Las Vegas Motor Speedway – (HHP/Harold Hinson)
NASCAR CUP SERIES LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT – MARCH 16, 2025
Suarez Leads Chevrolet with Runner-Up Result at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Chevrolet Claims Seven Top 10 Finishes
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd – Daniel Suarez
4th – William Byron
5th – Ross Chastain
7th – Alex Bowman
8th – AJ Allmendinger
9th – Kyle Larson
10th – Chase Elliott
· Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez drove his No. 99 Chevrolet
to his best finish of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway – leading Chevrolet to the checkered flag with a
runner-up result in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.
· A series of cautions in the final stage made pit strategy the
name of the game. With a caution on lap 244, the No. 99 Trackhouse
Racing Chevrolet pit crew put down a monster performance on pit road to
give Suarez the win off pit road and a front-row starting position for
the restart with 20 laps remaining. Suarez battled side-by-side with
race winner, Josh Berry, for a handful of laps before settling into the
runner-up position.
· The Bowtie brand had a monstrous presence in the top 10 of the
final leaderboard, with Suarez leading the manufacturer to seven top 10
finishes at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval – a season-best for Chevrolet
with five points-paying races complete. Among those results were
representation by three different Chevrolet organizations including two
top five finishes for Trackhouse Racing; all four Hendrick Motorsports
entries with top 10 results; and Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger in
the eighth position.
· Larson proved to be a contender all race long, with the
32-year-old Elk Grove, California, native also collecting his second
stage win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, making the Chevrolet
driver the first repeat stage winner in the division with now five
points-paying races complete.
· In just his fifth points-paying start with Spire Motorsports,
Michael McDowell earned the pole position for today’s 267-lap race –
laying down a lap of 28.883 seconds in his No. 71 Chevrolet. The lap
delivered Chevrolet its second-straight pole win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup
Series season, as well as Spire Motorsports’ first-ever pole win in
NASCAR’s top division.
UP NEXT: THE 2025 NASCAR CUP SERIES SEASON CONTINUES AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI
SPEEDWAY WITH THE STRAIGHT TALK WIRELESS 400 ON SUNDAY, MARCH 23, AT 3
P.M. ET. LIVE COVERAGE CAN BE FOUND ON FS1, MRN AND SIRIUSXM NASCAR
RADIO CHANNEL 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 5th
“Yeah, it got him (Daniel Suarez) clear to the lead. I was fully
committed to him and happy to do it. Got him a good push down the
frontstretch and through the restart zone; another one into (turn) one
and another one into three. We stayed connected well. It was aggressive,
but it got him to the lead. And then he just bottomed out too hard with
his car and let Josh (Berry) inside of him a couple laps into that run.
Bummer because he had a better car than we did and had a shot to win. It
just slipped away from us.”
How important was this day for Trackhouse Racing to get both cars into
the top-five here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway?
“Yeah, it’s huge. That’s what I said to Daniel (Suarez) –
it’s pretty cool to be talking about what we could do better than
second and fifth and legitimately running up there. It’s so
frustrating though because you could see how close Daniel was. He had
the better Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet today, and for him to be so
close, it’s a bummer.”
Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 21st
“Our Sea Best team battles and fights and gets better and better every
time, every minute we work together. We’re developing a trend of
getting stronger as we go, so that’s exciting for the future. We had
some opportunities to probably have a better finish there, but from
where we were at the beginning of the race to the end, it was a lot
better. I’m very happy with our effort. We’ll keep going and getting
better. I’m very pleased.”
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 4th
How much of an issue were tires today, and how much were you conserving
it? How much did that strategy play into your finish today?
“Yeah, when everything got flipped with the fuel strategy – not
really pit strategy, but you had to pit to make it to the end of the
race. Everything just got flipped around and we were on the bad side of
that, having to restart in the 20s and then have to drive back through
the field. I thought we did a good job getting back through the field.
Our car was a lot tighter in traffic. There’s definitely some things
for us to improve and work on because I feel like once we lost the first
couple of rows, it was a completely different race car. We just have to
continue to improve on that.
Overall, happy with the result for the No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet team. We
had a good car. We definitely had one of the best cars, if the race
would have played out normally. We just didn’t really have a chance to
get back up there at the end.”
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 16th
“It was an up-and-down day for the No. 71 Group 1001 Chevy team. We
had a little issue there early on with the diffuser flap falling down.
We didn’t figure it out until about the end of Stage Two. Once we got
that back, we were kind of back in the game but just a couple
adjustments behind. I thought we would have a shot at the top-10, but on
the last run, the car just got really tight. It’s unfortunate to lose
spots there at the end.. you never want to do that. But we’ll keep
building and keep working on it; keep making notebooks and get it
right.”
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 34th
“Our day was going pretty good there at the start. I was learning to
move around and started to go forward. Just made an adjustment that
didn’t go our way and never recovered. It’s a shame, my Red Bull
Chevrolet had plenty of potential and I felt like I could’ve been
okay. My teammates ran really well, so our car was good. Just learning
to put myself in the right spots. We’ll be ready for Homestead next
weekend.”
Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 2nd
“Definitely a little disappointed, but first of all, congratulations
to Josh Berry and the No. 21 team. They did a great job and they’ve
been fast. The No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy team did everything right.
The pit crew did an amazing job with the pit stops. We did everything
right with the strategy. Our Chevy was fast, but we just struggled a
little bit on the short runs. I mentioned to my crew chief – before
the last run, I told him that if we’re going to be up front, we’re
going to need a better car for the short run. I was having too much
contact over there in (turns) one and two. Unfortunately, I think
that’s why we lost the race. We just had a little bit too much
contact. I almost wrecked in one and two.
But overall, just very, very proud of everyone at Trackhouse Racing. The
entire organization has been working very hard and it’s showing. Thank
you to Chevrolet, Freeway Insurance, Coca-Cola, Quaker State – all of
our partners that help us to get to the track every weekend. It was a
solid effort.”