Tag: Las Vegas

This Jack Nicklaus-designed Las Vegas golf course that features replica holes just sold for $30.5 million

The course sits in the swanky neighborhood of Summerlin on the city’s west side.

Bear’s Best in Las Vegas was a novel idea from the start — a desert-based golf course with 18 of Jack Nicklaus’ favorite holes that he’d designed on more than 200 other golf courses.

The course sits in the swanky neighborhood of Summerlin on the city’s west side, not far from the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

But the golf course, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has been sold for $30.5 million.

More: Where to play golf around Las Vegas; Golfweek’s Best public-access courses

According to the story, the manager of the new company that made the purchase has plenty of familiarity in the area.

The buyer is Mulligan Holdings LLC, which is headquartered in Las Vegas, but has California-based businessman Andrew Pascal listed as a manager. Pascal is the co-founder and CEO of PlayStudios, an online gaming and gambling app and website.

Pascal previously was president and COO of Wynn Las Vegas from 2003-10, according to his LinkedIn profile. Also named as one of the managers of Mulligan Holdings is Mike Mixer, who is the chairman and former executive managing director and co-founder of the Colliers International Las Vegas office. The company provided the following statement via email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“We will continue to prioritize the golf experience for our daily players and want to thank the incredible team that has made Bear’s Best one of the premier golf courses in the Las Vegas Valley. As we prepare for the next chapter, we look forward to redeveloping Bear’s Best into a world-class golf club, and social hub for the surrounding community, while further elevating Las Vegas as a globally recognized golf destination.”

Ready to make a break from the casinos or hectic pace of the Las Vegas Strip? If you’re looking for the top golf courses around Sin City, Golfweek’s Best has you covered.

Photo Gallery: Ducks cap magical run with Pac-12 Tournament championship

Photo Gallery: Oregon defeats Colorado to win last Pac-12 tournament

Well, that a bit unexpected. But Oregon isn’t going to turn down a dance invitation.

The Ducks are officially in the NCAA tournament after defeating Colorado 75-68 in the last Pac-12 tourney in Las Vegas. It was the first time Oregon has won three straight games since January and it picked a heck of a time putting it all together.

And it wasn’t like they beat three lowly teams. Oregon was a combined 1-5 against UCLA, Arizona, and the Buffaloes before this weekend. After the win, most of the attention was on it being the last game for the Conference of Champions with memories and highlight videos dominating Vegas. Advancing to the Big Dance was almost an afterthought.

But the Ducks are dancing and will find out who they play, where they’ll play and what seed was assigned to them on Sunday afternoon. Here are some of the best photos from the big celebration from Sin City.

‘I don’t like running second’ Reddick says after Vegas defeat

Tyler Reddick felt evenly matched with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he needed Larson to be the one in dirty air. Reddick’s 23XI Racing Toyota Camry was fast enough to chase Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet down over the …

Tyler Reddick felt evenly matched with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he needed Larson to be the one in dirty air.

Reddick’s 23XI Racing Toyota Camry was fast enough to chase Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet down over the final 10 laps, but he couldn’t do anything with him. Larson air-blocked Reddick and took away the options Reddick had to try to make a pass for victory in the Pennzoil 400.

“We were pretty evenly matched, so I don’t know if there was anything that I really could’ve done to get around him,” Reddick said Sunday after finishing second. “He would have had to make a big mistake or had some traffic kind of knock his wind around. I needed some fortune; I didn’t make any for myself today with mistakes on pit road.

“It’s a solid effort for our team. That’s how we need to run, but I don’t like running second.”

Reddick was over 1s behind Larson with 18 laps to go. He cut the gap to 0.5s with 13 laps to go and was on Larson’s bumper with three laps to go. Over the final laps, Reddick tried different lanes through the corners, hoping to stay out of Larson’s wake. Reddick mostly ran the high lane while Larson kept to the bottom or the middle.

The strategy of knowing he couldn’t follow Larson into a corner got Reddick to his back bumper, but then he could only follow Larson for the final two laps and even gave up trying to go to the high lane. Reddick said Larson took away all of his options.

“Sorry, guys,” a frustrated Reddick said over his team radio after the checkered flag. “We should have won that [expletive] race.”

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He was also frustrated by pit road. After finishing the first stage in second position to Larson, Reddick lost all of his track position (falling to 16th place) when he slid the front tires entering his pit stall, and the car angled to the left. It was an awkward position to try to exit his stall, and he needed to back up and straighten out before leaving pit road.

“I feel like we were never up front really all day long until it got to the stage ends,” Reddick said. “We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry. Just stupid mistakes on pit road. Same [expletive], different year. Kind of frustrating. We’ll continue to work on it, but a good rebound for our team today.”

Reddick finished second in both stages and the race. He started from the 18th position.

A caution in the final stage aided the rebound. Reddick closed the gap to 0.5s behind Larson with the drafting help of lapped teammate Bubba Wallace before a round of green flag pit stops with less than 60 laps to go. But Reddick cycled out over 2s behind Larson and was 1.5s behind when the final caution flew with 33 laps to go.

Reddick came off pit road third and lined up behind the No. 5 on the inside lane for the restart. When his initial charge to the inside was blocked by Larson going into Turn 1, Reddick settled into third position before making his way around Ross Chastain for second place with 21 laps to go to be able to focus on chasing Larson for the victory.

“Second sucks, that’s for sure, but we had a really fast Nasty Beast Toyota Camry,” Reddick said. “We should have been up there battling even more than we were throughout the day; just put us behind, unfortunately. We had to fight back through that all day [and] as the field got better, it got harder to get back to the front as quick.

“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 didn’t do it today.”

When asked when the sting would wear off, Reddick said, “It won’t.”

Larson holds off Reddick for Las Vegas win

Kyle Larson got the best of Tyler Reddick at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by using the air to his advantage. The Hendrick Motorsports driver won Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 by keeping Reddick in dirty air as he ran different lanes when needed over the final …

Kyle Larson got the best of Tyler Reddick at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by using the air to his advantage.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver won Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 by keeping Reddick in dirty air as he ran different lanes when needed over the final 10 laps. Initially, Larson had gapped the field off the race’s final restart with 27 laps to go, but Reddick had the faster car over the long run. Larson’s lead went from 1s with 18 laps to go to just 0.5s with 13 laps to go.

Larson began mirror driving inside the final 10 laps as Reddick tried to stay out of his dirty air through Turns 1 and 2. The gap disappeared with three laps to go as Reddick got a strong run through Turns 3 and 4 on the bottom of the racetrack as Larson went high.

It wasn’t enough, and Reddick could only do so much when getting so close to the No. 5. Over the final two laps, Reddick stayed on Larson’s bumper but followed him across the finish line.

 

“I knew Tyler was going to be the guy to beat from the first stage,” Larson said. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was going to timeout to where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end. Thankfully, I was able to air-block him [for] a couple of laps and get him tight.

“I think him and Bubba [Wallace] were going to get to working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen. But all in all, such a great, great job by this HendrickCars.com Chevy team and just their execution. Pit road, restarts, all of that was great. It’s cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back, swept all the stages again, so I can’t ask for much more.”

Larson won the fall race at Las Vegas in 2023. Sunday was his third victory at the speedway.

It was a dominating day for Larson, who led a race-high 181 of 267 laps, but Reddick kept him within sight. Before a round of green flag pit stops late in the final stage, the 23XI car had the push drafting help of teammate Wallace, who was multiple laps down due to a lug nut that needed to be cut off his car, and cut Larson’s lead to 0.5s. That time was lost through the green flag pit cycle, leaving Reddick over 2s behind.

The race’s final caution flew with 33 laps to go when Corey LaJoie spun and hit the wall in Turn 2. Larson was leading Reddick by 1.4s at the time.

Larson won the race off pit road, followed by Ross Chastain, who took two tires. Reddick came off in third place. On the restart with 27 laps to go, Larson blocked Reddick’s run into Turn 1 and then chased Chastain through the corners before eventually clearing him for the race lead.

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Reddick got back to second with 21 laps to go. It was Larson over Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chastain, and Ty Gibbs at the finish line.

Gibbs fought through the day without first gear. There was also a slow pit stop under the lap 156 caution period, for which the team was penalized for an uncontrolled tire.

“It’s just the Next Gen racing game, right? Get the lead and got to hold on to it,” Reddick said. “Kyle did a really good job there taking away pretty much every option I had there to close the gap. He seemed pretty good in the middle, and I was obviously really good on the bottom, and he just never let me have it. I kept trying to run higher and higher and he’s kind of running in the middle of the racetrack, which is pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I sort of got close, we’re running just wide-open enough in Turn 1 and 2 [and] you can kind of defend pretty well.

“It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never up front really all day long until it got to the stage ends. We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry. Just stupid mistakes on pit road. Same [expletive], different year. Kind of frustrating. We’ll continue to work on it, but a good rebound for our team today.”

Noah Gragson finished sixth, Martin Truex Jr., seventh, Denny Hamlin, eighth, and polesitter Joey Logano, ninth. William Byron completed the top 10 after having to come from a lap down when a large piece of black plastic got stuck on the nose of his car and caused it to overheat. Byron was forced to pit under green on lap 47.

Logano led the first two laps of the race from pole and later was not a factor. It was Larson who took the lead from Logano on his way to dominating the day.

The first caution flew on lap 10 for Christopher Bell. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver blew a right rear tire. It was the first of multiple incidents for Bell, who spun off Turn 2 on lap 156 and blew another right rear tire near the end of the second stage.

Chris Buescher lost a right front wheel on lap 27 and hit the Turn 1 wall, resulting in NASCAR having to red flag the race to repair the wall. Buescher was the only driver who failed to finish the race.

There were 24 lead changes among 15 drivers in Sunday’s race and six cautions.

RESULTS

Buescher crash red flags Cup Series at Las Vegas for wall repair

NASCAR had to red flag Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for wall repair after Chris Buescher crashed in Turn 1. Buescher hit the wall when the right front wheel came off his RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse on lap 27. …

NASCAR had to red flag Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for wall repair after Chris Buescher crashed in Turn 1.

Buescher hit the wall when the right front wheel came off his RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse on lap 27. The team did not get the wheel tight when Buescher came in for two tires under the lap 10 caution.

After the race restarted on lap 16, the single center-locking lug nut worked itself loose and came off as Buescher turned into the corner. Once the nut came off, the wheel followed and the car hit the wall.

Buescher initially thought he blew a tire, radioing as much to his team and that he “hit a ton.” He was checked and released from the infield care center.

“We lost the nut and lost half the wheel,” Buescher said. “I think the tire stayed up under the fender. I’m not exactly sure just yet, but it looks like the nut came off and something in the suspension actually cut the wheel in half. It’s definitely not what we wanted with our Fastenal Ford Mustang out here today.

“We had a strong day yesterday. I was really proud of that effort. We got a good bunch here and we’re going to be contenders. We’re going to win some races, but it’s not going to happen today.”

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NASCAR dispatched the welding truck to make repairs to the wall. It resulted in a 10m39s red flag.

Buescher was the first driver to retire from the Pennzoil 400. He will finish last.

“No, nothing that says that was coming,” Buescher said of not having a warning of the wheel being loose. “That’s kind of been the case with this car. I’ve probably had three of these now through the last couple of years and haven’t had a warning on any of them. It’s nothing like the old five lug stuff where you’d get a vibration or a shimmy or have some kind of clue. It just happens all of a sudden.

“It’s very unfortunate there, very tough. We have a great group of people on our team right now and we’re going to bounce back from this and get going in the right direction. That hurts just so early. We were able to move forward out of there. We took two tires and were doing OK and holding our own against four tires around us and just ended up out way earlier than we wanted. I guess we talked a little bit yesterday, and probably truthfully, for the first time in my career, I’m excited about Phoenix after what we had last time there. I won’t have to lie about that, but certainly a bad day today. It’s very disappointing. That sucks.”

Nemechek wins Xfinity’s desert duel of JGR teammates in Vegas

Chandler Smith won the battle. John Hunter Nemechek won the war. The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates spent most of Saturday afternoon racing each other for the top spot in The LiUNA!, a 300-mile NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It …

Chandler Smith won the battle. John Hunter Nemechek won the war.

The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates spent most of Saturday afternoon racing each other for the top spot in The LiUNA!, a 300-mile NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was Nemechek who proved superior in the long run.

After Smith won the first two stages of the race — the second with a deft last-lap pass of Nemechek’s No. 20 Toyota — Nemechek asserted his dominance.

By the time Nemechek crossed the finish line at the end of lap 200, he held a 4.36s lead over pole winner Cole Custer, who had charged into second place after a late cycle of green flag pit stops.

“Hats off to all the guys on this No. 20 team for Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Nemechek, who led a race-high 99 laps in securing his first victory of the season, his first at Las Vegas and the 10th of his career.

“Man, it’s awesome to come out here and win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a limited number of starts. Our goal is to come and win as many as we possibly could. Nothing else matters.

“Congrats to Tyler (Allen). He’s the crew chief this year on the No. 20 car — his first win as a crew chief. Our spotter, Ryan Blanchard — his first win as well… Man, it feels so good to win here in Las Vegas. Got to rest for tomorrow, so I’m excited.”

Now full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series with Legacy Motor Club, Nemechek will race in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 (3:30pm ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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Smith arguably had the best car in the race until he pitted with the rest of the field at the second stage break.

“We just over-adjusted a little bit,” said Smith, who led 74 laps, including the first 49, and came home third. “[We were] trying to stay ahead of the race track, and it feels actually like it might have gotten a little colder as well.

“It felt like track definitely freed up, and we went in that same direction, thinking it was going to tighten up. So you live and you learn… We were pretty dominant and we just over-adjusted, but I’m happy that a Joe Gibbs Racing car still won.”

Austin Hill, who triumphed in the first two races of the season, at Daytona and Atlanta, was fourth, with Riley Herbst finishing fifth after dominating the Las Vegas race last fall. AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier completed the top 10.

Hill retained his series lead by 22 points over Smith in second. Hailie Deegan was the top Sunoco rookie with a 15th-place finish.

For the second time in three races, ill fortune beset JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer, who completed just 22 of 120 laps in the season opener at Daytona.

Mayer was running 10th on lap eight on Saturday when the No. 31 Chevrolet of fifth-place qualifier Parker Retzlaff turned sideways in front of him and slammed into the right side of Mayer’s car, knocking him out of the race.

“It’s just the year from hell,” Mayer said. “Very frustrating and unfortunate and can’t wait to get to Phoenix [for next Saturday’s race].”

Another early casualty was New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, who took his Kaulig Racing Chevrolet behind the wall with overheating problems after completing 27 laps.

Van Gisbergen and Mayer finished 37th and 38th respectively in the 38-car field.

RESULTS

Logano’s glove saga was ‘hard to go through and embarrassing’

Joey Logano said Saturday he shares in the responsibility of the No. 22 team being penalized by NASCAR for the webbed glove he wore last weekend. It was the left-hand glove Logano wore during qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway that cost him …

Joey Logano said Saturday he shares in the responsibility of the No. 22 team being penalized by NASCAR for the webbed glove he wore last weekend.

It was the left-hand glove Logano wore during qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway that cost him $10,000 after being sent to the rear of the field and having to serve a pass-through penalty. NASCAR deemed it was both a safety violation for modifying SFI safety equipment and a competition infraction because it was used to block air through the window net.

The Team Penske driver, however, didn’t admit as to who came up with the idea. But Logano did wear the glove when it was given to him by the team.

“That’s kind of how a lot of things work,” Logano said. “As a driver, you work with the team and hey, I’m going to take a portion of the responsibility of that, too, obviously. I should. I put the glove on. With that said, I didn’t build the glove. I didn’t make it on my own. I can’t sew, so that’s what it was and we had conversations about it.”

Logano will start from the pole Sunday in Las Vegas, his second pole in three weeks. It was a performance that came with a bit of a chip on his shoulder after the events of last week.

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“What I’m proud about as a team is, yeah, that was a tough situation for us. It was hard to go through and embarrassing, for sure,” Logano said. “But the fact [is] that we got through it and just move on and focus on the next week. We showed that we have some speed in our race car and to be able to put it on the pole here, to me, is a statement-type lap, so I’m proud of that.”

NASCAR did not review in-car footage from Daytona and Brad Moran, the Cup Series managing director, said they don’t know if Logano wore the glove for Daytona 500 qualifying. It was a random review of in-car camera footage at Atlanta that caught the webbed glove Logano was wearing. Logano did not comment on whether he wore the glove in Daytona.

Logano even went as far as to deny that wearing the glove made a difference.

“It didn’t do anything to speak of,” he said. “It was directionally an area that everybody goes to try to block that hole. You see everyone put their hand there; we just tried to cover more space.”

Suarez adamant Atlanta is just the start of his Cup season’s success

Daniel Suarez reiterated Saturday he doesn’t want his Atlanta Motor Speedway victory to be the only highlight of the season. Suarez is looking at a return to the NASCAR postseason for the first time since 2022, courtesy of being the first to the …

Daniel Suarez reiterated Saturday he doesn’t want his Atlanta Motor Speedway victory to be the only highlight of the season.

Suarez is looking at a return to the NASCAR postseason for the first time since 2022, courtesy of being the first to the finish line in a three-wide photo finish last weekend. But the Trackhouse Racing driver isn’t looking that far ahead.

“We have a long way [to go] before the playoffs,” Suarez said at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “In my mind, I don’t want to be one of those drivers that wins one race to get into the playoffs and that’s it. I don’t want to be part of that. The goal here is to do more than that, to be strong in the regular season championship.

“I know that to be able to contend for the championship, you have to win three or more races and that’s the goal. The goal is to build a strong season where we have stage points, where we have wins, so that when we get into the playoffs, it’s not just, ‘Oh, we made the playoffs,’ but in a strong fashion. That’s the goal and we’re working hard, everyone at Trackhouse Racing, to be able to deliver that.”

He scored his first career win at Sonoma in 2022 in his sixth full season as a Cup Series driver. It was his only victory that season. Last year, he went winless and failed to make the postseason, and Atlanta marks his second career win.

Suarez has seen that winning multiple races is the key to success. Ross Chastain, his Trackhouse teammate, won two races in 2022 and competed for the championship. Chastain won twice last year and finished in the top 10 in points again.

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By winning early in the season, Suarez admitted his No. 99 team may now be able to find more ways to earn points. Unless there are more than 16 different winners, he has a guaranteed playoff spot through his win, so focusing on stage points and playoff points for his seeding can become more of a priority.

“I had a meeting with Squid (Matt Swiderski), my crew chief, about it,” Suarez said. “It definitely gives us a lot more freedom. We want to gamble wisely; you don’t want to do just wild gambles and hope for the best, like a stage running long and hoping for things to just fall in your lap. But you can gamble a little bit in the setup. You can gamble a little bit on the strategy. You can push the limits a little bit harder in a few areas. I think it’s a very good thing.

“With that being said, it’s also very important to continue to be consistent, to continue to be strong, and to have in mind that yeah, we’re in the playoffs, but in my mind, one win won’t do it to be able to get to Phoenix to fight for a championship. You have to really build your resume over the year, and we have to continue to do that.”

Suarez finished a career-best 10th in the championship standings when he made the playoffs in 2022. Saturday, he qualified 16th at the first intermediate racetrack of the season.

“I think, honestly, this weekend for us is going to be a very, very important weekend,” Suarez said. “For everyone, because we have a lot of mile-and-a-half [tracks], and this is the first one with this package, and we have to see where we stack up and where we’re strong and where are the areas that we aren’t very strong that we have to work on. We’re going to find out a lot of things today and tomorrow, and I’m very excited for that.”

Logano tops Cup qualifying once again at Las Vegas

Joey Logano will start from the front row for the third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race after claiming the pole Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a speed of 184.357mph (29.291s). It’s his second pole in three races. “Paul [Wolfe] got her …

Joey Logano will start from the front row for the third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race after claiming the pole Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a speed of 184.357mph (29.291s).

It’s his second pole in three races.

“Paul [Wolfe] got her tuned up for me pretty good,” Logano said of his crew chief making adjustments between qualifying rounds. “I didn’t think that was going to be enough because the second round just feels different, right? And you’re in the car and you’re like, ‘Gah, it’s not going to be good enough.’ But the tires fall off a little bit.

“It’s always important to start up front in the Pennzoil 400 and we got that with our (Pennzoil) Mustang today. That’s front row every start so far this year, so I’m proud of this race team. I’m proud of everyone’s efforts, and obviously, when you bring a new Mustang to the racetrack, you’re always a little bit uncertain of what it’s going to be, and a lot to learn obviously with the Dark Horse Mustang as well, but so far so good in qualifying.”

It is the 30th career pole for Logano in the Cup Series. It will be the third time he’s led the field to the green flag at Las Vegas.

Kyle Larson will join Logano on the front row. Larson qualified second at 184.225mph.

Austin Cindric qualified third (184.093mph), William Byron fourth (183.911mph), Bubba Wallace fifth (183.648mph), Chase Briscoe sixth (183.486mph), Martin Truex Jr. seventh (183.169mph) and Ty Gibbs eighth (183.150mph).

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Chris Buescher qualified ninth (182.927mph) and Christopher Bell completed the top 10 (182.556mph).

Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team are the defending race winners.

Saturday was the first time teams qualified with the new procedures for this season on non-superspeedway racetracks. The drivers in Group A qualified for a starting position on the outside row, while the drivers in Group B qualified for a starting position on the inside row.

That procedure is used just for the drivers who do not advance to the final round (11th through 40th).

Chase Elliott qualified 11th and Michael McDowell, 12th. Carson Hocevar qualified 14th, which is a career-best on a non-superspeedway racetrack. Derek Kraus qualified 33rd for his Cup Series debut.

Three drivers did not post a qualifying lap.

Ryan Preece is going to a backup car after he crashed in practice. He spun on his own in Turn 2 and hit the outside wall with the left side of his Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Justin Haley did not post a lap when his Rick Ware Racing team pushed his car to the garage after practice with a steering issue. JJ Yeley was the other driver who didn’t make a qualifying attempt for NY Racing Team.

Full results to come

Chastain quickest in Cup Series practice at Las Vegas

Ross Chastain was the fastest overall driver Saturday in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading the way at 184.269mph (29.305s). The Trackhouse Racing driver ran 22 laps in practice but his fastest lap was his second. Noah …

Ross Chastain was the fastest overall driver Saturday in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading the way at 184.269mph (29.305s). The Trackhouse Racing driver ran 22 laps in practice but his fastest lap was his second.

Noah Gragson was second-fastest in practice at 183.661mph, Ty Gibbs third at 182.859mph, Tyler Reddick fourth at 182.846mph and Denny Hamlin fifth at 182.723mph.

Bubba Wallace was sixth at 182.673mph, Chase Briscoe seventh at 182.439mph, William Byron eighth at 182.346mph, Kyle Larson ninth at 182.328mph and Chris Buescher rounded out the top 10 at 182.094mph.

Cup Series point leader Kyle Busch was 17th fastest in practice. His lap was 181.421mph.

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Derek Kraus was 34th fastest in practice at 177.293mph. Kraus is making his Cup Series debut in the No. 16 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing.

There were two incidents — the first, for Ryan Preece, was significant.

Preece spun on his own in Turn 2 and made contact with the left side of his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the outside wall. It was Preece’s fourth lap on track.

The other incident was for Todd Gilliland, who scrubbed the wall off Turn 2. Gilliland was in the second group of drivers who got on track for practice.

There are 37 drivers entered in the Pennzoil 400. In addition to the 36 charter teams, JJ Yeley is entered in the No. 44 for NY Racing Team.

Kyle Larson led the way in the best 10 consecutive lap average. It was Larson over William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, and Zane Smith.