Sunday Setup: How Las Vegas heat factors into race-day strategy

LAS VEGAS — Denny Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle nailed both their strategy and their car setup the last time the NASCAR Cup Series visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

They’re hoping they can find that sweet spot yet again with their No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Sunday’s race at the 1.5-mile oval (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Just trying to replicate the success, really, right?” Gayle told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “Like, we know what we think made us good last time, and we’re trying to replicate that here. And the temperatures are probably going to be far closer to the fall race. Normally, it’s pretty cool here in the spring, and we didn’t quite get that this time. So, can we build upon that performance or not?”

MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas

So far, it appears they’re close. After qualifying on pole position in October, Hamlin qualified second in Saturday’s time trials and will start on the front row alongside teammate Christopher Bell.

The ambient temperatures, Gayle believes, will play a factor in how teams balance their race cars for 400 miles around NASCAR’s first intermediate oval of 2026. The spring race produced an uncharacteristic 25th-place finish for the No. 11 team in March 2025, a day when temperatures maxed out at 71 degrees Fahrenheit. On a warmer October afternoon last fall with temps around 77 degrees, Hamlin led nine laps and stormed to the win late.

“It helps specifically, like for us, when we were better in the fall than the spring, and we want to use those fall notes more closely than we did the spring race. That’s really about it,” Gayle said. “And I think you have enough time (and) you get enough spring and fall races, the temperature differences, you can kind of understand the compensation you need to make for it.”

The car that led the most laps last fall, however, was the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Kyle Larson and led by crew chief Cliff Daniels. The team earned Chevrolet’s quickest qualifying time Saturday and will roll off the starting grid fifth. But the team is also navigating updated body panels on Chevrolet’s 2026 Camaro ZL1. With Las Vegas being the first intermediate oval, this provides a true test for Chevrolet’s camp. The group enters Sunday’s exam with just 20 laps of practice and one circuit of qualifying on the track added to their simulation data.

“Twenty minutes isn’t long to adjust on it, but everybody’s in the same boat,” Daniels told NASCAR.com Saturday. “And really grateful for all the people at GM, Chevrolet for bringing us a car that we believe has a lot more potential still to get in it. It’s going to take us a minute to figure out how to balance it out and get it closer. But all signs were looking pretty good today, and now we’ve just got to work on getting the balance a little bit closer for making him comfortable. But I think it’s close.”

Kyle Larson drives during NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas.

But what strategy will be the right one come Sunday afternoon? In October 2024, Joey Logano stretched his fuel mileage 69 laps to score the victory over Bell, the day’s dominant driver. The answer to Sunday’s equation lies somewhere in the crew chiefs’ notebooks — as long as they select the right formula.

“I mean, we’ve studied a lot of the Vegas, Kansas type intermediate races. They all play out very similar,” Daniels said. “There’s some cautions that you’ve got to look for if they fall at certain spots. Otherwise, the stages play out very similar to one another between those two track types and especially over the years. So all that’s in mind. I don’t expect anything new. Certainly going to be hot and slick, so grip will be a priority. And otherwise, it’s just going to be making good decisions in the moment and execute when we can.”

Pit-stall selection has also proven pertinent in certain years at Las Vegas. Pit road follows a curve along the frontstretch that leaves certain pit stalls advantageous and others detrimental. That includes pit stall No. 1 — the pit box nearest pit exit. Daniels selected stall No. 15 for the third time in the past four Vegas races, while Gayle selected pit stall No. 6 for the No. 11 team. Adam Stevens, crew chief of Bell’s pole-winning car, selected pit stall No. 1, a change from the last time the No. 20 team earned the pole in October 2024 and chose stall No. 6.

MORE: Sunday’s pit map

The debate is fascinating — and arguably never-ending — but how drivers navigate their pit entry and exit may well play a factor in who wins Sunday’s race.

“I think there’s lots of people to complain about how well (that first pit stall) launches, and it does not launch very well,” Gayle said. “And then there’s also the factors of which pit stalls get the best rolling times as well. And obviously, we have enough data. I’ve been in stall one now. I’ve been not stall one with Denny. We can compare and see what the trade-offs are and make the decision based on that.”

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