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NASCAR completed its fifth race of the ongoing Cup Series season in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 400-mile and 267-lap race saw Michael McDowell of Spire Motorsports start from pole and Josh Berry of Wood Brothers Racing came out as the winner.
While the Pennzoil 400 was a successful outing for Berry (who claimed his first Cup Series win and qualified for the NASCAR playoffs), and WBR (the team claimed its 101st win), the race also saw some drivers end up with disappointments.
Here we have amassed five such drivers who lost big during the recently concluded Las Vegas race:
#5 Joey Logano
The defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano has not had a flying start to the 2025 Cup Series season. The Team Penske driver is yet to make his mark in 2025, and the Las Vegas race was no different.
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Despite starting from second place, and claiming seventh in stage 1, Logano slowly fell down the order and dropped beyond the top 10 in the end. The #22 driver came home in 15th place, ahead of Michael McDowell and behind Justin Haley.
#4 Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell started the race on the pole, as he handed his team Spire Motorsports, its first pole in the Cup Series. Despite starting from the front, he slowly lost ground and was out of the top 10 in both Stage 1 and Stage 2.
In the end, McDowell finished the race in 16th place, behind Joey Logano and ahead of Chase Briscoe. This was McDowell's seventh pole in his Cup Series career, where he only picked two victories.
#3 Austin Cindric
Austin Cindric failed to deliver once again as he could not hold on to his early race advantage. The Team Penske driver started the race from third place, behind pole-sitter Michael McDowell and second-placed Joey Logano, but failed to keep hold of the place in the end.
The #2 driver won stage 1, and but lost the mojo in stage 2. In the end, he came home in sixth place behind Ross Chastain and ahead of Alex Bowman. Cindric has been statistically poor when it comes to races, even though he had been brilliant in qualifying.
#2 Kyle Larson
Kyle Larson, the driver with the most number of wins in 2024, is yet to win a race this season. Larson started his race from 10th place and moved to fifth in stage 1. Following this, he kept his advantage and won stage 2 ahead of teammate William Byron.
However, in the final stage, he lost the advantage, and finished his race in ninth place, ahead of teammate Chase Elliott and behind AJ Allmendinger.
#1 Ryan Blaney
Ryan Blaney had the most disappointing race in Las Vegas. The Team Penske driver started his race from 10th place but encountered a left front tire issue during stage 1. As he moved to the pit stop to sort it out, he had a painfully long pit stop.
After he returned to race despite being two laps down, Blaney covered up the ground and reached within the top 10. However, in the final stage of the race, he was involved in a wreck with Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, and many others, and had to retire from the race.
