NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas

 

There's nothing like a Ryan Blaney win, especially when the No. 12 team has issues that force him to drive through the field more than once. Blaney earned his 18th NASCAR Cup Series win at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday after two loose wheels and passing 49 cars. It was his second victory at Phoenix and Team Penske's 157th win in the NASCAR Cup Series. This weekend should be a good gauge for where the Chevys are, as they typically run well here. Stay tuned.

 

This Week's Pick Strategy:
I'm going with a pretty straightforward strategy this week. I'm packing my roster with mostly proven elites and weighing heavily on those drivers with pole-winning potential to earn me extra fantasy points. I'll be using practice and qualifying as my final picks data points. I think the winner will come from the top 5 cars on the grid.  

 

Active NASCAR Cup Drivers with the Most Top 10s:

By Race and Track in the Gen 7 Car (Last 8 races - 2022 to 2025)

All with 6 - Kyle Larson, William Byron and Ross Chastain
All with 5 - Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman
Both with 4 - Joey Logano and Kyle Busch

 

Active NASCAR Cup Drivers with the Most Top 5s:

By Race and Track in the Gen 7 Car (Last 8 races - 2022 to 2025)
Both with 5 - Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain

Both with 4 - William Byron and Christopher Bell 

Both with 3 - Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch

Active Las Vegas Race Winners	Wins	Seasons
Joey Logano	4	2024, 2022, 2020, 2019
Brad Keselowski	3	2018, 2016, 2014
Kyle Larson	3	2024, 2023, 2021
Denny Hamlin	2	2025, 2021
Josh Berry	1	2025
William Byron	1	2023
Alex Bowman	1	2022
Kyle Busch	1	2009

Source: NASCAR.com

  

Last Year's Pole Winner: Michael McDowell

Last Year's Race Winner: Joey Logano

 

The Likely Suspects:  My Las Vegas go-to drivers include Kyle Larson, William Byron, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney.

 

My 2 Cents:  My no-brainer pick is a tie between Kyle Larson and William Byron. My next picks are Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch. I will round out my roster with Carson Hocevar and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

My Final Four: Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar.

Second-Look Driver: This week's second-look driver is Ryan Preece who is pretty sporty at 1.5-mile tracks. Last year, Preece earned 179 points at the bread-and-butter tracks, which tied him with his RFK teammate, Chris Buescher, for 11th best in the NASCAR Cup Series. He earned a majority of those points at the two races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he scored a third-place finish in the spring race and placed ninth in the first race of the second round of the Playoffs. In all, Preece has six Top 10s in the last eight 1.5-mile races. He currently sits 18th in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings, and could surpass the bossman--Brad Keselowski, now in 16th--with a good finish.

Points to Ponder:

• Joe Gibbs Racing leads the NASCAR Cup Series in poles at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with nine poles among five drivers.
•  The second starting position has produced more winners than any other in the field with seven (19.4%).
• Hendrick Motorsports leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with nine, followed by Team Penske and RFK Racing tied with seven each.
• Four manufacturers have visited Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, led by Ford with 16 victories and Chevrolet with 13.
• Kyle Larson (2017, 2018, 2022, 2023, 2025) leads the NASCAR Cup Series in runner-up finishes at Las Vegas with five second-place finishes.
• Kyle Busch leads the NASCAR Cup Series in Top-5 finishes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with 12 and in Top 10s with 16.
• Kyle Larson leads all active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with an average finish of 9.0 in 19 starts.    

If you are playing Driver Group Game, remember to make your initial picks by Saturday, March 14 at 2:30 p.m. ET  and your final picks by 4 p.m. ET on race day, Sunday, March 15th.

Enjoy the race!

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Carol D'Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 19 years. She launched NASCAR Fantasy Fusion for Skirts & Scuffs in October 2011. Each week, Carol pores through statistics and combs through her personal notebooks to arm fans with analysis and picking strategies that will leave their friends wondering how they got so smart. Carol also does race coverage for Skirts & Scuffs at Richmond Raceway and occasionally at her home track, Dover International Speedway. She is also part of the distinguished NASCAR Expert Picks panel at frcs.pro. formerly called Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. When she isn’t wielding her fantasy-racing superpowers, you’ll find Carol hammering out a news release or creating a marketing strategy at a small niche public relations firm she founded called Purple Cat or executing downtown revitalization projects for a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.