The best (and worst) Las Vegas Cup Series races

A panel of experts ranked Joey Logano’s victory over Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski in last year’s Pennzoil 400 No. 8 among the 24 NASCAR Cup Series races Las Vegas Motor Speedway has hosted.

Here is the complete running order:

1. 2006: Jimmie Johnson passes Matt Kenseth just before the finish line to win the closest Cup race in LVMS history. Johnson chases Kenseth down over the closing laps and takes him on the high side as the cars race to the checkered flag. Margin of victory: 0.045 of a second.

2. 2017: Martin Truex Jr. wins all three race stages under NASCAR’s new points system but doesn’t take his last lead until two laps to go when front-runner Brad Keselowski’s car slows on the backstretch. Kyle Busch and Joey Logano tangle on the final lap, and when the race is over, Busch and Logano’s crew tangle on pit road, leaving the Las Vegas driver with a bloody forehead.

3. 2001: An emotional day at the speedway: Two weeks after the death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon picks up his first — and only — LVMS win after starting 24th and weaving through the field. Teresa Earnhardt makes her first public comments about her husband’s death on race day morning. Tears are shed.

4. 2014: Dale Earnhardt Jr. runs out of gas on the backstretch of the final lap, handing the win to Brad Keselowski. Almost as exciting: The Dos Equis beer guy, “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” gives the command to start engines.

5. 2018 (fall): Brad Keselowski doesn’t have the fastest car when a blistering sun turns the 1.5-mile oval into an oil slick. But he has the fastest team, and it puts him in front of Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. on late pit stops in a race featuring crashes and spins and plenty of passing.

6. 2009: Kyle Busch triumphs in his hometown event in the only 427-mile race in LVMS history: The race is lengthened to honor sponsor Shelby Automotive, which is promoting the release of its 427 Cobra sports car. Busch slips past Clint Bowyer, who is leading at the customary 400-mile juncture, 16 laps from the checkered flag.

7. 1998: Mark Martin dominates the inaugural Cup race at LVMS. It isn’t the closest race, but it is the first, and 107,000 spectators — at the time the largest crowd to witness a single-day sporting event in Las Vegas — file into the massive grandstands.

8. 2019 (spring): Aerodynamic rule changes designed to make the cars run closer together on the intermediate-sized track produce a race that is visually more interesting than most at LVMS. Joey Logano finishes 0.236 of a second ahead of Brad Keselowski for the win.

9. 1999: Burton edges Burton. After engaging in a late-race, side-by-side battle that lasts 25 laps, it is Jeff Burton over Wade Burton at the finish.

10. 2016: Gone with the wind. After being caught for speeding on pit road and being sent to the back of the field, Brad Keselowski roars to his second victory in three years on a blustery day for stock car racing.

11. 2004: The Dale Earnhardt Terrace opens in Turn 4, significantly increasing seating capacity. Three Las Vegans — Kurt and Kyle Busch and Brendan Gaughan — are in the starting field. Matt Kenseth wins before a record crowd of 148,000.

12. 2007: Jimmie Johnson makes it three in a row in Las Vegas by winning the first race on LVMS’ reconfigured, higher-banked oval. The higher banking, raised from 12 to 20 degrees after the 2006 race, does not make Tony Stewart (and a few other drivers) happy. Drivers are slow to adapt to the new layout, which contributes to nine crashes.

13. 2013: Matt Kenseth wins for the third time at LVMS, holding off Kasey Kahne late. Kahne catches Kenseth with eight laps to go; Kenseth does not let him by.

14. 2008: Jeff Gordon plows into the backstretch wall in the closing laps after making contact with Matt Kenseth, bringing out the red flag and the backstretch wall repair crew. After the race is restarted, Carl Edwards drives away from Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a green-white-checkered finish.

15. 2005: Siblings Kyle and Kurt Busch battle Jimmie Johnson for the win. Johnson gets it because Johnson always wins in Las Vegas. Or so it seems. The three-way duel at the finish is overshadowed by 10 yellow-flag periods, an LVMS record.

16. 2012: Tony Stewart’s run of bad luck at LVMS finally ends, but it isn’t easy. After Kyle Busch spins, bunching the field, Stewart holds off a snarling pack of cars headed by Jimmie Johnson.

17. 2011: Tony Stewart throws one away. Or at least his crew does. After leading for 166 of 267 laps, Stewart gets shuffled back on his final pit stop, handing the lead and win to Carl Edwards.

18. 2019 (fall): Martin Truex Jr. sweeps past Kevin Harvick with 20 laps to go and pulls away for a 4.1-second victory. Kyle Busch gets the headlines after finishing 19th on his hometown track and giving terse answers to postrace questions.

19. 2002: Sterling Marlin takes it, marking the second straight year the Las Vegas winner comes from 24th on the starting grid.

20. 2003: A huge pileup takes out contenders Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch and others. Matt Kenseth is the class of the field. Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes in a distant second.

21. 2015: In his final race in Las Vegas, retiring Jeff Gordon sets the fastest qualifying time but starts from the rear after crashing in practice. Kevin Harvick dominates the race, leading the final 66 laps.

22. 2010: This race is best remembered for two caution periods caused by race officials turning on the yellow light by mistake. Jimmie Johnson wins again because Jimmie Johnson always wins in Las Vegas. Or so it seems. Kim Kardashian serves as co-grand marshal (with Carroll Shelby).

23. 2018 (spring): The decal on the side of Kevin Harvick’s car tells the story — freaky fast. Harvick leads a track record 214 laps en route to a convincing victory in which he sweeps all three race stages.

24. 2000: Race day dawns cold, then becomes wet. Jeff Burton is declared the winner after the red flag ends it because of rain with 148 of the 267 scheduled laps completed (many of them under caution). Brrr.