Chase Elliott is out indefinitely after undergoing a successful three-hour surgery to repair a fractured tibia, Hendrick Motorsports general manager Jeff Andrews said Saturday.

Andrews said there was no timeline on when the star NASCAR driver would return. Elliott injured his left leg Friday while snowboarding in Colorado. Josh Berry will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet in place of Elliott in today’s Cup race in Las Vegas.

“We’re going to race a long time together with Chase Elliott and we’re going to win a lot more races together,” Andrews said. “Certainly, there’s a little bit of a setback, and obviously Chase is very disappointed. The most important thing is Chase’s health, and we’ll have a suit ready for him when he’s healthy and ready to get back in a race car.”

Andrews said the process has begun to attain a waiver from NASCAR for Elliott — the 2020 Cup champion — to be eligible for this year’s playoffs. Waivers have been granted to other drivers for various circumstances.

Brad Keselowski, who won the series championship in 2012, said he wouldn’t have a problem if Elliott received a waiver.

“Life happens,” Keselowski said. “The schedule is just so demanding. It’s inevitable that it’s going to happen to somebody sometimes.

Berry, in the meantime, will be in charge of trying to collect points for the team. His first race will be at a place where the 32-year-old has won two Xfinity Series races, including last October, and finished in the top 10 in all four starts.

• Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who won the October race at Las Vegas, won the pole for today’s Pennzoil 400.

Logano qualified at 186.053 mph is his Team Penske No. 22 Ford. He has won three of his past eight Cup races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

William Byron, in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet, qualified second at 185.153 mph.

The rest of the top five were Ryan Blaney in the Penske No. 12 Ford (184.9), rookie Ty Gibbs in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota (184.54) and Kyle Busch in the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevy (184.489).

NASCAR Xfinity

Austin Hill overtook Chandler Smith just before the final lap to win the Alsco Uniforms 300 on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Smith, who was the pole-sitter, led 118 laps of the 200-lap race and appeared to be in good shape in the final laps before the four-time series winner made his late charge.

Hill also won the season-opening race two weeks ago at Daytona in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, and he was sixth last week at Fontana.

Smith finished third, getting passed by Justin Allgaier in the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevy.

Kyle Busch finished fourth at his hometown track.

IndyCar

Romain Grosjean opened his third season in IndyCar by winning the pole in qualifying on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Frenchman led an all-Andretti Autosport front row in qualifying and surged to the second pole of his IndyCar career in the waning moments of the session. He beat teammate Colton Herta for the top starting position in today’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Grosjean moved to IndyCar in 2021 after his nearly fatal fiery crash in a Formula One race ended his European career. He joined Andretti last season but didn’t have the success he expected to achieve with one of IndyCar’s top teams.

It’s been an incredible opening weekend for Andretti, which had a difficult 2022, with only two wins among its four drivers. But three of its four cars have been fast all weekend in St. Petersburg and, along with Kyle Kirkwood, the team put three cars into the Fast Six qualifying shootout.

Pato O’Ward of McLaren was the highest-qualifying Chevrolet driver in third and followed by Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing and then Kirkwood, as Honda drivers took four of the top five spots.

Formula One

World champion Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez for today’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Perez beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to place second, .138 seconds behind Verstappen under the floodlights at the desert track in Sakhir.

Leclerc was .292 behind Verstappen and starts on the second row alongside his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr.

Fernando Alonso showed good speed for Aston Martin and qualified fifth, followed by Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.