2014 Boyd Gaming 300

The 2014 Boyd Gaming 300 was the third stock car race of the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, and the 18th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, March 8, 2014, in North Las Vegas, Nevada at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent D-shaped oval racetrack. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete. At race's end, Brad Keselowski, driving for Team Penske, would complete a dominant performance to win his 28th career NASCAR Nationwide Series win and his first of the season.^[1] To fill out the podium, Kyle Busch, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, and Kyle Larson, driving for Turner Scott Motorsports, would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada outside the Las Vegas city limits and about 15 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, is a 1,200-acre (490 ha) complex of multiple tracks for motorsports racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Practice

First practice

The first practice session was held on Friday, March 7, at 12:40 PM PST. The session would last for 50 minutes.^[2] Matt Crafton, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 30.399 and an average speed of 177.637 miles per hour (285.879 km/h).^[3]

Second and final practice

The final practice session, sometimes referred to as Happy Hour, was held on Friday, March 7, at 2:00 PM PST.^[2] The session would last for one hour and 20 minutes.^[2] Ty Dillon, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 30.086 and an average speed of 179.485 miles per hour (288.853 km/h).^[3]

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Saturday, March 8, at 9:40 AM PST.^[2] Since Las Vegas Motor Speedway is at least 1.25 miles (2.01 km) in length, the qualifying system was a multi-car system that included three rounds. The first round was 25 minutes, where every driver would be able to set a lap within the 25 minutes. Then, the second round would consist of the fastest 24 cars in Round 1, and drivers would have 10 minutes to set a lap. Round 3 consisted of the fastest 12 drivers from Round 2, and the drivers would have 5 minutes to set a time. Whoever was fastest in Round 3 would win the pole.^[4]

Ty Dillon, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would win the pole after setting a time of 29.625 and an average speed of 182.278 mph (293.348 km/h) in the third round.^[5]

No drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

*Time not available.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Regan Smith 117 2 Trevor Bayne 114 (-3) 3 Elliott Sadler 108 (-9) 4 Ty Dillon 105 (–12) 5 Chase Elliott 103 (–14) 6 Brian Scott 97 (–20) 7 Brendan Gaughan 94 (–23) 8 Dylan Kwasniewski 87 (–30) 9 James Buescher 86 (–31) 10 Mike Bliss 81 (–36) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References