10/11/2023
RFK Advance | Las Vegas II
Las Vegas II Event Info:
Track Info: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile oval
Date: Sunday, Oct. 15
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Format: 267 laps, 400.5 miles, Stages: 80-85-102
TV: NBC
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 12:35 p.m. ET, Practice (USA, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 1:20 p.m. ET, Qualifying (USA, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 2:30 p.m. ET, Race (NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: BuildSubmarines.com
17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: TravelCenters of America
Pace Laps:
- The Round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs kicks off this weekend as Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosts its second race date of 2023.
- Chris Buescher advanced to the Round of 8 for the first time in his career, and remains as one of eight drivers now vying for Championship 4 position over the next three weeks (Vegas, Homestead, Martinsville).
- Buescher’s position in the Round of 8 is the furthest any RFK driver has advanced in the current elimination playoff format since Carl Edwards in 2014.
Keselowski at Las Vegas
Starts: 20
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 an 11.9 average finish with 12 top-10s and eight finishes inside the top five in 20 starts. This spring he finished 17th.
- 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 11.6 with two poles (2013, 2017). Overall he has nine top-10 qualifying efforts, and is coming off a P7 starting spot this spring.
- 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
Starts: 13
Wins: —
Top-10s: 1
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his 14th Cup start at Las Vegas this weekend, where he carries an average finish of 17.8 with one top-10 (ninth – 2020).
- Most recently, Buescher finished 21st this spring, and 15th in the fall race a season ago.
- His best qualifying effort of 12th came last fall as he has a 23.1 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 at 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 40,000+ laps in NASCAR action at LVMS for 60,000+ 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 188 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
ROVAL: Buescher earned a seventh-place finish at the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway for his fifth top-10 on a road course this season, and 15th overall. Keselowski finished 18th and saw his playoffs run come to a close.
Points Standings (17: 5th, 6: 11th): With the points re-seeded entering the Round of 8, Buescher sits fifth in the playoffs standings, just three points off fourth place.
By the Numbers at Las Vegas
Race Win T5 T10 Pole Laps Led AvSt AvFn Miles
104 7 21 41 1 26029 1280 17.9 15.4 39043.5
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
188 16 47 89 9 40372 2693 14.5 14.3 60558
