Kyle Larson wins Pennzoil 400 and sweeps all stages

Las Vegas — Kyle Larson captured the checkered flag at the 2024 Pennzoil 400 in his No. 5 Chevrolet at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Larson also won the first and second stages of the race. He finished ahead of Toyota driver Tyler Reddick by a margin of 0.441 seconds.

“Today, we did everything right,” Larson said at the post-race press conference. “There is potential to have a great season like we did in 2021. It’s fun to celebrate with the family. My kids are going to remember for the rest of their lives. I don’t know if he understands either.”

This was Larson’s 24th Cup series win out of 334 starts. He led 181 laps in the Pennzoil 400. The 31-year-old driver from California has now won three times in Las Vegas.

“I knew it was going to be cat and mouse,” he explained. “I knew I would have to catch him off guard. I thought I had a decent gap with 8 laps left. It allowed him to get much closer to me and now I got to air block him. With two to go, Reddick expected me to run the middle or top. I was able to take his airway and got him right. I have a lot of fun racing Tyler. Cool to have another fellow Northern California race up front on Sunday.”

There were 24 lead changes among 15 different drivers. Kyle Busch led 18 laps, Denny Hamlin led 16 while William Byron and Daniel Suarez each led 15. The average speed during the race was 133.192 mph. 

Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney was the best finishing Ford in third place. Ross Chastain finished in fourth and Ty Gibbs ended up in fifth. Carson Hocevar was the best finishing rookie driver in 15th position. 

Las Vegas native Kyle Busch finished in 26th position after starting in 21st. Noah Gragson, who also calls Nevada home, finished in 6th. 

“You can say we had a dominant day but the No. 45 was there all day,” said Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief. “When you put in the work and have the reps, we have all of the same guys from last year. The No. 5 team executed so well at the end of the race. Our sense of urgency is there. We still have to push. We still made set up changes from the fall to here.”

There were six cautions for a total of 35 laps. The first caution came out on lap 11 for possible fluid on the track. Then, Chris Buescher hit the turn one wall on lap 28. All of the cars had to stop due to a red flag on lap 33. That paused the race for 10 minutes and 39 seconds. 

Lap 82 was the end of the first stage of the race. Later on lap 158, Christopher Bell spun out in turn two. Lap 167 was the conclusion of stage two. Finally the last caution was on lap 236 when Corey LaJoie hit the turn two wall. 

Racing fans I spoke to said they had a great time at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and are looking forward to returning in the fall. 

“Yeah, I’m very excited,” said A.J. Spencer from Las Vegas. “I was kind of nervous at the end when Reddick started to come in but glad he could hold him off. I’ve been a fan since 2014. I started watching him and how he’s been driving. He just kinds of rides the wall a lot and is pretty fun to watch.”

“We are Larson all the way,” said racing fans Natalie and Tyler Nichols from Oregon. “I was cheering for him all the way. I did meet Ross Chastain at the airport.”

“It was a little windy but Kyle Larson kicked butt again,” said Steve Burling from Lemoore, Calif. “He swept the field, all three stages. It’s awesome—there’s lots of ways to get really close to the drivers to get autographs just an awesome experience. NASCAR is one of the best sports.”

“It was very exciting, I enjoyed it here,” said Jim and Dawn Kulousek from Little Canada, Minn. “I think this fan zone is really cool. They let you get close. That’s really cool.”

Following Sunday’s race, Kyle Larson now leads in driver points with Ryan Blaney just 8 points behind. 

Next up: The NASCAR Cup series heads to Phoenix for the Shriners Children’s 500. 

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