RADIO
The NASCAR Cup Series ran a practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon in preparation for the upcoming Pennzoil 400 on Sunday afternoon.
This is the first practice session of the 2024 season where we can actually take away some information from it. Las Vegas is a 1.5-mile intermediate race track and Sunday's Pennzoil 400 will be the first non-drafting race of the season.
The 37-car field was split into two groups for this practice session. Below you'll find the two practice groups, key notes from the practice session and the practice speeds for all drivers. The cars from Group A had more speed than the other group during practice in terms of single-lap speed.
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Important Practice Notes
Ryan Preece - Just three laps into his initial run, Ryan Preece got loose over the bumps in turn one and spun his No. 41 Ford into the wall, hitting pretty hard. No official word has been released regarding a backup car (as of this post's publish time), but if Preece does have to go to a backup car, he will have to drop to the rear of the field at the start of the Pennzoil 400 race on Sunday.
Kyle Larson - Larson entered the race weekend as the heavy favorite to win at all sportsbooks, and this practice session did nothing to change those thoughts. The No. 5 Chevrolet was bad fast during practice, ranking fastest in all of the major lap categories (five-, 10-, 15-, 20-, and 25-lap average). Larson won here at Las Vegas last fall after finishing second in the spring race.
Todd Gilliland - It wasn't a great practice session for Todd Gilliland, who is coming off of one of the best performances of his career last week at Atlanta. The Front Row Motorsports driver had trouble getting his car started at the beginning of practice, and then scraped the wall on his first lap on-track. The damage wasn't major.
2024 Las Vegas Pennzoil 400 Practice Speed Chart
Click here to download the PDF of the practice speed chart.
| Pos | Driver | Time | Speed | Fastest Lap | Laps Ran | Behind Leader |
| 1. | Ross Chastain | 29.305 | 184.269 | 2 | 22 | ---.--- |
| 2. | Noah Gragson | 29.402 | 183.661 | 3 | 21 | -0.097 |
| 3. | Ty Gibbs | 29.531 | 182.859 | 6 | 26 | -0.226 |
| 4. | Tyler Reddick | 29.533 | 182.846 | 2 | 22 | -0.228 |
| 5. | Denny Hamlin | 29.553 | 182.723 | 2 | 28 | -0.248 |
| 6. | Bubba Wallace | 29.561 | 182.673 | 2 | 21 | -0.256 |
| 7. | Chase Briscoe | 29.599 | 182.439 | 3 | 16 | -0.294 |
| 8. | William Byron | 29.614 | 182.346 | 4 | 29 | -0.309 |
| 9. | Kyle Larson | 29.617 | 182.328 | 4 | 25 | -0.312 |
| 10. | Chris Buescher | 29.655 | 182.094 | 7 | 17 | -0.350 |
| 11. | Michael McDowell | 29.656 | 182.088 | 3 | 20 | -0.351 |
| 12. | Alex Bowman | 29.663 | 182.045 | 4 | 22 | -0.358 |
| 13. | Carson Hocevar | 29.699 | 181.824 | 2 | 20 | -0.394 |
| 14. | Chase Elliott | 29.707 | 181.775 | 4 | 22 | -0.402 |
| 15. | Corey LaJoie | 29.738 | 181.586 | 2 | 16 | -0.433 |
| 16. | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 29.751 | 181.507 | 4 | 25 | -0.446 |
| 17. | Kyle Busch | 29.765 | 181.421 | 6 | 25 | -0.460 |
| 18. | Joey Logano | 29.785 | 181.299 | 5 | 23 | -0.480 |
| 19. | Christopher Bell | 29.798 | 181.220 | 5 | 24 | -0.493 |
| 20. | Daniel Hemric | 29.800 | 181.208 | 6 | 17 | -0.495 |
| 21. | Ryan Blaney | 29.811 | 181.141 | 5 | 24 | -0.506 |
| 22. | Zane Smith | 29.827 | 181.044 | 8 | 25 | -0.522 |
| 23. | Daniel Suarez | 29.849 | 180.911 | 6 | 24 | -0.544 |
| 24. | Ryan Preece | 29.907 | 180.560 | 3 | 3 | -0.602 |
| 25. | Austin Cindric | 29.914 | 180.517 | 5 | 24 | -0.609 |
| 26. | Josh Berry | 29.925 | 180.451 | 1 | 23 | -0.620 |
| 27. | Martin Truex Jr. | 29.939 | 180.367 | 4 | 27 | -0.634 |
| 28. | Brad Keselowski | 29.958 | 180.252 | 6 | 16 | -0.653 |
| 29. | Austin Dillon | 30.030 | 179.820 | 5 | 20 | -0.725 |
| 30. | Justin Haley | 30.120 | 179.283 | 3 | 11 | -0.815 |
| 31. | John Hunter Nemechek | 30.197 | 178.826 | 7 | 25 | -0.892 |
| 32. | Kaz Grala | 30.310 | 178.159 | 2 | 16 | -1.005 |
| 33. | Erik Jones | 30.420 | 177.515 | 4 | 15 | -1.115 |
| 34. | Derek Kraus | 30.458 | 177.293 | 8 | 23 | -1.153 |
| 35. | Todd Gilliland | 30.587 | 176.546 | 12 | 12 | -1.282 |
| 36. | Harrison Burton | 30.706 | 175.861 | 3 | 17 | -1.401 |
| 37. | JJ Yeley | 32.729 | 164.991 | 2 | 2 | -3.424 |
2024 Las Vegas Pennzoil 400 10-Lap Average Chart
| Pos | Driver | From Lap | To Lap | Avg Speed |
| 1. | Kyle Larson | 2 | 11 | 180.385 |
| 2. | William Byron | 2 | 11 | 180.098 |
| 3. | Tyler Reddick | 6 | 15 | 179.924 |
| 4. | Kyle Busch | 2 | 11 | 179.752 |
| 5. | Zane Smith | 5 | 14 | 179.531 |
| 6. | Chase Elliott | 1 | 10 | 179.503 |
| 7. | Christopher Bell | 2 | 11 | 179.326 |
| 8. | Bubba Wallace | 6 | 15 | 179.301 |
| 9. | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 1 | 10 | 179.180 |
| 10. | Ryan Blaney | 3 | 12 | 178.878 |
| 11. | Joey Logano | 2 | 11 | 178.693 |
| 12. | Austin Dillon | 1 | 10 | 178.592 |
| 13. | Daniel Suarez | 5 | 14 | 178.569 |
| 14. | Ty Gibbs | 6 | 15 | 178.562 |
| 15. | Josh Berry | 6 | 15 | 178.316 |
| 16. | Martin Truex Jr. | 6 | 15 | 178.151 |
| 17. | Denny Hamlin | 6 | 15 | 178.040 |
| 18. | Austin Cindric | 1 | 10 | 177.722 |
| 19. | Alex Bowman | 11 | 20 | 177.569 |
| 20. | John Hunter Nemechek | 16 | 25 | 177.129 |
| 21. | Carson Hocevar | 8 | 17 | 176.838 |
| 22. | Ross Chastain | 13 | 22 | 176.098 |
| 23. | Derek Kraus | 4 | 13 | 175.877 |
| 24. | Todd Gilliland | 3 | 12 | 174.505 |
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