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By: Cathy Brown
Twitter: @TheCathyBrown@PitOutsideBox
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Website: Pitting Outside the Box
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – After last weekends double header at Auto Club Speedway, all three NASCAR Series’ headed to Sin City.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series and the NASCAR Cup Series took to the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the NCTS first up on Friday night under the lights.
Kyle Busch was looking for the weekend sweep or the trifecta and he was able to dominate the truck race in familiar Busch fashion.
Carson Hocevar looked early on to the truck to beat, but it was Rowdy in the end taking his Chevy Silverado to Victory Lane.
On Saturday, Chandler Smith looked to be cruising to victory when a late race change by Austin Hill took it from him, not only denying Smith a win but striping Busch of the weekend sweep.
On Sunday, Joey Logano in his Pennzoil No. 22 was on pole for the Pennzoil 400. Noticeably absent was Chase Elliott, Elliott suffered a leg injury from a snowboarding accident in Colorado.
His injury was severe enough that it required three hours of surgery and it was confirmed that he will be out of the his Hendrick Motorsport No. 9 for the foreseeable future. NXS driver Josh Berry will be filing in until Elliott is able to return.
HMS has applied for a NASCAR waiver to make Elliott NASCAR Playoffs eligible, there’s no word back from NASCAR on what they’ve decided, they will more than likely wait once he’s medically cleared to return to render their decision.
From the drop of the green flag one driver William Byron emerged as the dominate car. Byron easily won stage one and stage two.
Going into the final stage, his teammate Kyle Larson was able to get passed him and set sail.
Larson looked like he was going to cruise to an easy victory when a late race caution came out with five laps to go.
All of the lead lap cars would come to pit road except Martin Truex Jr and it looked like Truex was going to steal one and take his place in the NASCAR Playoffs.
Byron was able to beat Larson off pit road and this set him up to start on the outside lane for NASCAR overtime.
Byron was able to regain the lead, while Larson had to settle for second.
The first three races of the 2023 NCS season has been won by Chevy, has Toyota or Ford have anything for them?
Next weekend the West Coast Swing comes to conclusion at Phoenix Raceway and that track has been Kevin Harvick’s playground.
Can The Closer in his next to last Phoenix race, close the deal taking Ford to victory lane, stay tuned.
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