Five things to watch for in Saturday's Xfinity race at Las Vegas
The NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday makes the first of two stops this season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
Here are five things to watch in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300:
- Christopher Bell rebounded well from a disappointing start to the season at Daytona with a pole and third-place finish last weekend at Atlanta. Last year’s Truck series champion only made it 11 laps in the season opener before getting caught up in a wreck that ended his race. Bell will be making his first Xfinity start at Las Vegas this weekend but has three previous starts at the track in Trucks, including a pair of top-five finishes.
- Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and Las Vegas native Kyle Busch is looking for another weekend sweep. Busch is entered in all three races this weekend and is off to a strong start, winning Friday night’s Truck series race from the pole. Busch has made 13 series starts at Las Vegas, including two poles, one win (2016 from the pole) and four top-five finishes.
- It didn’t take long for Elliott Sadler to get back on top. Following his runner-up finish at Daytona and fifth last weekend at Atlanta, the series veteran returned to the top of the series standings. Last season, Sadler led the standings for all but two weeks of the regular season before capturing the regular season title. Sadler has made 11 series starts at Vegas with two top-five and five top-10 finishes and an average finish of 11.5.
- There have been nine different winners in the last nine Xfinity races at Las Vegas and a very good chance of making it 10 on Saturday. That is currently the longest active different winners streak in the series. There are only two previous winners from streak entered in Saturday’s race – Busch and Austin Dillon. In five starts at Vegas, Dillon has never finished worse than seventh.
- Just two races into the season and Tyler Reddick holds a big lead in the rookie of the year standings, largely in part to his victory in the season opener at Daytona. He holds a 27-point advantage over Bell. Kaz Grala is third, followed by Austin Cindric and Alex Labbe.
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