NASCAR in Las Vegas preview: Starting lineup, watch info, TV schedule, drivers to watch

After a pair of wild-card races to open the season, NASCAR is rolling the dice in Sin City.

Last week, Daniel Suárez won at Atlanta in a three-wide photo finish. Before that, William Byron claimed the Daytona 500 by narrowly holding off his teammate.

What’s in store for Las Vegas? It could be a return to normalcy.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be the first non-drafting track of the season, where drivers rely less on others and are forced to wheel their own cars to the best of their abilities. The results in Nevada will likely be more indicative of the rest of the season than what we saw in Daytona and Atlanta – each of the Championship 4 drivers last year won at a 1.5-mile track comparable to LVMS.

Here’s everything you need to know for the 2024 Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas:

NASCAR at Las Vegas starting lineup

Thirty-seven drivers will race in Las Vegas – the 34 full-timers, plus three others.

Kaz Grala will drive the No. 15 for Rick Ware Racing as he continues his part-time effort this season. Elsewhere, veteran J.J. Yeley is teaming up with NY Racing to race the No. 44 for the first time this year. Then there’s 22-year-old Derek Kraus, who will make his Cup debut in the No. 16 for Kaulig Racing.

Here’s the full starting lineup for Las Vegas after Saturday's qualifying session:

Starting position	Driver, car number	Team name	Sponsor	Qualifying speed (mph)
1	Joey Logano, 22	Team Penske	Pennzoil	184.357
2	Kyle Larson, 5	Hendrick Motorsports	HendrickCars.com	184.225
3	Austin Cindric, 2	Team Penske	Discount Tire	184.093
4	William Byron, 24	Hendrick Motorsports	Z by HP	183.911
5	Bubba Wallace, 23	23XI Racing	Columbia Sportswear	183.648
6	Chase Briscoe, 14	Stewart-Haas Racing	Mahindra Tractors	183.486
7	Martin Truex Jr., 19	Joe Gibbs Racing	Reser's Fine Foods	183.169
8	Ty Gibbs, 54	Joe Gibbs Racing	He Gets Us	183.150
9	Chris Buescher, 17	RFK Racing	Fastenal	182.927
10	Christopher Bell, 20	Joe Gibbs Racing	Interstate Batteries	182.556
11	Chase Elliott, 9	Hendrick Motorsports	LLumar	183.943
12	Michael McDowell, 34	Front Row Motorsports	Love's RV Stops	183.592
13	Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 47	JTG Daugherty Racing	Smith's/Tree Top	183.611
14	Carson Hocevar, 77	Spire Motorsports	Premier Security	183.181
15	Ryan Blaney, 12	Team Penske	Menards/Pennzoil	183.436
16	Daniel Suárez, 99	Trackhouse Racing	Freeway Insurance	182.840
17	Corey LaJoie, 7	Spire Motorsports	USANA	183.418
18	Tyler Reddick, 45	23XI Racing	Monster Energy	182.513
19	Austin Dillon, 3	Richard Childress Racing	BetMGM	183.063
20	Ross Chastain, 1	Trackhouse Racing	Kubota	182.482
21	Kyle Busch, 8	Richard Childress Racing	BetMGM	182.716
22	Erik Jones, 43	Legacy Motor Club	Dollar Tree	182.309
23	Alex Bowman, 48	Hendrick Motorsports	Ally Financial	182.587
24	Zane Smith, 71	Spire Motorsports	Focused Health	182.309
25	Brad Keselowski, 6	RFK Racing	Solomon Plumbing	181.886
26	Josh Berry, 4	Stewart-Haas Racing	Mobil 1	182.143
27	John Hunter Nemechek, 42	Legacy Motor Club	Albertson's	181.635
28	Denny Hamlin, 11	Joe Gibbs Racing	Sport Clips	182.100
29	Harrison Burton, 21	Wood Brothers Racing	Motorcraft/Quick Lane	181.080
30	Noah Gragson, 10	Stewart-Haas Racing	Fanttik	181.238
31	Todd Gilliland, 38	Front Row Motorsports	gener8tor	180.699
32	Kaz Grala, 15	Rick Ware Racing	N29 Capital Partners	181.238
33	Derek Kraus, 16	Kaulig Racing	Western States Flooring	178.968
34	Daniel Hemric, 31	Kaulig Racing	South Point Hotel & Casino	180.385
35	Justin Haley, 51	Rick Ware Racing	Ohanafy	No lap taken
36	Ryan Preece, 41	Stewart-Haas Racing	Haas Tooling	No lap taken
37	J.J. Yeley, 44	NY Racing	Urban Youth Racing School	No lap taken

What time is the NASCAR race today?

The Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas is set for Sunday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Before the race, there were practice and qualifying sessions. The 37-car field was split into two groups (found here), with each group practicing for 20 minutes on Saturday.

Qualifying began immediately after practice. Each car from the two groups made one lap in the first round, with the five fastest cars on single-lap speed in each group advancing to the final round. In the final round, the remaining drivers each got one lap to set the top 10 starting order, with positions 11 through 37 were set based on first round times.

What channel is the NASCAR race on today?

Saturday, March 2 (FS1 and streaming online)

• Practice: 2 p.m. ET, FS1, FOXSports.com
• Qualifying: 2:50 p.m. ET, FS1, FOXSports.com

Sunday, March 3 (FOX, FS1 and streaming online)

• NASCAR RaceDay: 2 p.m. ET, FS1, FOXSports.com
• NASCAR RaceDay: 3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOXSports.com
• Pennzoil 400: 3:30 p.m. ET,  FOX, FOXSports.com

NASCAR Las Vegas past winners, race history

There are eight former Las Vegas winners who will race on Sunday, including defending spring LVMS winner William Byron. Kyle Larson is the most recent winner at LVMS, taking home the checkered flag in last October’s playoff race.

While both of those drivers have had success in Sin City, several former champions have dominated in the desert. Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano each have three Vegas wins apiece, while Martin Truex Jr. joins Larson as a two-time winner.

The other Las Vegas past winners include Kyle Busch (2009), Denny Hamlin (2021) and Alex Bowman (2022).

NASCAR at Las Vegas favorites, drivers to watch

As you could see from the past winners, it takes an elite driver to win at Las Vegas. Six of the eight active winners are former champions, and the two non-champions are perennial contenders (Byron and Hamlin).

When looking at the spring Las Vegas race, though, two organizations have typically commendeered victory lane: Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports.

A Penske or Hendrick driver has won the last five spring races and six of the last eight. Hendrick is on a run of three straight with three different drivers (Larson ‘21, Bowman ‘22, Byron ‘23), while Logano won the two years before them. It's not a coincidence that the first four starting spots will be occupied by two Penske and two Hendrick drivers after both organizations showed speed in qualifying.

The active drivers with the best career average finish at LVMS include Larson (9.9 in 15 starts), Truex (10.0 in 24 starts), Logano (10.0 in 21 starts) and Busch (10.6 in 25 starts). For non-winners, Ryan Blaney (12.0 in 15 starts), Tyler Reddick (15.0 in eight starts) and Austin Dillon (15.9 in 17 starts) lead the way.