LAS VEGAS — There’s a tradition at Hendrick Motorsports to ring the winning bell throughout the North Carolina shop after every NASCAR victory.
As motivation to have the best year of his career, Kyle Larson’s team decided to bring a bell on the road to avoid having to wait to return to Charlotte to celebrate every achievement he plans for this season.
The bell got its first ring Sunday when Larson won his second consecutive race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to keep Chevrolet undefeated and give Rick Hendrick his second victory in the first three NASCAR Cup Series races of the season.
Hendrick Motorsports is celebrating its 40th anniversary this season and opened the year with William Byron winning the Daytona 500.
“That bell will travel with us every week and we’ll be ringing it loud and proud,” Larson said.
Larson won for the third time in his career at Las Vegas, where in 2021 he got his first win driving for Hendrick following a nearly yearlong suspension in 2020. Larson also won in the No. 5 Chevy at Las Vegas last October in the playoffs.
Larson held off Tyler Reddick for his 24th career Cup victory. In a Toyota for 23XI Racing, Reddick chased Larson for the final several laps but could never find enough room to make a move for the pass. Larson’s margin of victory was 0.441 seconds over Reddick.
“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage” Larson said. “He was really fast there. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back, swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for more than that.”
Reddick was extremely frustrated after finishing second and believed Larson as the leader controlled the race because of the rules of NASCAR’s new car.
“Kyle did a really good job there taking away pretty much every option I had there to close the gap,” Reddick said. “Second sucks, that is for sure. You have to run up front all day long, and when asked about what we need to do to get better, that’s the very thing, and we didn’t do it. We were pretty evenly matched, so I don’t know if there was anything that I really could’ve done to get around him.
“He would have had to make a big mistake or had some traffic kind of knock his wind around. It’s a solid effort for our team, that’s how we need to run, but I don’t like running second.”
Chevrolet also has wins this year by Byron in the Daytona 500 and Daniel Suarez last week at Atlanta for Trackhouse Racing. Chevrolet has won eight of nine national series races to open the year.
Ford and Toyota are both using new cars this year.
The Chevrolet contingent right now is as tight as it’s ever been, and the key partner groups and even outside of that are working really good together because we know we have very little margin here,” Hendrick team president and general manager Jeff Andrews said. “We know we’re up against a new car with Ford and Toyota. We have to do our best to work together and keep advancing this car.
“We’re obviously early on in the season here, a lot of racing to go, and they will get there. Anytime that you change a platform on those cars as much as they’ve had, it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
Reigning NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney was third for Team Penske in a Ford, followed by Trackhouse driver Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and Las Vegas native Noah Gragson in his best finish since joining Stewart-Haas Racing.
Martin Truex Jr. for JGR was seventh, followed by teammate Denny Hamlin, Penske driver and pole-sitter Joey Logano and Byron. Suarez, last week’s winner, was 11th.
Larson swept all three stages and led 181 of the 267 laps. The win made Larson the Cup Series points leader with an eight-point cushion over Blaney.
BUESCHER PENALTY TO COME
Chris Buescher and RFK Racing are facing penalties after a tire fell off Buescher’s Ford early in the race.
“We lost the nut and lost half the wheel,” Buescher said. “I think the tire stayed up under the fender. It looks like the nut came off and something in the suspension actually cut the wheel in half.”
The penalty will be the suspension of two crew members from Buescher’s team for the next two races.
DRIVE FOR DIVERSITY SUCCESS
Larson’s win continued a streak of success for graduates of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program.
It started when Nick Sanchez won the Truck Series race to open the season at Daytona, and then Suarez won the Cup Series race last week at Atlanta.
“The D4D program was good for my career. Kind of gave me my introduction into stock car racing and gained a lot of experience, not only on the racetrack but off of it, as well,” Larson said. “I’m sure it’s changed quite a bit since 2012, but regardless, they’ve produced some great drivers, and it’s cool to see.
“Hopefully, we can add some more D4D guys on to the new championship list down the road.”
UP NEXT
NASCAR goes to Phoenix Raceway, where Byron is the defending race winner. Chastain won in November on the day Blaney won his first Cup title.
The young collector who scored a one-of-a-kind baseball card featuring National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes has turned down a trade offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Topps announced Friday that the 11-year-old from the Los Angeles area had declined the deal and instead was going to put the card — which features Skenes’ autograph and a patch from a game-worn jersey — up for auction.
𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋: The 11-year-old collector who pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 Debut Patch card has DECLINED the Pirates’ offer.
The Pirates offer included: – Two Pirates season tickets behind home plate for the next 30 years – Meet & Greet with Paul Skenes – Two Paul Skenes… pic.twitter.com/oRBhhD647j
The Pirates had put together a package that included 30 years’ worth of season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park and the chance to play a softball game on the field in exchange for the card.
Skenes’ girlfriend, LSU gymnast and influencer Livvy Dunne, also offered the card’s owner the opportunity to take in a game with her in a luxury suite at the ballpark during one of Skenes’ starts.
While the collector wrote in a journal entry shared by Topps that nabbing the card was a “dream come true,” that dream apparently did not include spending the next three decades attending games at PNC Park.
The 11-year-old collector who pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 Debut Patch card just shared his journal entries…
The team posted on X after the decision that it was “bummed” but offered to have the fan at a game sometime during the 2025 season.
Fanatics Collect, which will handle the auctioning of the card in March, said it would donate its proceeds from the sale to fire relief funds in the Los Angeles area.
The card could hold pretty high value considering the potentially bright future ahead for the 22-year-old Skenes, who finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting after an outstanding rookie season.
The No. 1 pick in the 2023 amateur draft made his major league debut in May and put together one of the most impressive rookie seasons in recent memory. Skenes was selected as the NL’s starting pitcher in the All-Star Game after only 11 starts and finished 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 games.
Skenes said over the weekend he hasn’t thought about the potential of signing a long-term contract to remain in Pittsburgh, saying instead that his focus is on helping the Pirates take a step toward contending in 2025. He is eligible for free agency after the 2029 season.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Two-time All-America safety Xavier Watts will enter the NFL draft rather than return to Notre Dame for a sixth season.
Watts made the announcement on social media Friday, four days after the Irish lost to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff championship game in Atlanta.
Watts began his college career as a receiver in 2020 and moved to defense his second season. He had 13 interceptions over the past two seasons, most by any player in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He picked off six passes this season, running one back 100 yards to help Notre Dame seal its win against Southern California. He was voted to the Associated Press All-America first team for two straight years.
Watts, whose hometown is Omaha, Nebraska, could have returned to Notre Dame to use the extra season granted by the NCAA to athletes who were active during the 2020 pandemic season. Most draft analysts project Watts to be selected late in the first round or in the second.
“As I embark on the next chapter of my football journey, I’m filled with pride as I look back on the many memories and people that I’ll forever cherish,” Watts wrote on X. “I hope that my time in the Irish uniform has helped continue the tradition of those that came before me.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
OMAHA, Neb. — Calvin Jones, who rushed for more than 3,000 yards in three seasons at Nebraska and was with the Green Bay Packers when they won the Super Bowl after the 1996 season, has died. He was 54.
Police said Jones’ body was found in the basement of a house in north Omaha on Wednesday night. Police have not confirmed a cause of death pending an autopsy.
A friend of Jones, Jo Dusatko, told the Omaha World-Herald that carbon monoxide poisoning was suspected. She said the furnace in the home was not working and that Jones was using a generator in the basement.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Husker legend and Super Bowl Champion, Calvin Jones.
Jones was a high school All-American at Central High School before he went to Nebraska, where he rushed for 3,166 yards and 40 touchdowns and was an All-Big Eight pick in 1992-93.
Jones and Derek Brown formed the tandem called the “We-Backs,” a nod to the Cornhuskers’ I-back position, with Jones the backup to Brown in 1991. Jones’ breakout that season came when he ran 27 times for a Big Eight freshman-record 294 yards and a school-record six touchdowns in a 59-23 victory over Kansas. His rushing total against the Jayhawks ranks No. 2 on the Nebraska single-game rushing chart.
Jones declared for the NFL draft in 1994 and was a third-round selection of the Raiders. He appeared in 15 games over two seasons with the Raiders and had a total of 27 carries for 112 yards and two catches for 6 yards. He appeared in one game for the Packers in 1996 but had no carries.
