Breaking Down the Busiest Weekend in Las Vegas Sports History

4. NASCAR Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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 Las Vegas Motor Speedway opened up the round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs, and the 1.5-mile track did not disappoint when it came to action.  All that action started Friday night when Christian Eckes was able to pull away from the field in the Camping World Truck Series and earn his first NASCAR win. That was followed up by Josh Berry, who filled in for Michael Annett, winning at Las Vegas in the Xfinity Series and setting the stage for a very bright future at JR Motorsports.

Fast forward to  Sunday night's Cup race, and it was an intense battle between the Joe Gibbs Racing machines and the Hendrick Motorsports cars. While Hendrick managed to stay competitive for most of the evening, even leading laps at one point, it was Denny Hamlin who no one could seem to catch up to in the closing stages of the race. This gave Hamlin the eventual win and a guaranteed spot in the round of eight. Chase Elliott finished second, Kyle Busch finished third,  Martin Truex Jr finished fourth, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five. 

"It feels so good to win in Vegas," said Hamlin, after becoming the first driver to earn a spot in the round of eight next month. "I'm so happy to not have to worry about the next two weeks."