Top 5: NASCAR at Las Vegas reveals new trends, Chase Elliott injury, Phoenix rules package (2024)

LAS VEGAS — Five thoughts after this weekend’s NASCAR race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway…

1. Big Takeaway

Uh oh.

While watching NASCAR Cup Series cars circle the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track for a relatively uneventful three hours on Sunday, that was the thought that kept coming back.

Uh oh.

The racing wasn’t terrible, but there were a few alarming signs which could become more of a concern if they turn into full-blown trends.

First, the race resembled little of what we saw at Vegas and other intermediate tracks during the Next Gen car’s debut last year. The new car had turned out to be a perfect fit for the 1.5-mile tracks (except Texas) and there was little reason to expect it would suddenly change when the calendar turned to 2023.

But … yikes. Last year, the two Vegas races averaged eight natural cautions and 20.5 lead changes. On Sunday? There were only two yellow flags for cause and 13 lead changes (several of which were due to green-flag pit cycles that occurred thanks to those lack of cautions).

Then there was dirty air, which didn’t get discussed very often in 2022 at intermediates (and what a blessing it was). Eventual winner William Byron clearly had the fastest car on Sunday, but when he lost three spots on one pit stop, he was never able to regain the lead until a late caution allowed his team to redeem itself with some pit strategy before an overtime finish.

Needless to say, it’s not good when a faster car gets stuck and can’t pass slower cars. That kind of thing brings unpleasant flashbacks from the 550 hp package.

Lastly, there are already indications of less parity than 2022. The record 19 different winners in the first 29 races of last season probably set an unrealistic, unfair standard. But it made the races fascinating throughout the summer, because you never knew who would be next to hit the setup just right.

But early in 2023, there’s already a pretty clear line developing. Chevrolets are the fastest on intermediates, as evidenced by a 1-2-3-4 finish at Fontana and a follow-up 1-2-3 at Vegas. Toyotas are close, but not quite there. And Fords are struggling.

At this time a year ago, we wouldn’t have been able to make any of those conclusions.

So what’s going on? What changed? It seems to be a multi-pronged explanation.

One factor could be the cold temperatures and bone-chilling wind which kept the track temperature under 70 degrees on Sunday.

“Conditions were really cool today, so it had a lot of grip and a lot of on-throttle time,” Kyle Larson said. “And whenever you have a lot of on-throttle time, it’s hard to pass.”

But a bigger answer figures to be the teams have simply learned much more about their cars and setups compared to a year ago, reducing the amount of variability and unpredictability we might see over the course of a 400-mile race.

“Everyone gets more dialed into what the track and the car needs,” Byron said. “There were so many unknowns last year that it created guys bottoming out, wrecking, guys making big mistakes that you don’t normally see at this level with how good everyone is.

“Now the drivers are back to understanding what they have, and these are the best guys out there. You don’t make mistakes. It’s just the excellence on display of the teams and drivers.”

As for the developing Chevy dominance, Toyota’s Christopher Bell said it’s either the manufacturer’s bodies or engines making a difference — “one or the other,” he said. Each of the three manufacturers got new noses this season, so it’s possible Chevy has a more ideal design for intermediate tracks.

“They dominated the whole race,” Toyota’s Bubba Wallace said. “It’s not an overnight fix. We’ve got a lot of smart people though to figure it out.”

Perhaps the new short track/road course package will mix things up, beginning this weekend at Phoenix (see No. 3 below for more on that). Anyone who drives a Ford certainly hopes that’s the case.

Either way, the early returns indicate this is shaping up to be a much different season than 2022.

2. Main Character: Chase Elliott

The most talked-about driver of the Las Vegas weekend was someone who wasn’t even there.

On Friday afternoon, word began to spread in the garage that Chase Elliott had been injured in a snowboarding accident, which was confirmed by Hendrick Motorsports shortly thereafter. Elliott hurt his left leg severely enough to require a three-hour surgery, and there’s currently no timetable on when he’ll be able to get back into a race car.

Elliott was home in Georgia on Sunday, watching the race with team owner Rick Hendrick while Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates finished 1-2-3. Elliott’s car, driven by substitute Josh Berry, finished two laps down in 29th.

If you know Elliott, the guess is his thinking was not about feeling sorry for himself — but rather sorry for his team and feeling like he let them down. He had already texted Hendrick president Jeff Andrews during the weekend to ask about how much extra work his crew had to do in changing out the seat and getting the co*ckpit adjusted for Berry, so it’s not a stretch to imagine Elliott watched the race with a similar mindset.

But at some point in the coming weeks, the circus will move on while Elliott’s not there. He’ll continue to watch his car go around the track with someone else in it. And that’s among the toughest things for a race car driver to do.

Brad Keselowski said the idea of seeing another driver in his car is one of his “top five nightmares,” up there with dying in a plane crash. Kyle Busch recalled the time in 2015 when he missed 11 races with a broken leg and said “you kind of break down.”

Alex Bowman, who missed five races last fall with a concussion, said watching on TV is an “uncomfortable situation.”

“You almost feel forgotten, because everything keeps going — except for you,” he said. “It’s a weird feeling to be in the race car every week for so long and be part of this deal every week, and then realize it goes on even if you don’t.”

But Denny Hamlin, who suffered a broken back in 2013 and missed several races, said there are positives that can come from the situation.

“You become rejuvenated and more appreciative of the opportunity you have,” Hamlin said. “I know what it’s like to lay there and have these issues. He’s not having fun by any means. This period will be tough for him, but he’ll probably come out stronger.”

Due to NASCAR’s playoff system and the win-and-in format, along with the elimination of the requirement drivers be among the top 30 in points to make the postseason field, Elliott will still have a great chance to find himself among the 16 playoff drivers this fall. He won’t have as many playoff points to rely on, but that doesn’t mean missing races is a season-ending development anymore.

Heck, a driver can even win a championship in the same season as suffering a broken leg. Just ask Busch.

3. Question of the Week

The Next Gen car has been known to shine on intermediate tracks but not race as well on short tracks and road courses. NASCAR, after consulting with the drivers at a recent Phoenix test, hopes it has come up with a solution.

A vastly reduced downforce package will debut this weekend, highlighted by a two-inch spoiler, which drivers hope will allow them to get racier on short tracks again.

“It felt like we were able to fan out better and move around,” said Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was among those to try the package at the Phoenix test. “Did it make it better tucked up behind another car? I don’t think so. But it helped open up the racetrack and gave us the sensation we had more power, which is something clearly we’ve all asked for. When you took the downforce away and took that much drag out of it, it felt like we had more horsepower.”

Stenhouse said NASCAR told the drivers the downforce numbers will be at “1990s levels,” which is pretty significant. Drivers would still prefer to have more power from the engines themselves, but short of that, this seems like the best NASCAR can do for now.

“It’s in the right direction,” Ryan Blaney said. “It definitely can’t be in the wrong direction.”

Kevin Harvick expressed doubt the package would be “as effective as everybody hoped it would be,” but praised NASCAR for being “aggressive with trying to fix it.” That’s a departure from last year, when Harvick loudly aired his frustration over NASCAR’s lack of listening to the drivers in several categories.

“That’s part of the collaboration with NASCAR and the drivers,” Harvick said. “It’s believing in each other that they’re going to do something and they believe what we’re saying.”

4. Trash and Treasure

Trash: The idea professional race car drivers shouldn’t be allowed to have hobbies outside of NASCAR.

The president of the International Society for Skiing Safety once revealed an interesting statistic: For snow sports (i.e. skiing and snowboarding) the average injury rate on a given day is two to three people per every 1,000 participants.

That’s a fraction of one percent. And yet a portion of NASCAR fans are angry that Elliott — a person who drives a 200 mph race car every week and flies his own airplane to the track — would have dared to go snowboarding in Colorado during the season.

Are you people listening to yourselves?

“He is a very experienced snowboarder,” said Blaney, Elliott’s close friend who has tagged along for several Colorado trips. “They lived out there for a long time and he’s been out there for most of his life. It’s not like he was doing something he was inexperienced at. It was something he was very comfortable with, and (an accident) happened.”

Accidents can truly happen anywhere, and it’s absurd to try and put limitations on drivers doing activities away from the track. If you ban one thing, where does it stop? Elliott is the same person who has been widely praised in recent years for running dirt races, rally cars, late models and SRX in his spare time — but now there’s anger he went snowboarding?

Years ago, Joe Gibbs warned Kyle Busch not to get injured when doing extracurricular racing. If Busch had to miss Cup Series races for something he did away from the track, Gibbs would have been furious.

“Then I got hurt in his car doing something for him,” Busch said of his 2015 Xfinity Series crash at Daytona.

“As drivers and humans, we have to go live life,” Busch added. “We can’t just be locked up in a room at home, wrapped in bubble wrap.”

There are ways drivers can reduce risk, but it’s more of the financial variety. Denny Hamlin, who has twice torn his ACL while playing basketball, said he makes sure to “cover myself with very good insurance in case I do get hurt.”

Other than that? Let’s be honest: Compared to what drivers do for a living, most of their hobbies seem pretty tame. The sentiment might be understandable if Elliott was surfing atop a moving golf cart and broke his wrist — what kind of respectable NASCAR driver would do that? — but not for something as innocuous as snowboarding.

Kyle Larson, who spent part of last week in Utah skiing with his wife and children, said he has no plans to stop what he calls a “fun family activity.” Kevin Harvick is also a skier who enjoys the slopes in Wyoming and said it’s “impossible” to live in a bubble.

“I’ve had just as bad injuries walking around my kitchen and falling over my cat,” Harvick said. “There’s way too much time spent at the racetrack to not be able to live the rest of your life.”

Treasure:Tripleheader motorsports days like Sunday.

It’s just so fun when NASCAR, Formula One and IndyCar are all in action on the same day and none go head-to-head. It’s breakfast and coffee with F1, lunch with IndyCar and dinner with NASCAR. Each meal has its own nuances and aspects that make it tasty for a race fan, and you can appreciate the different flavors and cuisines for each.

On Sunday, we got to see three distinct races that each had their own charms. And by spreading them out, fans don’t have to compete or argue about which series is the best (that doesn’t stop many from trying, though).

That’s one thing a lot of people have missed in the midst of F1’s growth in this country: It’s good for all forms of racing. If non-motorsports fans start to watch F1 and understand racing on a deeper level, it will be easier for them to watch a NASCAR or IndyCar event and quickly grasp what’s going on. That can benefit everyone.

It won’t be long before there are annoying schedule conflicts, whether that’s two of F1’s American races going head-to-head with NASCAR or the all-to-frequent NASCAR/IndyCar overlaps on summer afternoons. But that’s what made Sunday one of the special tripleheader days, and it’s worth soaking it up while we can.

5. Five at No. 5

• Bowman might not be a Cup Series driver today had Dale Earnhardt Jr. not gotten a concussion.

That’s simply the dynamics of professional sports: When one athlete gets injured, another gets a chance to prove themselves. Berry’s opportunity to replace Elliott in the No. 9 car this weekend at Las Vegas was no different.

“It’s a good opportunity for Josh to learn and see how Hendrick Motorsports operates — the things we do and to be part of an organization like that,” Bowman said. “Even though it’s through a situation that nobody wants, it’s something that you can grow from as a race car driver. Learn and show everybody what you’ve got.”

Though Berry made two Cup starts in 2021, he never had a single lap in a Next Gen until Saturday’s practice session. He was 29th in practice and qualified 32nd for the race, then finished 29th.

But no one had any expectations aside to try and complete all the laps, and Berry was thrown into a tough situation. It would be unfair to judge him off one last-minute start, even if it was a good car.

“I’ve always believed he’s an extremely good driver,” Larson said. “I’ve known of him since I was 13 or 14 racing online, and anytime you’d see him pop up, you’re like, ‘F—.’ You knew he was going to smoke you.”

• Like most NASCAR drivers, Larson has spent his career as a North Carolina resident. But last fall, Larson and his family added a second home in Scottsdale and have spent the winter basking in the desert sun.

“I never heard the term ‘snowbird’ until we moved out there,” Larson said. “I guess we’re snowbirds, currently.”

As such, Larson gets an extra “home” race this weekend at Phoenix. The family closed on their new house during last year’s championship week and spent the winter there. The West Coast swing makes it even easier for the Larsons to stay on this side of the country.

“It’s always nice to sleep in your own bed,” he said.

Larson said he’d love to live in Arizona full-time but also acknowledged he’s never been there during the scorching summer heat.

“But everybody who is local says it’s not too bad,” he said.

• During Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series race in Las Vegas, eventual race winner Kyle Busch was incredulous over the frequent crashes he was seeing.

“This is just pathetic. It’s worse than a f—— ARCA race,” Busch said on his team radio.

“They ain’t got a clue how to race!” Busch continued. “I would be embarrassed. … In fact, I am embarrassed.”

Asked about his frustration the next morning, Busch said Truck Series drivers are simply crashing too often.

“I don’t know if it’s just inexperience or what,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a learning series. But if you’re not learning coming out of ARCA how to not crash, then you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing well enough.”

Todd Gilliland, who spent four years in the Truck Series before graduating straight to the Cup Series last season, said part of the frequent crashing in Trucks has to do with the position drivers find themselves in.

Competitors are forced to side-draft one another in order to gain position, but the air can end up sucking the other truck into a spin. And given how often the trucks find themselves in a drafting-like pack, Gilliland said, “Eventually, you’re going to run out of space and wreck.”

That said, Gilliland added, “There’s a line, and you have to be able to hold onto your car or truck.”

• If you don’t get a text back from Ross Chastain, don’t take it personally.

Chastain said he’s so focused during the week, he’ll typically save all phone calls for when he’s driving around the Mooresville/Concord corridor in the heart of North Carolina’s racing country. Then, when he gets to where he’s going, he’ll often leave his phone in the car.

“We have to virtually drive these tracks on simulators, and if your mind is on something else, you’re not going to be applying yourself,” he said. “I can’t think of anything else except driving the race car (in real life) because if I crash, it’s going to hurt. Simulators don’t hurt, so it’s very easy to be distracted.”

Chastain spends so much time each week on race prep, he actually has to carve out time away from it rather than making time for it.

“I truly don’t have a lot else going on,” he said. “This is it for me right now.”

• Chase Briscoe returns to Phoenix this week as the defending race winner, but his current mindset is far different than last season. Seemingly nothing has gone right for Briscoe and his No. 14 team so far, and they are among the Ford cars severely struggling right now.

“I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching and probably watched more tape over this past week than I have in my entire career,” Briscoe said. “For whatever reason, I can’t get that feel I’m looking for. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s definitely frustrating.”

Briscoe made those comments before Vegas, when he then had another bad race — a 28th-place finish, two laps down. He is 32nd in points, only two points ahead of Travis Pastrana after the action sports start’s one-off race in the Daytona 500.

“I was taking it really tough (after Fontana),” Briscoe said. “Normally I don’t worry about it too much, but last week really bothered me. The performance from my end and everything. We’re in a huge hole; we’re almost in a must-win already.”

(Top photo of William Byron taking the checkered flag in Las Vegas: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)