PREVIEW: Four Cup regulars look to pull double-duty in Las Vegas, but no open teams arrive for Sunday
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Haas Factory Team, @HaasFactoryTeam
Saturday, March 14, 2026 (Green Flag 5:35 P.M. ET, CW)
O’REILLY Race 5 of 33
The LiUNA! at Las Vegas
2025 Last-Place Finisher: William Sawalich
ENTRY LIST
There are 41 drivers entered for 38 spots, meaning three teams will be sent home.
DRIVER CHANGE: #0-SS-Green Light Racing
In what is likely a joint effort with the Haas Factory Team, which as Stewart-Haas Racing also partnered with Bobby Dotter’s team with this driver to win at Fontana in 2022, Cole Custer rejoins SS-Green Light Racing to pilot the #0 with sponsorship from Sysco. This time, Custer takes the place of Garrett Smithley, who took 29th last week in Phoenix. It will be Custer’s first O’Reilly start since the conclusion of his last full season in that division in 2024.
DRIVER CHANGE: #1-JR Motorsports
RETURNING / DRIVER SWAP: #9-JR Motorsports
Connor Zilisch gets another turn in JRM’s #1 entry, this time with Carolina Carports as sponsor. He takes the place of Carson Kvapil, who after leading 22 laps and finishing 3rd in Phoenix, is this time moved to JRM’s returning #9, already his third different car number in these first five races. Kvapil’s run in the #9 is the first for the team since Shane Van Gisbergen’s victory at COTA two weeks ago.
DRIVER CHANGE: #19-Joe Gibbs Racing
Another Cup driver on the entry list is Chase Briscoe, who after back-to-back last-place finishes in his last two Cup Series starts looks to turn things around. Taking the place of Brent Crews, who showed speed early at Phoenix before slipping to 18th, Briscoe makes his 88th series start and first since Charlotte last May, when he also piloted JGR’s #19 to a 23rd-place finish.
DRIVER CHANGE: #30-Barrett-Cope Racing
Following his late-race heroics as Alex Bowman’s relief driver at COTA, Myatt Snider looks to make his first start in a NASCAR race this season. This week, he drives for Barrett-Cope Racing in what appears to be the same car that Austin J. Hill piloted to a 34th-place finish in Phoenix last week, only with a different sponsor on the hood in Rollin’ Smoke Barbecue.
DRIVER CHANGE: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
As of this writing, the driver for Joey Gase Motorsports’ #35 entry has not been confirmed. The team failed to qualify last Saturday with driver Blake Lothian, who was sent home along with DGM Racing x JIM’s Josh Williams in the #92. Gase himself is still listed in the #55.
DRIVER CHANGE: #88-JR Motorsports
Completing the slew of four Cup Series regulars in Saturday’s field is two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, who swaps in for two-time Daytona 500 champion William Byron, the 13th-place finisher at Phoenix, in the JRM #88. This is Larson’s first O’Reilly start since last summer at Indianapolis, when he drove the Hendrick #17 to a 4th-place finish. Interestingly, he hasn’t run an O’Reilly car at Las Vegas since his win in this race back in 2018.
CUP INVADERS: #0-Cole Custer, #1-Connor Zilisch, #19-Chase Briscoe, #88-Kyle Larson
Sunday, March 15, 2026 (Green Flag 4:13 P.M. ET, FS1)
CUP Race 5 of 36
Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Cody Ware
ENTRY LIST
For the first time this season, only the 36 Chartered entries will populate this week’s entry list, which also marks the fourth-straight short field in 2026.
MISSING: #33-Richard Childress Racing
Austin Hill is not entered following a 21st-place finish at Phoenix last Sunday and will focus on Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.
DRIVER CHANGE: #48-Hendrick Motorsports
On Tuesday came news that Justin Allgaier, last Saturday’s winner of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race in Phoenix, will once again be called upon to drive in place of Alex Bowman as he continues to recover from symptoms of vertigo. Allgaier, whose most recent Cup start was with JR Motorsports’ #40 in this year’s Daytona 500, has made infrequent Cup starts since his last full season in 2015, often as a relief driver. He last piloted the #48 in the 2020 Brickyard 400, where he finished 37th after a multi-car pileup on pit road. Allgaier steps in for Anthony Alfredo, last Sunday’s relief driver, who was collected in a wreck while battling into the Top Ten, dropping him to 33rd. As with Austin Hill, Alfredo returns his focus this Saturday to his O’Reilly effort with Viking Motorsports.
Friday, March 20, 2026
TRUCKS Race 4 of 25
Sober or Slammer 200 at Darlington
2025 Last-Place Finisher (August): Clayton Green
The Truck Series returns next week at Darlington.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (March 13, 2004): David Starr scored the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in the EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200 at Atlanta when his #75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet lost the engine after 12 laps.
