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Kyle Larson Holds Off Tyler Reddick, Sweeps All Stages To Win In Las Vegas

by Hunter Thomas March 3, 2024 0 comments

LAS VEGAS – Kyle Larson held off a hard charging Tyler Reddick to win the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Larson hasn’t had the best opening to the 2024 season, but on Sunday, he made a statement by sweeping all stages and leading a race high of 181 laps in the 267-lap race. That being said, he didn’t cruise to victory. At the end of both, Stages 1 and 2, Reddick was right on the back of Larson, and the same was said for the final laps. Larson blocked Reddick’s every move and successfully held the 23XI Racing driver at bay to capture his 24^th career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage,” said Larson, driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was going to time out where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end. Thankfully was able to air block him a couple laps and get him tight.”

Reddick was caught up in a Lap 2 crash last weekend at Atlanta, so coming hot out of the gate in Stage 1 at Las Vegas is a sigh of relief; however, Reddick was frustrated that he didn’t have more time at the front of the pack. Reddick appeared to have the best performing long-run car, but Larson was just clutch at blocking Reddick’s moves.

“I kept trying to run higher and higher and he was kind of running right in the middle of the racetrack there, was kind of pretty efficient to block both lanes,” said Reddick. “Every time I kind of got close, we’re running just wide open enough in Turn 1 and 2 that he could kind of defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never up front really all day long until it got to the stage end.”

Defending series champion, Ryan Blaney meticulously drove his way to a third-place finish after starting the race in 15^th.

“Yeah, worked really hard all day and got better through the race I thought, so that was positive, and probably ended the best we were,” Blaney said. “So that’s always good. Something good to look forward to and hopefully just continue to work on.”

Ross Chastain finished fourth, and Ty Gibbs, who had issues on pit road with an uncontrolled tire, rallied to finish fifth. Rounding out the top-10 was Noah Gragson, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and William Byron.

There were six cautions for 35 laps. There were no multicar accidents, but there was a 10 minute 39 second red flag after Chris Buescher pounded the outside wall in Turn 1 on Lap 28. Buescher crashed due to a failure associated with the nut holding the wheel.

“We lost the nut and lost half the wheel,” Buescher said. “I think the tire stayed up under the fender.  I’m not exactly sure just yet, but it looks like the nut came off and something in the suspension actually cut the wheel in half.”

Larson now leads the standings by eight points over Blaney.

The NASCAR Cup Series will stay out West and compete at Phoenix Raceway. Live coverage of the Shriners Children’s 500 will broadcast on FOX at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images