Will Joey Logano Stay King Of Vegas?
"Sliced Bread" has been the best thing on wheels at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the years.
With NASCAR headed to Las Vegas for the Pennzoil 400 this weekend, we should be keeping an eye on the driver who won the last time he drove that track: Joey Logano. Not only did the defending Cup Series champ take the checkered flag at last October’s South Point 400 — otherwise known for the Bubba Wallace-Kyle Larson crash-n-fight — but good ol’ Sliced Bread has won 3 of the past 8 races run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Zoom out even further, and we see more evidence for Logano’s mastery of this track. In 19 career races at LVMS, Logano is tied for the most wins (3, alongside Brad Keselowski), ranks second in average start (8.5, a hair behind Larson at 8.3 — excluding Austin Cindric’s 2.5 AvSt because he’s only raced there twice) and is easily No. 1 in average finish (also 8.5, well clear of Martin Truex Jr.’s 10.1). His Pts+ of 212 — meaning he produced 112% more adjusted points per race than an average driver — is also No. 1 among all-time drivers at Vegas:
Looking at things more broadly, there are certainly other drivers who are better across all 1.5-mile tracks; Kevin Harvick has a 198 Pts+ on mile-and-a-half circuits, for instance, versus 173 for Logano. But it’s hard to find someone who runs consistently better on this mile-and-a-halfer than No. 22. Plus, Logano is off to one of the best starts of any driver through the first two races of this season, with the top average driver rating in the Cup Series so far:
All of which is to say, Logano could be a solid pick for Sunday’s race. According to FanDuel Sportsbook, you can still get +800 odds on him to win, which is tied with Ross Chastain for third in the field behind Larson (+700) and our good friend Kyle Busch (+600). That’s pretty good value for a guy who’s been the best driver of the year so far and has a demonstrated record of dominating at this particular track.
Filed under: NASCAR