Let’s just set aside all those terrible Las Vegas clichés and we’ll call this just what it was – an old fashioned can of whoop a$$.
Kyle Larson started on the front row, won both Stages and took the win with what seemed like not much effort. Of course, that isn’t true but the ease with which he won is pretty remarkable given this is only the third race of the season. But leading 181 of 267 laps is still darned impressive.
As much talk as there was about the strength of the Ford and Toyota’s in 2024, Chevy has come out and won the first three races. Joey Logano has sat on the front row of each race, but he has failed to capitalize on that. Daytona is a crapshoot, so we’ll give Logano some grace on that one. Briscoe and Gragson were the only Fords to show in the Top 15 at Daytona. But a 28th at Atlanta and 9th at Las Vegas isn’t what they were hoping for. Especially considering Ryan Blaney has a 2nd and 3rd after Daytona and even Gragson has shown up in the Top 10 more than Logano.
Las Vegas was all about the restarts and grabbing what you could when you could. There were a lot of fast cars on the track, but clean air ruled the day. If you are not a fan of strung out racing, then Vegas isn’t your cup of tea. Sure, there were battles taking place all over the track, but the mile-and-a-half tracks are notorious for being stingy in passes for the lead. Passing 10 cars from 20th to 10th is one thing, passing from 5th to first is nearly impossible.
If you follow points at this time of year, it can be fun to watch drivers shoot up or down 15 positions based off on one good run. Points will all work themselves out and no need to get serious about them until after the 5th or 6th race. Once we get to Richmond, we’ll see who needs to start worrying about where they are in points. Then we’ll see how many repeat winners there are and who isn’t performing up to snuff.
So, while all this was going on, the really big news is that Dale Jr. is leaving NBC effective immediately. While Jr. had expressed his desire to stay, Earnhardt was without a contract for 2024 and assumed that everything would work itself out. That didn’t happen.
Now NBC has to move on and find a replacement for Dale asap. With Harvick working with Fox, that leaves Kurt Busch as a possible replacement. Busch has done some booth calling before so the learning curve would be short. But then it is all about team chemistry. Finding a better team player than Earnhardt with the kind of street cred he has will be tough at this juncture.
Earnhardt will have the summer off so he can focus on his new broadcasting team at…. wherever. Reportedly, the new broadcast partners will be Amazon Prime Video and Warner Brothers Discovery Sports.
Say what?
Yup, you got it. Good luck watching NASCAR in 2025 for free.
(Featured Photo by Tom Copeland/HHR for Chevy Racing)
