By Jerry Jordan, Editor
LAS VEGAS – Kyle Larson hasn’t just been the best driver in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase. He has been playing a different sport. And when he rolls into Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, he’ll carry an emotional tribute with him.
Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet will honor the late Kyle Busch with a special throwback paint scheme in the South Point 400 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network), recreating the blue, red and neon-yellow palette from Busch’s 2007 Bristol Motor Speedway victory with Hendrick Motorsports. Busch’s signature will appear above the passenger-side window, with “Tiny Kyle” – the playful nickname Busch gave Larson – on the opposite name rail.
“I’m super excited to get to honor Kyle Busch this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a scheme that he ran at Hendrick Motorsports,” Larson said. “It’s a beautiful paint scheme, too. Hopefully, we can have a good day. Vegas has been a good track for us in the past, and after the run we had at Kansas [Speedway], we’ve been building our intermediate program to be better and better. Hopefully, we can go there, execute another good weekend, qualify well and score a lot of points.”
The Kansas run was a demolition. Larson led 235 of 267 laps, swept both stages and posted the fastest lap for a maximum-points day and his second win of the Chase. His 2.25 average finish through the first four Chase races is the best by any driver through four postseason races since the Chase began in 2004, and he is the only driver to finish in the top five in all four.
Las Vegas has been Larson’s playground. He leads all drivers at the 1.5-mile tri-oval with 881 laps led and eight stage wins, and his 8.9 average finish is the best among drivers with more than four starts. In 11 starts with the No. 5 car at Vegas, he has finished in the top two six times, including three victories. Across the six tracks remaining on the schedule, Larson has eight combined wins – at every stop except Talladega.
Chase Elliott hit two milestones with his eighth-place finish at Kansas: his 200th career Cup Series top-10, and passing Terry Labonte for the third-most premier-series starts in Hendrick Motorsports history at 388.
“Really, for us right now, we just need to start stringing together some consistent solid finishes,” Elliott said. “We made some progress at Kansas [Speedway] last week and it was nice to get back up inside the top 10. At Las Vegas [Motor Speedway] in the spring, we had a really solid day, and it felt good to be in contention for the win at a track that hadn’t really been a strong one for us. Hopefully we can go there and put together another strong run and just keep building some momentum through this final stretch.”
William Byron, the spring 2023 Vegas winner, owns five top-fives, nine top-10s and 363 laps led in 17 starts at the track. Three of his last four Vegas finishes are fourth or better, and he has led laps in seven straight races there.
“[Last week at] Kansas [Speedway] was OK. We struggled to find that last little bit for handling, and with no practice again, it took most of the race to try things,” Byron said. “It was a solid day, but we need to do more if we really want to make a jump up in points. We have two more mile-and-a-half tracks coming up that we’re good at, so this is our chance.”
Alex Bowman, the 2022 spring Vegas winner, has finished in the top 10 in each of his last three starts at the track.
“Las Vegas [Motor Speedway] is one of my favorite racetracks,” Bowman said. “Selfishly, I like that we typically run well there, but I feel like it puts on a good show; it’s exciting and has a lot of chaotic restarts. We’ve had a tough couple weeks. We need to get back to finishing where we know our team is capable of finishing and [Las] Vegas is a good place for our Ally 48 team to do that.”
The organization itself is the standard at Las Vegas: 10 wins, 39 top-fives, 16 stage wins and 2,770 laps led are all track records, and its 67 top-10s are tied for the most. Hendrick drivers have won five of the last 11 races at the speedway, and the team has won at least one Chase or playoff race in 23 of 24 seasons.
The South Point 400 goes green Sunday, Oct. 4 at 5:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. local) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – 267 laps and 400.5 miles with stages at 80, 165 and 267. It is the fifth race of the Chase and the second race of the Round of 12. TV coverage is on USA Network with streaming on HBO Max; radio on PRN and SiriusXM. Cup Series practice and qualifying run Saturday afternoon.