Verstappen wins season-opening Bahrain GP
Nemechek bags Xfinity Series victory for Toyota at Las Vegas
Logano caught in a cheating violation
LAS VEGAS, March 3, (AP): John Hunter Nemechek ended Chevrolet’s early dominance by winning the windswept Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday in a Toyota.
Chevrolet started the year with seven consecutive victories across NASCAR’s three national series, including back-to-back Xfinity Series wins at Daytona and Atlanta by Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing. But on a day in which teams battled 70 mph wind, Nemechek ended Chevrolet’s streak.
Nemechek led five times for a racehigh 99 laps to win for Joe Gibbs Racing, which is fielding an Xfinity Series car for Nemechek part-time this season. It was the 10th Xfinity Series win and first at Las Vegas for Nemechek, who now drives a Toyota in the Cup Series for Legacy Motor Club.
Cole Custer started from the pole and the reigning series champion finished second in a Ford for StewartHaas Racing. Chandler Smith in third after leading 74 of the 200 laps - making Saturday a total Toyota domination.
CAR RACING
Hill was fourth, the highest finish by a Chevrolet driver.
Josh Williams of Kaulig Racing tried to win the race with strategy and stayed out on track as long as possible to inherit the lead when the contenders pitted. The strategy might have worked had there been a late caution, but the yellow never came and Williams had to pit with 11 laps remaining.
That put Nemechek back in the lead with a nearly five-second cushion over Hill, who was running second at the time they cycled back to the front. Nemechek’s margin of victory was 4.360 seconds over Custer.
The high wind forced Fox Sports to reduce the number of cameras it used for the race. It was unable to shoot from high vantages, including the speedway roof.
NASCAR on Saturday displayed a clearly altered glove that Joey Logano wore in qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where aerodynamic-deflecting alterations were so obvious it looked as if he was wearing part of an amphibious costume.
The black glove for Logano’s left hand had webbing made of an unspecified material in between every finger. The theory is that Logano, who qualified second at Atlanta last weekend, had the glove altered in order to place his hand out his window as an aerodynamic blocker during qualifying.
At Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, NASCAR would not speculate on the motivation of the two-time Cup champion or Team Penske, which did not appeal a penalty imposed on Logano. NASCAR said it discovered the glove during a random inspection - and not, as Denny Hamlin suggested, in a tipoff from a rival team - and that it did not know if Logano was wearing the glove when he won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500.
Rival driver Corey Lajoie didn’t flinch when asked Saturday if Logano was wearing the glove in Daytona 500 qualifying - “yes,” he said - and insisted Team Penske would have done computer simulation on the glove before using it on the track. LaJoie estimated the webbed glove was worth three counts of drag for Logano.
Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series managing director, said the No. 22 Ford was one of five cars randomly selected for post-qualifying inspection and the in-car camera immediately alerted officials that something was amiss.
“We spotted something that was honestly concerning,” Moran said ahead of Saturday activity at Las Vegas. “As you can see, the entire glove is webbed. The reason for that is you can obviously block more air, the drivers do put their hand up against the (window) opening, which we’ve never really had a rule against.
“This obviously goes one step further, and that glove becomes not only a competition problem but it goes one step further because it becomes a safety violation.”
All equipment must be approved by The SFI Foundation Inc., which is a nonprofit organization that has administered the standards for the quality assurance of specialty performance and racing equipment since 1978. NASCAR was unsure the material used to create the webbing effect was even fire retardant.
Logano was penalized last Sunday morning when he forfeited the secondplace starting position and was dropped to the back of the field at Atlanta. He also had to serve a drive-through penalty on pit road once he took the green flag as the competition penalty.