NASCAR: Looking back at the last five Las Vegas races

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. What do the last five races at the track tell us about this year’s edition?

On Sunday, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series travels to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first of two 2018 races at the track. This weekend’s Pennzoil 400 has happened every year since 1998, when Mark Martin won the inaugural running of the event, then known as the Las Vegas 400. 2018 represents a change for the track, as a race in the fall, the South Point 400, will represent the first time the Cup Series has come to Vegas twice in one season.

What can the past five races at LVMS help us learn about this year’s running of the event? Read on to find out.

2013

Matt Kenseth won, which doesn’t really tell us anything about this year’s race since Kenseth is retired. Kasey Kahne led the most laps (114) and finished second, but Kahne’s performance is also hard to use as evidence for this year’s race as there’s a steep drop from his team then (Hendrick Motorsports) to his team now (Leavine Family Racing). Brad Keselowski sat on the pole and finished third.

2014

Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas at the end as he was trying to stretch it and win, allowing Brad Keselowski to win. Keselowski started second in that one, next to his teammate Joey Logano, who led 44 laps and finished fourth. Ryan Newman, a year after running well but blowing an engine, finished seventh.

2015

Another Las Vegas race and another Dale Earnhardt Jr. gamble that didn’t work. This time, Earnhardt took two tires. Kevin Harvick took four. Harvick passed Earnhardt Jr. and won the race. He led 142 laps on the day. Polesitter Jeff Gordon went to the back and finished 18th after damage from an incident. Jimmie Johnson had trouble as well and finished 41st — a repeat performance of that this year would put the #48 car in an even deeper hole in the standings.

2016

After a 2015 race where Brad Keselowski finished just seventh, the #2 car returned to victory lane at Las Vegas in 2016, leading 24 laps on his way to the win. Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top five.

Also, there was a sandstorm:

2017

It was 2017, so of course Martin Truex Jr. won the race and led 150 laps, because 2017 MTJ just seemed to win everything on 1.5-mile oval tracks. Keselowski was the polesitter again and finished fifth, leading 89 laps, but he faded when a power issue affected his car late. Joey Logano finished fourth and Ryan Blaney finished seventh. Kevin Harvick wrecked early.