The NASCAR XFINITY Series heads out west to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the 21st annual Boyd Gaming 300. The event marks race three on the series calendar in the brand-new season. Kyle Busch, who will pilot the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and from Las Vegas, enters the weekend as the defending race winner.
Storylines
Drew Herring will be joining the series this weekend.
Herring will pilot the No. 24 Young Guns Toyota for JGL Racing this weekend at Las Vegas. His last start in the series last year came under the Joe Gibbs Racing banner at Dover where he finished in the 21st spot.
“I am really looking forward to my first race of the season back behind the wheel of the No. 24 Toyota,” said Herring. “I am just very thankful for the opportunity that James Whitener is giving me to get back on the track.”
The weekend will mark Herring’s first ever start at the 1.5-mile track in the state of Nevada.
“This will be my first time racing at the Las Vegas track and first time working with Clinton Cram (crew chief),” Herring said. I feel confident that we will continue to build on the things learned last weekend with Corey LaJoie on this new package. I look forward to a successful weekend for all of us at JGL Racing and this Young Guns program.”
Over 20 career starts, Herring holds only one top five and five top 10 finishes including two poles.
Team Penske will field two entries in the Boyd Gaming 300.
They will have Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski in their rides this weekend. Logano will pilot the No. 12 REV Ford Mustang while Keselowski will pilot the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford.
The weekend will mark Keselowski’s third XFINITY Series start of the season while the first for Logano in 2017.
Elliott Sadler enters the weekend leading the series driver standings by three points over teammate William Byron. Power Shares QQQ 300 at Daytona winner Ryan Reed rounds out the top three.
“Oh man, Vegas is a fun place to race— it’s a fast track. It’s become one of my favorite racetracks on tour,” said series points leader Elliott Sadler. “It always creates some really good racing. The way the frontstretch is shaped and banks always makes for some really interesting restarts. Turns 1 and 2 have some really good character to them and (Turns) 3 and 4, they smooth out. You have to have your stuff together when you get here, even as a driver.”
“We have had a great start to our season. Last weekend we learned a lot about how the car is going to run on the mile and-a-half tracks,” said Byron. “My Liberty University team has been working non-stop at the shop to bring fast cars to the track and I am really looking forward to seeing how the car is this weekend.”
Expanded driver standings:
|
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES |
||
|
POS |
DRIVER |
BEHIND |
|
1 |
ELLIOTT SADLER |
LEADER |
|
2 |
WILLIAM BYRON |
-3 |
|
3 |
RYAN REED |
-4 |
|
4 |
BRENDAN GAUGHAN |
-8 |
|
5 |
MATT TIFFT |
-14 |
|
6 |
DAKOTA ARMSRONG |
-23 |
|
7 |
BRENNAN POOLE |
-25 |
|
8 |
MICHAEL ANNETT |
-25 |
|
9 |
DANIEL HEMRIC |
-28 |
|
10 |
HARRISON RHODES |
-30 |
Where to watch:
The Boyd Gaming 300 will air live on FOX Sports 1 at 4:00 p.m. ET. The Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90 will carry the radio broadcast.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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