2019 Pennzoil 400

The 2019 Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on March 3, 2019, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5 mi asphalt intermediate speedway, it was the third race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

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.

First practice
Austin Dillon was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.951 seconds and a speed of 180.294 mph.

Qualifying
Kevin Harvick scored the pole for the race with a time of 29.914 and a speed of 180.517 mph.

Second practice
Second practice session scheduled for Saturday was cancelled due to rain.

Final practice
Austin Dillon was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 30.299 seconds and a speed of 178.224 mph.

Stage 1
After starting from the pole, Kevin Harvick led the opening 43 laps. He only gave up the lead to pit under green. Harvick would lead all but 18 laps in the first 80-lap stage. At times during Stage 1, Harvick had a lead of more than 4 seconds. This would be the largest advantage anyone had all day. This marks Harvick’s second stage win of the year, after he also won Stage 2 in Atlanta.

Besides Harvick’s domination, the story of Stage 1 was pit road penalties. In the midway pit cycle around lap 40, Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney, and Michael McDowell all had pit problems. For Dillon, Larson, and McDowell, it was too many men over the wall. This unforced error by their pit crews was ju. driver had a day far from expectations. Unfortunately, Blaney did not deliver in the Pennzoil colors for the race sponsored by his team’s partner.

The caution that ended Stage 1 would be the first yellow flag of the race on lap 82, Under this yellow, Brad Keselowski took over the lead with a 2 tire pit stop. Paul Wolfe made this daring pit strategy call hoping it would pay off big.

Stage 2
The Stage 2 restart would see Brad Keselowski pull away thanks to a push from teammate Joey Logano.

Brad Keselowski’s tires would eventually fade, as Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick would all pass him by lap 100. Not long after, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch would be trading the top spot multiple times per lap, back and forth, in a showing of incredibly tight racing. Busch would take the top spot on lap 120, and led until he pitted again. However, this pit stop would change the course of the day for Kyle Busch in a bad way.

The caution that ended Stage 1 would be the first yellow flag of the Pennzoil 400 on lap 82. Under this yellow, Brad Keselowski took over the lead with a 2 tire pit stop. Paul Wolfe made this daring pit strategy call hoping it would pay off big. This bet, likely a result of last week’s win, was in an attempt to win back-to-back races. The Stage 2 restart would see Brad pull away thanks to a push from teammate Joey Logano. Brad’s 2 tires would eventually fade, as Logano, Busch, and Harvick would all pass him by lap 100. Not long after, Logano and Kyle Busch would be trading the top spot multiple times per lap, back and forth, in a showing of incredibly tight racing. Busch would take the top spot on lap 120, and led until he pitted again. However, this pit stop would change the course of the day for Kyle Busch in a bad way.

For Kyle Busch, his issue in the pits was self-inflicted and potentially cost him the race win. While making his pit stop, Busch was charging onto pit road too quickly, and was caught speeding in section 1. This penalty sent him back to 24th place, 1 lap behind the leaders. While Busch would recover, it was not the win Kyle was expecting. Busch was going for the weekend three-peat after winning Friday’s Truck race as well as Saturday’s Xfinity race. Under this pit cycle for the Pennzoil 400, one driver rolled the dice hoping for a lucky break. Sophomore driver William Byron was instructed by Chad Knaus to stay out and lead some laps. Knaus and Byron were hoping for a caution, to gain lots of track position. However, the caution never came, and the 24 would pit for fuel-only on lap 149. The eventual Stage 2 win in the Pennzoil 400 would go to the driver of the Pennzoil 22, Joey Logano. Logano took over the lead after Byron made his pit stop, and held on to win the stage. Even though he led the field onto pit road after the stage, one driver would pull off a big gamble and stay out. This driver would start the final stage in the lead.

Stage 3
A Busch brother leading at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is not much of a surprise. But most would expect it to be Kyle. Kurt Busch, in just his third start for Chip Ganassi Racing, started the final stage of the Pennzoil 400 up front. Amazingly, Kurt was able to hold the lead from Harvick and others for several laps. In all, the 1 Chevrolet led 18 laps before Harvick passed him. This marked Kurt’s first time leading at Vegas since 2016. After finishing 5th, this would turn into his first top 5 at his home track since 2005. Harvick eventually passed Kurt for the top spot on lap 188, as Kurt’s older tires started fading. Logano would take over 2nd place from Kurt with 75 laps to go, and took the lead on lap 211. Just 4 laps later, Joey would make his final pit stop, giving Kyle Busch the lead for a brief period. After this final pit cycle, Logano would retake the lead. Logano was then in a dogfight for the top spot with Brad, Harvick, and Kyle Busch. The final 35 laps were a tight 4-way battle for the lead. The 2, 4, and 18 were all slowly reeling in the 22. The 18 would get by Harvick for 3rd place with 5 to go, as the top 4 were all dealing with heavy lapped traffic.

Throughout this final stint, the race for the lead between the Penske duo was incredible. Brad was pulling off slid jobs on Joey Logano but the recover and repay Brad Keselowski with another slider.

On the final lap, Joey Logano appeared to have the win secured, until coming out of turn 2. Brad had an amazing run up in the high lane, while Logano ran the bottom to maintain position. Heading into turn 3, Brad pulled off a last-chance slide job, and got to Logano’s inside by turn 4. However, Joey just barely stayed ahead of the 2 as they both nearly hit the outside wall, and held on for the win. This Pennzoil 400 marked Team Penske’s second ever 1-2 finish at Las Vegas, a role reversal of results from 2016. The top 10 finishers from the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway were Logano, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Kurt Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, and Denny Hamlin.

With the only cautions of the Pennzoil 400 being the two stage breaks, this was the first Cup race without an on-track incident since October 2002 at Talladega. The tight, compact racing on display in the closing 150 laps showed positive signs for the new rules package. However, NASCAR was not entirely satisfied with how Stage 1 played out

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 80

Stage Two Laps: 80

Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 107

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 19 among 9 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 2 for 12 (both for end of stage breaks; first race to go without an incident-related caution since the 2012 Auto Club 400, which went green until the race-ending caution for rain, and the 2002 Talladega fall race, which ran without incident)
 * Red flags: 0
 * Time of race: 2 hours, 35 minutes and 11 seconds
 * Average speed: 154.849 mph

Television
Fox Sports covered their 19th race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mike Joy, 2001 race winner Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip called from the booth for the race. Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum handled the pit road duties for the television side.

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.