NASCAR is ready for its third playoff round this weekend, starting with the Las Vegas race, the eighth of the postseason. The top eight contenders will go all out to secure their spots in the championship finale. In addition, those competing will be aiming for a lucrative cash prize based on their performance, which is even higher than last year.
Advertisement
The Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has seen only two repeat winners in the last fifteen outings — Joey Logano and Kyle Larson — while the rest of the pack will look to either push their playoff teammates toward glory or chase the prize money and prestige on their own terms.
Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass revealed that the total payout for the Vegas weekend, including all positions, contingency bonuses, contributions to the year-end points fund, and charter allocations based on weekly and historical performance, will total $9,797,935. This figure represents a modest increase from last year’s $8,157,812 for the Cup Series.
Meanwhile, the Xfinity Series winner will take home $1,651,939, up from last year’s $1,409,745.
Purses for Vegas weekend, includes all payouts, all positions. Contingency awards, year-end points fund contribution included as well as for Cup, all charter payouts for participating/historical performance (past 2 years and championships):
Cup: : $9,797,935
Xfinity: $1,651,939
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 8, 2025
Even so, these numbers still fall short of the hefty payouts from the Pennzoil 400 held at the same venue earlier this March, where the Cup Series handed out $11,055,250, and the Xfinity Series stood at $1,651,939 on the dot.
Favorites for the weekend
Logano luckily enters the Round of 8 staring at a steep hill to climb, 24 points below the cut line, the largest deficit ever recorded at this stage. The defending race winner, however, has proven before that fortune favors the bold. Last year, Logano nailed Team Penske’s fuel strategy to perfection, taking the South Point 400 by the scruff of the neck and clinching the first of four coveted Championship 4 berths.
He led only the final six laps on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway but managed to keep the day’s leader, Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, at bay by a thin 0.662-second margin. That close finish is exactly why both Logano and Bell remain the ones to watch this weekend.
Beyond the playoff heavyweights, Josh Berry, winner of the spring race at Vegas, will look to steal the spotlight among the non-playoff field. Meanwhile, Larson enters as the statistical front-runner, boasting an average finish of 9.4 across 18 starts at the track. With three wins and eight top-five finishes under his belt, he is no stranger to ruling Sin City.
Logano, though, still holds the bragging rights as Las Vegas’s winningest driver, carrying an impressive average finish of 9.8. Lurking close behind, Kyle Busch, with a 12.4 average finish, could well be the dark horse. Fans will keep their eyes peeled to see if the hometown hero finally ends his two-year winless drought under the bright Nevada lights.
