Las Vegas 101: story lines, track info and more

By
Zach Sturniolo For NASCAR.com March 3, 2022 at 10:15 AMThe NASCAR Cup Series heads to its first 1.5-mile track of the season this weekend with a trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Las Vegas also marks the first track teams will see that also makes an appearance in the playoffs, meaning plenty of notes will be taken on how the Next Gen car behaves in the desert.

Check out everything you need to know before Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

TRACK TIME IS KEY

NASCAR is adjusting its procedures for its revamped practice and qualifying this weekend at Las Vegas.

All teams will now be able to participate in Saturday’s 35-minute practice session (1:30 p.m. ET, FS2). After the session, teams will be broken into two groups (Group A and Group B) based on odd/even finishing order from last week’s race at Auto Club Speedway for single-car, single-lap qualifying (2:15 p.m. ET, FS1). The top five drivers from each group will then advance to the second round of qualifying to fight for the Busch Light Pole Award in another single-car, single-lap run.

RELATED: Las Vegas schedule | Cup Series standings

LAS VEGAS HISTORY

— Construction of Las Vegas Motor Speedway was completed in June 1996 on a 1,600-acre site near Nellis Air Force Base that holds rich racing history, dating back to a drag strip built in 1958. The site currently houses the 1.5-mile speedway, an industrial park, a drag strip, a 1/2-mile dirt track, a 3/8-mile paved oval and two road courses.

— The track’s original layout featured 12-degree banking in the corners, 3 degrees of banking on the backstretch and 9 degrees on the frontstretch. But a reconfiguration in 2006 changed the racing significantly, the result of 20-degree banking in the corners and 9-degree banking on each of the straightaways.

— Sunday marks the 29th race at Las Vegas.

— Las Vegas is the first of nine races held on 1.5-mile track this year.

Source: Racing Insights

GOODYEAR TIRES

Las Vegas has historically been a low-wear track for tires since the track was resurfaced. However, due in part to the Next Gen car’s wider tires and less downforce, Goodyear will issue the same right-side tire compound used at Auto Club as well as nine sets to use throughout the race.

“We have actually seen tire wear increase a little over the last couple races at Las Vegas,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “It is certainly not in the category of a Darlington or a Fontana that we saw last week, but all track surfaces will naturally degrade over time and wear will increase. To go along with that, these cars will run a package that has higher horsepower (670) and lower downforce (4-inch spoiler) than in recent Vegas races, and that will add to the wear as cars are less ‘in the track’ and have more lateral slip.”

RELATED: Complete list of horsepower/downforce track combinations