2020 Pennzoil 400

The 2020 Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on February 23, 2020, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5 mi asphalt intermediate speedway, it was the second race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. It was the first NASCAR Cup Series race run without Ryan Newman and David Ragan in the field since 2002 and 2007 respectively. Joey Logano was the race winner.

Background
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada outside the Las Vegas city limits and about 15 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, is a 1200 acre complex of multiple tracks for motorsports racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver.
 * (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

First practice
Aric Almirola was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 30.226 seconds and a speed of 178.654 mph.

Final practice
Jimmie Johnson was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 30.095 seconds and a speed of 179.432 mph.

Qualifying
Qualifying for Saturday was cancelled due to rain and Kyle Busch was awarded the pole as a result.

Starting Lineup

 * Polesitter Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell all started at the back after failing inspection.

Stage 1
Truex and Kevin Harvick(4) share the front row after penalties are served, with Harvick taking the lead into Turn 1. The yellow flag was displayed before the field could complete a lap. Daniel Suarez(96) lost power on the start and coasted across the starting line before dropping to the apron. It has been a tough start to the season for Suarez who lost his ride at Stewart-Hass racing to Cole Custer during the off-season. Suarez failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and rejoins today’s race three laps down after finally getting his car to refire.

Due to the rains yesterday, NASCAR scheduled a “competition caution” after lap 25 for crews to check on tire wear and adjust on the cars. Everyone pitted with most teams taking four tires and a full tank of Sunoco Racing Fuel.

Harvick and Truex again battled for the lead on the restart from the competition caution. Restarts create bunched up racing and three-wide rows behind the leaders as drivers jockey for positions at the drop of the green. Harvick again prevailed as the Ford Mustangs are strong, the Blue Oval is holding down six of the top 10 spots on the field early in the race.

With 14 laps to go in Stage 1, Chase Elliott(9) ran down Harvick and passed for the lead. Elliott held on for the Stage win, Truex passed Harvick for 2nd, and Ross Chastain finished 10th in the Stage while subbing for Newman.

Stage 2
On the restart, Harvick drove back to the front as again three-wide racing stacked up the field behind the leader. As the laps mount up, Harvick’s tires seem to go away quicker than Eliott and Truex. They both passed before the halfway point of the Stage.

Pit stops started at Lap 45, and after the field cycled through pit road the top 5 were Elliott, Truex, Blaney, William Byron(24), and Logano. Harvick fell back to 6th and Kyle Busch worked his way back to the top 10.

Christopher Bell(95) spun coming off Turn 2 and hit the backstretch wall bringing out the caution with just two laps left in the Stage. Locking down the Stage ending points as the green and white checkered flag waved along with the yellow flag.

The Final Stage
If racing three-wide was exciting, how about five-wide? With track position so important every position is valuable and the fight to pass widened out across the spacious asphalt of Vegas.

John Hunter Nemechek(38) spun and brought out the caution just after the restart. So they had to line up and do it again. Same thing, five wide. Truex got forced up into the wall and pushed his fenders into the tires. The right front let go and he slammed the wall damaging the entire right side of the car and the caution came out again. Effectively taking Truex out of the mix for the win.

Let’s try it again. This time everyone behaved themselves and its back to racing. With 80 laps to go and positions finally sorted out the top 5 ran as Harvick, Blaney, Logano, Elliott, and Johnson.

Harvick still suffering from tire fall-off, gives up the lead to Blaney with 66 laps to go. Three laps later Elliott bumps his way past Blaney to take the lead. Pit stops began with 59 laps to go, Aric Almirola(10) was the first to pit road opting to make the early stop and see if the fresh tires pay off. Elliott pitted from the lead along with Blaney at 50 to go.

With 47 laps to go, Elliott cut down a left rear tire and spun into Turn 1 clipping the wall with the right rear of his car. Three cars had yet to pit and they trapped the field one lap down. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.(47), Ryan Preece(37), and Nemechek were the leaders, the rest of the field had to take the wave around to get back on the same lap.

Inspection of Eliott’s tire revealed a broken valve stem was the reason for the tire going down. Something happened to Preece’s car during the pit stop, it stalled and the crew could not get it restarted. They ended up pushing the car to the garage.

The Finish
Stenhouse and Nemechek led the pack to the green flag, but even with fresh tires, they could not hold onto the top spots. Logano, Harvick, and Blaney passed to pace the field. Elliott restarted one lap down.

With 30 laps to go, Fords led the way. Logano, Harvick, and Blaney made up the top 3. As Harvick’s tires again began to fall off, Blaney moved past into the 2nd spot with 18 laps to go.

Blaney closed the gap on Logano and passed him for the lead 13 laps from the finish. Logano tried to fight back but failed to get back past his teammate. Logano fell into the clutches of Alex Bowman(88) who moved to 2nd with 9 laps to the checkered flag. Last week Blaney pushed Newman to the lead and ultimately into trouble, and finished 2nd to Hamlin. With 6 laps left Newman’s replacement Ross Chastain spun bringing out the caution.

Blaney and Bowman pitted. Logano, Byron, Matt DiBenedetto(21), Stenhouse, Tyler Reddick(8), Austin Dillon(3), and Bubba Wallace(43) stayed out and will lead the field back to the green. Keselowski and Johnson will be the first drivers with fresh tires.

The green waves with two laps to go. Stenhouse pushes Logano to the lead and DiBenedetto works his way up to 2nd as they take the white flag. Behind them, cars bump and begin to spin. The yellow comes out and locks everyone’s finishing position as Logano coasts around to take the checkered flag. Another wild ending and fortunately no one ends up on their roof.

Points Standings
It’s early in the season, still getting off to a good start in the points can help build momentum.

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 80

Stage Two Laps: 80

Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 107

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 25 among 7 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 9 for 37
 * Red flags: 0
 * Time of race: 2 hours, 58 minutes and 11 seconds
 * Average speed: 134.861 mph

Television
Fox Sports covered their 20th race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mike Joy and 2001 race winner Jeff Gordon called from the booth for the race. Jamie Little, Regan Smith, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum handled the pit road duties for the television side. Larry McReynolds and Jamie McMurray provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

Radio
PRN covered the radio call for the race which was simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the race in the booth when the field raced through the tri-oval. Rob Albright called the race from a billboard in turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2. Pat Patterson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Wendy Venturini and Heather DeBeaux worked pit road for the radio side.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.