, the series moves on to Phoenix and concludes its Pacific trip at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California before heading back east to Martinsville. Phoenix was formerly the second race on the docket, but is now the fourth. Auto Club still occupies its traditional fifth race slot.Continue reading →
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, crosses the finish line to win the NASCAR XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 7, 2015 Photo – Hallowell/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, leads Ryan Blaney, driver of the #22 Discount Tire Ford, during the NASCAR XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300 Photo – Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, celebrates with a burn-out after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Photo – Chris Trotman/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, celebrates with a burn-out after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Photo – Chris Trotman/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Photo – Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, celebrates after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Photo – Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
As dominant as Austin Dillon was in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he had to give his utmost effort in the closing laps to hold off charging Ryan Blaney for the victory.
Dillon led 183 of the 200 laps at the 1.5-mile speedway, but Blaney had a tire advantage at the end of the race, thanks to a late pit stop after his car snapped loose and knocked Erik Jones into the outside wall at the exit from Turn 4.
After restarting fifth with 21 laps left, Blaney charged to the front, making up a deficit of more than 1.5 seconds and forcing Dillon to block him repeatedly during the last three laps. Blaney ran out of room in the final corner, his No. 22 Ford turning sideways and tagging the outside wall as Dillon crossed the finish line with an advantage of .664 seconds.
Joey Logano followed up his career-year of 2014 with a stirring win in the Daytona 500, becoming the second youngest driver to win the Great American Race at 24 years old.
Now he looks to accomplish another rare feat: Back-to-back wins in the season’s first two races. It’s only happened five times since the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ inception in 1949, the last by Matt Kenseth in 2009. The five drivers to do it: Marvin Panch (1957), Bob Welborn (1959), David Pearson (1976), Jeff Gordon (1997) and Kenseth. Continue reading →
Chips Are On The Table: Logano, Busch Rolling The Dice At Dover
Winning is everything and at Dover International Speedway – which sits next to a casino –Joey Logano (four) and Kyle Busch (four) have won eight out of the last twelve NASCAR Nationwide Series races at the famed one-mile concrete track. Dominant powerhouses on a high-speed, physically demanding track are what Logano and Busch have been and with this weekend’s owner championship implications on the line, the showdown between the two veteran drivers is that much more exciting. Continue reading →
