NASCAR
Who Can Get Their Season Back on Track at Las Vegas?
Entering week five of the 2025 NASCAR season, a few drivers have seen less-than-stellar starts. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the first traditional intermediate race of the year, and with it comes a clean slate. Gone are the wildcard superspeedways and road course that opened the campaign. LVMS certainly has its favorites who are expected to win Sunday’s Pennzoil 400. Aside from them, however, who else could sneak their way into a surprisingly strong run? Here are a few men with past Las Vegas luck hoping to hit the jackpot again this weekend.
Brad Keselowski
Until last fall, Brad Keselowski was tied as the winningest active driver at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If anyone’s a Sin City high roller who can begin to shift his season back on point Sunday, it’s the man in the 6.
Keselowski has yet to see a finish better than 15th this year, with two crashes ending his day early in four races. This puts the 2012 champion and RFK Racing co-owner a distant 33rd in points. Despite no Vegas victory since 2018, LVMS has been kind recently to BK. The fall race two years ago saw the 6 lead laps and finish fourth, a result this team is in desperate need of repeating. Batting .500 already this season in DNFs, Keselowski just needs to see a checkered flag this weekend.
Noah Gragson
Still in the growing phase at Front Row Motorsports, Noah Gragson’s largely had a 2025 to forget so far. Back-to-back wrecks at Daytona and Atlanta to start the year buried this team in points, but a top-10 at COTA did show great promise. Gragson enters his home track of Las Vegas ranked 31st in points, and is eager to possibly surpass his career-best run here. In a Stewart-Haas car last year, Gragson was a strong sixth-place in this race.
FRM is still very much in the midst of developing their ultra-young lineup. Teammate Zane Smith is not faring much better than Gragson, while veteran Todd Gilliland leads this team at 17th in the standings. Another breakout top-10 may be in store for Gragson on his turf, but expect to see a second-half turnaround for the 4.
Ty Gibbs
Anything that can seemingly has gone wrong for Ty Gibbs across the last stretch of races. Dating back to the Charlotte Roval in October, Gibbs has only been inside the top-20 at the Daytona 500 (16th). Eight of the last nine races have been one disappointment after another for team 54, plummeting them to 34th on the points sheet.
Gibbs needs a reset, whether mental or physical or both. The Vegas Strip may be a glimmering beacon of hope for the third-year driver. Gibbs was fifth in this race a year ago, and JGR cars are always fast in Neon City. Gibbs is inching ever closer to his 100th career start. Can he win like many past drivers before this milestone?
Daniel Suarez
Another driver who’s seemingly been a bad luck magnet this year is Daniel Suarez. Trackhouse’s No. 99 is 29th in points through four weeks, with a best finish of 13th. Crashes over the last three weeks have derailed any momentum for this crew, but last week’s Phoenix dustup added insult to injury. Suarez was running sixth when Katherine Legge spun out ahead of him. With nowhere to go, Suarez suffered heavy damage and limped home in 23rd-place.
Suarez does have reason to look ahead to Las Vegas, being third here in October. Should Suarez avoid others’ troubles this weekend, a top-20 is not out of the question. Being so deep in the standings, however, Suarez may already be facing a must-win Playoff scenario.
2025 saw perhaps the least conventional start to a season in modern NASCAR, with two superspeedways and a road course kicking off the year. The heart of the season is now underway, with traditional ovals aplenty over the coming weeks. Las Vegas is not likely to see any of these drivers break into victory lane. However, all of them could slowly begin turning their year around with a clean, event-free day in the desert.
Written by Peter Stratta
Be sure to follow us on Twitter/X
Be sure to follow the writer on Twitter/X
Photo Credits to James Gilbert/Getty Images
