It was the 8th race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series, which took place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Vegas is scheduled for two races this season, and NASCAR returns in October in the second half of the year.
Kiwi driver Shane Van Gisbergen qualified 28th in the No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet, with his Trackhouse Racing teammates ahead of Van Gisbergen. Daniel Suarez qualified 23rd in the No. 99 Chevrolet, while Chastin qualified 19th in the No.1 Chevrolet. Van Gisbergen heads into this weekend with 69 points in the Championship standings.
For Van Gisbergen, this wasn’t just another race—it was redemption. After last year’s heartbreak in Vegas, he had two goals. To improve his finishing position and prove he belongs in the Cup Series
In practice, Ryan Blaney suffered a flat right rear tyre, which caused the No. 12 Team Penske Ford to slam into the barrier, leaving the Penske team scratching their heads. Unsure of what caused the blown tyre, they focused on repairing the car.
“I thought our car was really good before that. Just an unfortunate part of it, but they (the team) have got a lot of work cut out for them.” said Blaney.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain topped the leaderboard in practice at 187.846 mph.
Unfortunately, Penske did not fix the Blaney’s Mustang in time for qualifying. Blaney could not run a time and started the 267-lap race last in 36th place.
Previous Las Vegas race winner and 2024 Cup Series Champion Joey Logano started the race on the front row in 2nd for Team Penske alongside pole-sitter Michael McDowell, Spire Motorsports driver.
The engines roared to life, a deafening symphony of horsepower as 36 cars thundered down the straightaway. At nearly 200 miles per hour, no one was holding back today.
It was four wide going into Turn 1, and Logano took the early lead. In an early redemption, Blaney charged through the field from 36th to 20th in just 19 laps before his race took a 360. He came into the pits on Lap 33, reporting an issue with the car and ended up two laps down after a 31-second pit stop.
Logano abandoned the race lead to come into pit road, drivers’ splitting stages in half’ as part of their race strategy.
The race’s first caution came out for Chase Briscoe. His rear tyre gave out, flying off his car and smashing into the inside concrete barriers. The driver received a two-lap penalty for the incident, which resulted from a poor pit stop.
Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin received a pit lane speeding penalty, pushing Busch back to 27th, and Hamlin went a lap down.
With 40 to go in Stage 1, the caution lights went out, and we were green for racing. Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman were in the front row, Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliot were in the second row, and Logano was in 5th place after leading 30 laps. Van Gisbergen was at the rear of the field in 31st place.
Kyle Larson had moved up five places since the start of the race, moving from 15th to 10th. Briscoe ended up four laps down after his pit stop and penalty.
Cindric crosses the finish line for the first-stage win. Van Gisbergen finished the stage 28th, while Trackhouse teammates Suarez and Chastain finished 15th and 18th, respectively.
Previous race winner Christoper Bell entered the Top 10 after starting 13th. Elliot received a pit lane speed penalty, resulting in the driver losing detrimental placings.
Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson lead the field on the Stage 2 restart, with Cindric and Logano behind. Suarez and Chastain moved into the Top 10 while Van Gisbergen struggled to find pace in 24th.
After running at the front for most of Stage 1, Bowman had a shocker start to Stage 2. He pitted again as he reported a severe vibration in his Hendrick’s Motorsport Chevrolet. After losing positions in the field due to the double pit stop, Bowman was sent to the rear of the field for speeding in the section closest to the S/F line.
“That doesn’t make any sense. I wasn’t even into my lights,” said Bowman.
He was not the first driver to be busted in that section, and each has said they weren’t on their lights, adding controversy to an already eventful race.
The Kiwi Vegas curse struck Van Gisbergen as he had a big moment. He spun on the backstretch while battling for position, leaving a smoke trail behind him and cutting two right tyres, his front right destroyed. The Kiwi managed to hold the car, keeping it on track. The race was placed under caution, slowing down the field as most drivers, including Van Gisbergen, entered the pit road.
To salt to his wounds, Van Gisbergen was added to the long list of drivers earning a pit road speeding penalty, adding a pass-through penalty to his troubles.
Wallace was the first to come out of the pit road with Byron and Larson on his tail with the race restarting.
Kyle Busch experienced further bad luck when he lost a wheel off the restart. The wheel and tyre separated and flew off the track, making heavy contact with the inside concrete barriers. The driver received a 2-lap penalty for the incident.
Drivers who had made impressive gains in the race so far included Carson Hocevar, who moved from 25th to 7th, and Suarez, who moved up to 5th from 23rd.
NASCAR added Bell and McDowell to the list of drivers with speeding penalties, and NASCAR sent both drivers to the rear of the field.
Van Gisbergen ran into further problems when he suffered a flat front right tyre. The Kiwi managed to come into pit road shortly after and kept the race under green. This leaves the mystery question: what is there something wrong with SVG’s car or race setup?
The mystery question soon answered as Van Gisbergen reported further issues with the car’s braking system over the team radio.
“The right front brake isn’t even working now,” said Van Gisbergen
“It doesn’t feel right at all, and then five seconds later, the pedals on the floor.
“I’m just waiting for it to fall apart, it feels like,” he added.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Van Gisbergen also had to cope with a drive-through penalty for having too many people over the pit wall.
At the halfway mark, Larson lead the race. Moments later, Byron and Wallace created a ‘Larson sandwich’ coming to either side of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet in an intense 3-wide battle.
Trackhouse Racing was in high hopes as Suarez and Chastain race in the Top 5.
Larson went on to win Stage 2! Suarez and Larson were in the front row as Stage 3 got underway. A race win was in sight for Trackhouse Racing as Chastain was in the mix in 4th.
No. 51 Cody Ware made heavy contact with the wall, ending his race and bringing the cautions back out. Chastain and Larson are rearing to go in the front row on the restart.
Meanwhile, on pit road, Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar make contact. Hocevar comes out as Gibbs pulls in, turning Gibbs’s side on his pit box.
The race experienced its first wreck shortly after the restart, with Blaney, Dillon, Stenhouse, and Jones involved. Blaney was the only retirement from the wreck after he came worse off from the heavy hit. He was evaluated and released from the infield care centre.
Reddick lead the charge on restart, with Suarez on his rear in second. McDowell had an impressive charge back to third after being sent to the rear in an earlier penalty. Larson fell back in the field to 17th, getting the short end of the stick while he managed to avoid the wreck, then falling short in the race off pit road.
“Wild cycles of drivers at the top of the pack” is how the NASCAR commentary team described an eventful race so far, full of speeding penalties and differing race and pit strategies.
With only 63 laps to go, the unthinkable happened. Nine laps down, Van Gisbergen suffered his second flat tyre, the front right, sending the Kiwi into the wall! It was a nightmare finish for SVG, who retired the car and was classified 34th.
“Our day was going pretty good there at the start. I was learning to move around and started to go forward. We just made an adjustment that didn’t go our way and never recovered. It’s a shame; my Red Bull Chevrolet had plenty of potential, and I felt like I could’ve been okay. My teammates are running really well, so our car was good. I’m just learning to put myself in the right spots. We’ll be ready for Homestead next weekend.” said Van Gisbergen
Trackhouse Racing redirected their focus to Suarez, who was in a battle for the lead, and Chastain, who was back in 10th, rounding out the Top 10.
Noah Gragson puts his No.4 Ford Mustang into the wall with 25 to go, bringing out the 9th caution of the action-packed race and setting the anticipation for a big wreck at the end of the race at an all-time high.
Multiple cautions in the final stage made pit strategy the key to success.
The No. 99 pit crew returned Suarez to a front-row starting position for the restart with 20 laps remaining. Suarez battled side-by-side with Josh Berry for a handful of laps before Berry got the move done on Suarez, stealing the race lead with 13 to go.
Chastain and Byron engaged in some wild battles in a bid to round out the podium.
The checkered flag waved in the distance. The end was near, but only one could claim victory.
Berry raced to victory in his first Cup Series win of his career, taking NASCAR’s oldest team to victory lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a 1.3-second gap to Suarez, who finished in second, bringing home a podium for Trackhouse Racing.
“I’m just really proud of everybody on this (Wood Brothers) team. This is a great group. They build great race cars, and it’s just been a privilege to drive for them. I’m just so thankful to be here. I could thank so many people for this moment, but to be a Cup Series winner is really special … I just can’t believe it. I’m just so proud of everybody on this team. The car was really solid all day.” said Berry
Suarez spoke on his 2nd place podium finish and had this to say.
A little disappointed. But first of all, congratulations to the 21 team and Josh. They did a great job. They’ve been fast lately. They’ve been in contention. So congratulations to them. We did everything right, you know? The team did an amazing job on the strategy and pit stops. We did everything right. Our car was fast. We just struggle a little bit in the short run.”
Ryan Preece followed in third for RFK Racing. Byron was fourth for Hendrick Motorsports, followed by Ross Chastain of Trackhouse, Austin Cindric of Team Penske and Alex Bowman of Hendrick.
AJ Allmendinger of Kaulig Racing was eighth, and Hendrick drivers Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.
The next NASCAR Cup Series race is next Monday at 8:00 a.m. NZT at Homestead-Miami Speedway. 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick was the last winner there.
Header Image: Trackhouse Racing
Great report and video thanks!