03/02/2023
RFK Advance | Las Vegas I
Las Vegas I Event Info:
Track Info: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile oval
Date: Sunday, March 5
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Format: 267 laps, 400 miles, Stages: 80-85-102
TV: FOX
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 1:35 p.m. ET, Practice (FS2 to start, FS1 at 2 p.m., PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 2:20 p.m. ET, Qualifying (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 3:30 p.m. ET, Race (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
6 Team Info:
Partner: Fastenal
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
17 Team Info:
Partner: NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe)
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Pace Laps:
- The West Coast swing rolls on this weekend in Las Vegas, the first of two stops at the 1.5-mile track this season.
- Jack Roush has 16 wins all time in Sin City including seven in the Cup Series. Brad Keselowski is a three-time winner at LVMS, while Chris Buescher has three of his career-best finishes at Vegas in the last five races.
- Fastenal makes one of its two appearances this season on the No. 6 car debuting a new, silver scheme, while NEXLETOL makes its debut on the No. 17 car at Vegas, one of three scheduled appearances with Buescher in 2023.
Keselowski at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Starts: 19
Wins: 3 (2014, 2016, 2018)
Top-10s: 12
Poles: 2 (2013, 2017)
- Keselowski is a three-time winner at LVMS, one of 11 tracks he has multiple wins at on the circuit. Overall he has a 11.6 average finish with 12 top-10s and eight finishes inside the top five in 19 starts.
- Keselowski first won in Las Vegas in 2014 after starting from the second position and leading 53 laps. He followed that with wins two years apart in 2016 and 2018.
- Last season Keselowski finished 24th in the spring and 17th in the fall race.
- The Michigan native has an average starting position of 11.8 with two poles (2013, 2017). Overall he has eight top-10 qualifying efforts.
- Keselowski also has a win at Vegas in the Xfinity Series (2014) with four overall top-10s in 10 NXS starts. He also made one truck start back in 2005.
Buescher at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Starts: 12
Wins: —
Top-10s: 1
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his 13th Cup start at Las Vegas this weekend, where he carries an average finish of 17.5 with one top-10 (ninth – 2020).
- Most recently Buescher finished 18th last spring and 15th in the fall.
- His best qualifying effort of 12th came last fall as he has a 23.5 average starting position overall.
- Buescher made two Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas and recorded a best finish of ninth (2014) in the No. 60 entry for Jack Roush.
RFK Historically in Las Vegas
Cup Wins: 7 (Mark Martin, 1998; Jeff Burton, 1999, 2000; Matt Kenseth, 2003, 2004; Carl Edwards, 2008, 2011)
- Early JACKpot: RFK hit the Vegas jackpot right off the bat, winning the inaugural Cup event at Las Vegas in 1998. Mark Martin led 82 laps in the victory that served as a banner day for RFK.
- Inaugural Sweep: RFK placed all five of its Cup entries inside the top 10 of that inaugural Las Vegas Cup race in 1998, including three inside the top five, four inside the top six, one in the winners circle and the runner up (6 – 1st, 99 – 2nd, 26 – 4th, 16 – 6th and 97 – 10th).
- Continued Success: RFK won the first three Cup races at LVMS from ‘98-’00, with Jeff Burton winning back-to-back events in ’99 and ’00. RFK also took three of the first nine Xfinity Series events at LVMS.
- Victory Lane at Vegas: In addition to the first three Cup races at LVMS, RFK again found the winners’ circle in 2003 and 2004 at the 1.5-mile track with Matt Kenseth. Carl Edwards took the checkered flag at the 2008 and 2011 events to give RFK seven Cup wins at Las Vegas with four different drivers.
- Back to Back at Vegas: RFK has won back-to-back Cup races at LVMS on two separate occasions in ’99-’00 and ’03-04’ and once in the Xfinity Series in ‘99 and ‘00.
- Across the Board at Vegas: All in all, RFK has tallied 16 total NASCAR wins, while turning 39,000+ laps in NASCAR action at LVMS for 59,000+ miles, while leading over 2,600 laps at the track in NASCAR’s top three divisions. At the same time the organization has finished inside the top 10 in nearly 50 percent of its 186 NASCAR starts at LVMS.
RFK Las Vegas Wins
1998 Martin Cup
1999 Burton Cup
2000 Burton Cup
2003 Kenseth Cup
2004 Kenseth Cup
2008 Edwards Cup
2011 Edwards Cup
1999 Martin NXS
2000 Burton NXS
2002 Burton NXS
2005 Martin NXS
2009 Biffle NXS
2012 Stenhouse NXS
1997 Ruttman NGOTS
1999 Biffle NGOTS
2007 Kvapil NGOTS
Last Time Out & Where They Stand
Fontana: RFK is coming off a rebound day in California where Keselowski earned a seventh-place finish after being spun early, while Buescher and the No. 17 team overcame early struggles to finish 13th.
Points Standings (17: 6th, 6: 10th): Both RFK cars maintain top-10 position in the points standings entering Las Vegas with Buescher in sixth and Keselowski in 10th.
By the Numbers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race Win T5 T10 Pole Laps Led AvSt AvFn Miles
102 7 21 41 1 25488 1275 18.0 15.3 38232
57 6 19 37 7 10683 1179 11.4 12.1 16024.5
27 3 7 11 1 3660 234 10.3 15.9 5490
186 16 47 89 9 39831 2688 14.5 14.3 59746.5
