Barring a surprise late entry, 39 cars will take the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday. Under the charter system put in place this season, 40 cars can run each race.
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Cup practice begins at 1:30 p.m. ET with qualifying scheduled for 7:45 p.m. ET. TV coverage: Fox Sports 1. Jeff Gordon won the pole last year, while Kevin Harvick won the race.
Last week’s Atlanta race marked the first time since 2014 that NASCAR’s top racing series ran without its full complement of cars. Before that, a 2001 race went off with a short field. Both those races had 43-car fields.
This year’s Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series races max out at 40 cars, down three from the traditional lineup number. Of those cars, 36 are guaranteed to run each week because they have charters.
As at Atlanta, three so-called open teams are entered and will make the field. Those cars are driven by Ryan Blaney for Wood Brothers Racing; Josh Wise for The Motorsports Group; and Cole Whitt for Premium Motorsports.
Here is the entry list. # — rookie
