Posted on by Cameron Richardson

In the waning moments of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it looked like the results sheet would favor Kyle Larson as he dominated the final stage. However, a caution on Lap 264 stemming from an Aric Almirola spin bunched the field one more time, and split-second decisions had to be made on whether to come to pit road for tires.

Most of the field came to pit road for new tires, but Martin Truex Jr.’s decision to stay out jumbled how a handful of hopeful race-winners chose their respective lanes for the overtime restart. When it was over, just two drivers maintained their exact position from the final caution flag to the checkered flag.

RELATED: Full race results

After losing the race off pit road to Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, Larson was forced to fall in the second row behind Truex while Byron, who ended up with a race-high 176 laps led, restarted on the front row with the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, opening the door for the No. 24 Chevrolet to reclaim the lead and eventually the victory.

Watch the video above to hear analysts Steve Letarte and Todd Gordon break down this final restart, and keep reading to see how the final caution shuffled the race results with those that made up positions and those that fell back — with notable in-car cameras (every driver’s in-car camera is available each race on NASCAR Drive) and driver comparisons that give a closer look at how the finishing order played out.

CHRISTOPHER BELL

The driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota ran inside the top 10 for most of the day but a vibration in the final stage sent Bell all the way back as far as 20th. His team was able to fix the vibration and Bell used the inside lane on the final restart to earn himself a hard-fought, top-five finish.

Lap 264 position: 13th

Race finish: 5th

Difference: +8

Bell’s in-car camera:



AUSTIN CINDRIC

The 2022 Daytona 500 champion hit the jackpot with the late caution. Cindric ran outside the top 15 for most of the race but Almirola’s misfortune became a boon for the No. 2 Team Penske Ford as the second-year driver painted the bottom lane to bring home his car in sixth.

Lap 264 position: 14th

Race finish: 6th

Difference: +8

Cindric’s in-car camera:

 

JUSTIN HALEY

Like Cindric and Bell, Haley chose the inside with his No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. He was able to squeak into the top 10 on the final lap before a handful of cars wrecked just behind him. He also took four tires on the final pit stop while many of his competitors took two.

Lap 264 position: 15th

Race finish: 8th

Difference: +7

Haley’s in-car camera:


DENNY HAMLIN

The driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota was not as fortunate as the drivers listed above him. Hamlin was in position for a top-five finish starting just behind race winner Byron on the outside. However, a shove going into Turn 1 from Ross Chastain and his fellow competitors having the advantage on the inside parachuted Hamlin outside the top 10 when the checkered flag flew.

Lap 264 position: 3rd

Race finish: 11th

Difference: -8

Hamlin’s in-car camera:


NASCAR.com’s driver comparison tool shows just how drastic the spots gained and lost were on the final restart.

See how Hamlin compared to gainers like Cindric and Bell.

nascar comparison tool

 

driver comparison tool

 

Ryan Blaney and Chastain joined Hamlin as those who weren’t beneficiaries of the overtime restart. Chastain fell back not making any ground on the outside while Blaney was trapped behind a hornets’ nest of cars trying to score a top 10.

Blaney/Chastain comparison:


chastain blaney comparison

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Phoenix Raceway is a major intersection in and of itself.

If that seems strange for a track located south of Phoenix — and not all that far from the Mexican border — let’s acknowledge that we’re using the term “intersection” in a figurative sense.

Opened in 1964, some 13 years after NASCAR held the first of four Cup Series races at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, the 1-mile, irregular-shaped speedway in the Sonoran Desert has seen a confluence of just about every form of racing imaginable.

NASCAR 75: Full guide to anniversary season | NASCAR 75 news

From 1976 through 2009, Phoenix Raceway hosted the Copper World Classic, which featured competition in USAC National Midgets, USAC Silver Crown and Super Modified divisions.

Though those were open-wheeled race cars, many of the successful drivers in the Copper World Classic are quite familiar to NASCAR fans — Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler, Kenny Irwin Jr. and J.J. Yeley, to name just a few.

During its varied history, which once included a 2.7-mile road course that meandered inside and outside the oval track, Phoenix has been home to the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series; the ARCA Menards Series; and the NASCAR Mexico Series.

Other forms of racing have included AMA Supercross; Formula Atlanta Championship; Barber Pro Series; Can-Am; CART; Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series; IMSA GT Championship; IndyCar; Indy Lights; NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division; SCCA Formula Super Vee; Trans-Am; and U.S. F2000 National Championship.

Suffice it to say that Phoenix Raceway — and in a broader sense, the state of Arizona — has been a melting pot for racers of all varieties and a talent-rich source for car owners searching for the next superstar.

Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion, made his reputation in Arizona, though not at Phoenix Raceway. Racing against the likes of NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr., Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick, Busch turned heads in the 1997 Winter Heat Series at Tucson Raceway Park.

A year later he was rookie of the year in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series, and in 1999 he won the series championship.

The Cup Series has raced at Phoenix 53 times, including the debut event in 1988. The NASCAR Xfinity Series competed at the 1-mile track for the first time in 1999, with Jeff Gordon winning the inaugural race by 1.036 seconds over Dale Earnhardt Jr.

MORE: Memorable Phoenix moments 

But it’s the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series that’s most deeply rooted in the Sonoran Desert. The series debuted in 1995 at Phoenix, with Mike Skinner winning the inaugural race on the way to the first series championship.

In fact, the first season of the Truck Series was heavily Western-centric. After Phoenix, the trucks raced at Tucson, Saugus (Calif.), Mesa Marin (Bakersfield), Portland and Evergreen Speedway (Monroe, Wash.) before heading east. The final three races of the season took place at Sonoma, Mesa Marin and Phoenix.

Though NASCAR is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and though many of NASCAR’s top stars raced in Arizona before they gravitated to stock cars, the state has produced only a handful of successful NASCAR drivers who were born there.

Three such drivers — Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell and Yeley — currently compete in NASCAR’s top division.

“As far as why other drivers haven’t come out of Arizona — I think there have been a lot of really talented drivers come up from there, but, yeah, it’s tough,” Bowman said. “Coming from the West Coast in particular is tougher than the East Coast.

“There’s not as many race tracks there as there used to be. Obviously, development has kind of stopped down there. But, yeah, hopefully that changes and we see more drivers come from that area soon.”

McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner, was an instructor at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Goodyear, Ariz., before he became a full-time NASCAR driver. McDowell is eager to return to familiar surroundings for Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It’s always fun to go home,” McDowell said. “I wish we ran better at Phoenix. It’s kind of been an Achilles heel for us the last few years … But it’s just nice to see friends and family and have a hometown crowd and support. You definitely feel that on the weekend.”

Posted on by Cara Cooper

More than 50 years ago, Garry Bushnell’s father helped build a dirt track in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada.

That track is now named Edmonton International Raceway, a quarter-mile paved oval that is Alberta’s only NASCAR-sanctioned track. And six decades after his dad helped build the raceway, Bushnell is a track champion.

Bushnell won Edmonton’s NASCAR Pure Stocks division title in 2022. Despite never winning a feature, he was on the podium six out of 10 races. He never finished worse than seventh.

“Just consistency, I guess, was the thing,” Bushnell said. “It was good. It was a lot of fun this year.”

RELATED: See Edmonton International Raceway 2023 race schedule

Edmonton International Raceway
NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series racing at Edmonton International Raceway

The title was the first for Bushnell, which came “at my young age of 56,” he said with a laugh.

The driver has been around Edmonton since he was a kid, and his dad Scotty was a driver. Garry Bushnell raced some in the 1990s when Edmonton was still a dirt track, but he got out of the sport to raise a family.

A couple years ago, Bushnell’s son Mitchell and a friend wanted to get into racing, and they bought a car. Bushnell was always in the pits helping out for the first year.

“He said, ‘Well, why don’t we just get another car, and you might as well run with me since you’re here every weekend anyhow and you used to do this,’” Bushnell said.

The two ran in the same class for a couple years until Mitchell moved up to Edmonton’s Thunder Cars division.

“It was a lot of fun getting to run with him a couple years. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs,” Garry Bushnell said. “Then this past year he moved up, so I sold my car and then I took his car and ran it, and ran it to the championship, so it was good.

“We’ve had a lot of fun these last four years, for sure, at the track… I enjoyed racing with him. We had a ton of fun. We’re both very competitive, but when you get to race with your son out on the track… it’s a whole different world, and you can make that a lot of fun, and we did. We enjoyed it.”

Even though Bushnell misses racing against his son, being in separate classes is easier for both, because they can help the other during races.

The two also get help from Ron Elder Jr., Les Wray and Mike Larson, as well as others throughout the Edmonton racing community.

“We have that big family community, and we do have a lot of good people at the track that help each other out all the time, so that always comes in handy, for sure,” he said.

After winning a championship, Bushnell has to move up a class, but he’ll actually be taking this year off to help his son, who has had issues with his car that the family wants to try to solve and perfect.

Mitchell has also never won a championship at Edmonton, so the Bushnells are going to work hard to get a title for a third member of the family.

“Two years ago he was knocking on the door, and he finished second by two points,” Bushnell said. “I think the rate he’s going, it’s not easy, but I think he may have hopefully something in the future that we can say all three of us have won a championship out there. I think that would be a really neat accomplishment.”

Even though he won’t be racing full-time, Bushnell will still spend plenty of time around the track this summer, and he may even race a time or two if someone needs a driver.

For now, though, he’ll continue celebrating 2022 and everything that came with it.

“It’s nice. Every year there’s a new championship, so I guess just the bragging rights for the year saying you are… I guess it’s just nice to have that on the wall saying you did actually win a championship for whichever class you were in.

“It’s just nice to know that some hard work paid off and you do get some recognition for it… To be able to say I was able to do the same as what my dad did 50-something years ago is kind of really neat. It was the last three or four years he’s been out at the track with us, too, watching, so having the three generations there at the track and stuff like that is really neat and nice for us all to share together. That’s one thing for sure.”

Edmonton will open the 2023 season on June 3.

Posted on by Brandon White

Plenty of changes are in store for the CARS Tour as the series opens its 2023 season with the Puryear Tank Lines 225 at Southern National Motorsports Park, a NASCAR Home Track in Lucama, North Carolina.

Not only does the series have a new broadcast partner in FloRacing, but Saturday’s opener will be the first CARS Tour race under a new ownership group consisting of NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, former driver Jeff Burton and Trackhouse Racing Team owner Justin Marks.

RELATED: Follow the CARS Tour all season on FloRacing

The goal of the new ownership group is to bolster the solid foundation that has been existent in the CARS Tour since its inaugural year in 2015. This is the series in which drivers like William Byron, Christopher Bell, Todd Gilliland, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry and more have developed their skills against some of the best short-track competitors in the southeast.

To kick off the new era, the CARS Tour heads back to the track that hosted its first race in Southern National. The series has raced at Southern National 12 times between its Late Model Stock Car division and the defunct Super Late Model Tour, but Saturday marks the first time the series has raced in Lucama since 2020.

Several talented drivers make up the entry lists in both the Late Model Stock Car and Pro Late Model Tour for the Puryear Tank Lines 225.

Below is everything you need to know about Saturday’s event at Southern National.

CARS Tour
Southern National Motorsports Park (Photo: Veasey Conway/ARCA Racing)

What channel is the 2023 CARS Tour opener on?

All the on-track action for the Puryear Tank Lines 225 at Southern National can be viewed live on FloRacing, the official streaming home for all NASCAR Roots properties.

The event will not be shown on a television network.

Below is the complete schedule for FloRacing’s coverage of the Puryear Tank Lines 225.

Date Start Time How to Watch
Saturday, Mar. 11, 2023 3 p.m. ET FloRacing

Complete schedule for the Puryear Tank Lines 225

This year’s CARS Tour opener will take place on Saturday, March 11. Practice is scheduled for both Friday and Saturday, with qualifying set to take place for both divisions 90 minutes before the green flag.

The Pro Late Model Tour kicks off the racing at Southern National with a 100-lap feature. Once that race concludes, the Late Model Stock Car Tour hits the track for 125 laps.

Below is the complete schedule at Southern National Motorsports Park (all times ET).

  • Friday, March 10
Time  Event
8:30 a.m. Trailer parking
9:30 a.m. All cars unloaded
10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Safety inspection of all cars and equipment
1 p.m. Pits open
1:30 p.m. Crew chief meeting
2:15-6:15 p.m. Practice (three rounds for LMSC & PLM)
6:45 p.m. Pits close
  • Saturday, March 11
Time Event
7 a.m. Trailer & hauler parking
7:15 a.m. Pits open
7:30 a.m. Mandatory crew chief meeting
8-9:15 a.m. Race tire selection
9:30-10:50 a.m. Practice (two rounds for LMSC & PLM)
11 a.m. Mandatory crew chief, driver & spotter meeting
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Mandatory pre-qualifying tech
12:30 p.m. Track safety meeting/grandstands open
1:30-2:30 p.m. Qualifying (single car for LMSC & PLM)
2:40 p.m. Driver introductions
2:55 p.m. Pre-race ceremonies
3 p.m. Puryear Tank Lines 225- PLM (100 laps), LMSC (125 laps)
CARS Tour
Southern National Motorsports Park (Photo: Jacob Kupferman/NASCAR)

Entry lists

The preliminary entry lists for both the CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car and Pro Late Model Tour feature an even mix of new and familiar names.

Headlining the Late Model Stock Car feature is defending series champion Carson Kvapil, who will be driving the No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. Nobody could match the efficiency displayed by Kvapil during the 2022 season, as he ended up accumulating four victories and 13 top fives.

Kvapil is joined on the entry list by the drivers who make up the CARS Tour’s loyalty program — known as the Touring 12. This list includes Connor Hall, who won three Late Model Stock Car Tour races in 2022, along with three-time Langley Speedway track champion Brenden Queen, Chad McCumbee, Cale Gale and Isabella Robusto, among others.

For the Pro Late Model Tour, Caden Kvapil, who is Carson’s younger brother, moves over from his family team to the organization that won last year’s championship with Luke Fenhaus in Highlands Motorsports. Caden Kvapil is expected to be a favorite for the Pro Late Model Tour title, but he will have competition from drivers like Katie Hettinger, who is driving for Anthony Campi Racing.

The complete entry lists for the CARS Tour’s Puryear Tank Lines 225 can be found below:

  • Late Model Stock
Car No. Driver Hometown Owner
00 Jody Measamer Sanford, NC Measamer/Usry
03 Brenden Queen Chesapeake, VA Lee Pulliam Performance
04 Ronnie Bassett Jr. Lexington, NC Bassett Racing
08 Deac McCaskill Raleigh, NC McCaskill Motorsports
0 Landon Pembelton Amelia, VA Sellers Racing
1 Andrew Grady Youngsville, NC Mike Darne Racing
2 Brandon Pierce Alton, VA Lee Pulliam Performance
2W Ryan Wilson Randleman, NC Ryan Wilson Motorsports
4 Dylon Wilson Wilkesboro, NC TwoBoros Performance Shop
4F Jonathan Findley Bristow, VA Derek Peebles Motorsport
6 Bobby McCarty Madison, NC R&S Race Cars
8 Carson Kvapil Mooresville, NC JR Motorsports
8B Chase Burrow Mechanicsville, VA Top Gun Motorsports
8F Tate Fogleman Durham, NC JFCO Motorsports
10 Kaden Honeycutt Aledo, TX Mike Darne Racing
14 Jared Fryar Trinity, NC Jimmy Mooring Racing
15 Ryan Millington Statesville, NC Millington Motorsports
16 Chad McCumbee Supply, NC McCumbee Elliott Racing
19 Jessica Cann Winston-Salem, NC Mixed Merchants Motorsports
20 Joshua Dickens Easley, SC Mitchell Mote Performance
22 Cale Gale Winston-Salem, NC Nelson Motorsports
24 Mason Diaz Manassas, VA Chad Bryant Racing
29 Brian Obiedzenski Franklinton, NC Brian Obiedzenski Motorsports
32 Zack Miracle Indian Trail, NC Miracle Motorsports
42 Carson Brown Mooresville, NC Cook Racing Technologies
44 Conner Jones Fredericksburg, VA R&S Race Cars
55 Isabella Robusto Fort Mill, SC Lee Faulk Racing & Development
59 Blake Lothian Wellesley, MA Mike Darne Racing
67 Cameron Bolin Sharon, SC Bolin Family Racing
77 Connor Hall Hampton, VA Chad Bryant Racing
81 Mini Tyrrell Manassas, VA Timmy Tyrell Racing
95 Jacob Heafner Dallas, NC Carroll Speedshop
97 Jason Kitzmiller Maysville, WV CR7 Motorsports
  • Pro Late Model
Car No. Driver Hometown Owner
03 Kyle Campbell Conniver, NC Kyle Campbell Racing
5 Zac Fowler Ellicott, MD E33 Motorsports
5B Gavin Boschele Mooresville, NC DLP Motorsports
6 George Phillips Newton, NC Setzer Racing & Development
7 Tristan McKee Williamsburg, VA Accelerated Development
7C Justin Crider Statesville, NC Robin Crider Racing
7T Tyler Church Concord, NC Tyler Church Racing
8 Rusty Skewes Mechanicsville, VA Top Gun Motorsports
9 Ashton Higgins Weaverville, NC ALH Motorsports
13 Austin MacDonald Pictou, Nova Scotia King Racing
15 Brett Suggs Mooresville, NC TH Motorsports
19 Bryan Kruczek Epping, NH Bobby Webber Racing
24 Carter Langley Zebulon, NC Ashley Crim Racing
28 Isabella Robusto Fort Mill, SC Wilson Motorsports
29 Logan Boyett Cantonment, FL E33 Motorsports
43 Nick Loden Stanley, NC Loden Motorsports
43H Matt Horniman Claremont, NC Stillwell Racing
44 Justin Whitaker Burlington, NC JFCO Racing
48 Jeff Batten Nashville, NC B&J Racing
49 Luke Morey Denver, NC Luke Morey Racing
77 Logan Jones Fredericksburg, VA J&L Motorsports
81 Katie Hettinger Metamora, MI Anthony Campi Racing
96 Caden Kvapil Mooresville, NC Highlands Motorsports
Posted on by Zack Albert

LAS VEGAS — William Byron did something this weekend he says he doesn’t normally do. His habit of texting with team owner Rick Hendrick, he explained, is usually limited to his boss texting first unless the two were discussing non-racing matters.

But by Saturday, Byron felt especially confident in what his No. 24 Chevrolet had for the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube — a feeling reinforced by a front-row starting spot in qualifying and a perch atop the 10-lap averages chart in the practice session that preceded it. Hendrick Motorsports had been left reeling by the absence of Chase Elliott to a snowboarding injury just a day earlier, and Byron wanted to give his car owner a pick-me-up.

So, Byron broke his usual routine and texted first. It turned out to be prophetic assurance.

Byron rolled to a dominant first victory of the season Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading a 1-2-3 sweep by Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets. He set the pace for 176 of the 271 laps in a sweep of the stage wins and led teammates Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman to the checkered flag in overtime.

RELATED: Las Vegas race results | Hendrick the team to beat?

Elliott was missing from the 36-car field after undergoing surgery on a fractured left leg just two days earlier. Xfinity Series regular Josh Berry filled in with the No. 9 Chevy team and battled through a throttle issue to finish 29th in his first race with the Next Gen car.

The organization was missing a key part of its regular four-part driver harmony, but found a level of perseverance that dominated the Vegas scoreboard.

William Byron's No. 24 Chevy leads teammates Kyle Larson (5) and Alex Bowman (48) through the turns at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

“I think just shows the strength that our teams have and the ability to come together in tough situations,” Byron said after recording the fifth Cup Series victory of his career. “I think I speak for everyone in the fact that we miss Chase out here. He’s a big contributor to feedback and our debriefs and he’s a great race car driver — has a lot to offer there. I think there was a void there, but I think we were able to fill it with just kind of coming together as a team, and having Josh come on board, he’s obviously a great race car driver, too, and I know him from the past.

“Yeah, it was an important day. I felt that for sure. I texted Mr. H. after practice and felt really good about the car and just wanted to reassure him that we’re going to go out there and try to win for him because it was a tough week. Yeah, just shows the strength of our team to be able to come together.”

For Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports president and general manager, Sunday marked his second consecutive trip to the Vegas track’s media center, but a far more comfortable one. His Saturday visit was as the team’s lead representative in providing an update on Elliott’s condition and the still-uncertain timetable of his return to competition.

MORE: Elliott sends thanks for support

Sunday, Andrews noted that the organization had not yet determined an interim driver of the No. 9 Chevy for next Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway (3:30 pm. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM). But he also lauded the chemistry of Byron with crew chief Rudy Fugle in their third season together, and the No. 24 team’s resolve after results of 34th (Daytona) and 25th (Auto Club) to start the year.

“Fantastic day for Hendrick Motorsports and the 1-2-3 finish,” Andrews said. “I should say first and foremost obviously our thoughts are with Chase and everything he’s going through right now, and we sure missed him being here at the track with us today. Can only imagine being a young guy like that and what that must have felt like to have to watch that at home. Certainly thinking about him and missing him here today, but really proud of all of our cars and the effort that’s gone into our cars and race teams in the offseason.”

The redoubled effort between last season and this one was a point emphasized post-race by Cliff Daniels, crew chief on Larson’s runner-up No. 5 Chevrolet. Larson nearly took the Las Vegas laurels, thanks to a quicker final-stage pit stop that helped to put him out front for 63 laps, but Byron’s text-worthy power — and later, an improved stop by his team in OT — won out in an overtime sprint to the end.

Elliott’s welcome back to competition is still an undetermined amount of time away, but the rest of the Hendrick bunch seems in position to keep the performance level stoked.

“This winter, I’ll be honest, in my time at Hendrick Motorsports and I’ve been here eight or nine years, the team’s worked as closely together as I’ve ever seen us work, which is great,” Daniels told NASCAR.com. “We just continue to build on that every year, and that’s a testament to you Mr. H., (vice chairman) Jeff Gordon, Jeff Andrews, everybody keeping us all connected back at the shop, and everybody putting in a lot of hard work this winter.

“I’m going to be honest, the best car won today. Yes, we were leading when the last caution came out, but we kind of circled the 24 when they didn’t have the best stop. We had a good stop and a good restart and got the lead. So yeah, I’m certainly disappointed to finish second, but to finish second to a teammate that clearly had the best car, happy for those guys. Rudy and his gang have worked so hard and had so many good cars and just not be able to capitalize, and I feel like today was a really good team win for them.”

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

It’s always impressive to win a race, but a single team sweeping the podium at the premier series level just exhibits a different level of dominance.

Three veteran Hendrick Motorsports drivers — William Byron, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman — put on a dazzling show at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the absence of teammate Chase Elliott, finishing 1-2-3 on an afternoon where it was the organization’s race to lose. The trio combined to lead an astounding 241 of the race’s 267 laps, extended by NASCAR Overtime, and Byron swept the stages en route to winning the race.

Overall, in a tightly contested competition featuring many other strong contending cars, Hendrick Motorsports just looked that much stronger.

RELATED: Las Vegas results, recap | Watch Byron’s burnout

Through the first few weeks of the season, Trackhouse Racing’s continued rise at the sport’s top level, Kyle Busch’s resurgence at Richard Childress Racing and Joey Logano’s hot start to his title defense have dominated the story lines — and rightly so. But Sunday’s cumulative performance from Hendrick Motorsports won’t go unnoticed in the garage.

Perhaps the entire effort was aided by lessons learned from Larson’s early exit at Auto Club Speedway, resulting in the No. 5 team logging non-contending laps last week to gain extra knowledge and track time. Or, perhaps there was extra motivation to perform well after Elliott was sidelined just before the race weekend began. However you want to explain it, this version of Hendrick Motorsports is scary good.

From start to finish, Sunday’s showing was one of the most impressive wins of Byron’s career. He had never won a race from a front-row starting position in 21 previous attempts at the Cup Series level, and his 176 laps led shattered his previous standard 1.5-mile high of 102, achieved at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2021. … Note: Byron led 111 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s new superspeedway configuration in 2022.

Byron’s biggest threat to the stage sweep-race win combo was his teammate Larson. The 2021 Cup Series champion was clicking on all cylinders, leading 63 laps before the final caution set up a dramatic overtime finish.

Needing a clutch moment, Byron and his No. 24 crew’s execution on the pit stop was perfect, and he regained the lead by inches.

“Most of us had 40 green laps on our tires,” said Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle after the race. “I thought there would be some more (who stayed out), yes. I thought we would be restarting row 3 if we pitted with rights. I expected three or four. I don’t know if they just weren’t good enough or whatever. Thankfully it worked out that way, but yeah, it’s a super hard decision with only two laps to go, how hard it is to break that first row up. I think somebody potentially could have won if there would have been enough people staying out, but there wasn’t.”

Despite the caution sending a number of teams into a flurry before NASCAR Overtime, when the chips are falling as they did for Hendrick Motorsports late down the stretch in Vegas, they’re hard to beat — as if they needed any help in the first place.

And if Byron and Co. were lacking any confidence, they gained a lot of it Sunday.

“I think I haven’t really dominated — I’ve led a lot of laps in a couple races, but to be this good in a race with our team is definitely a good sign,” an exuberant Byron said after the win. “I think it’s just a different feeling, I think, for me, just having a team around me that can execute that well on pit road that well, strategy that good on adjustments. That’s just a team effort.

“I think that’s a different — something different than I’ve had in the past in terms of wins, so that’s nice.”

MORE: Byron says it’s all about the team

And with Larson racking up 13 victories in his time at Hendrick Motorsports and Bowman on a streak of four consecutive seasons with a win, the question is when not if, they will reach Victory Lane, too.

Sure, the dynamic four-driver stable is normally atop the oddsboards and should never be considered an underdog at any track. The absence of 2020 Cup Series champion Elliott is a big loss for the short term, but he will be back at some point and should quickly return to his winning form based on his talent alone.

So, if Sunday’s race is any indication, we may be in line for another historic season.

In conclusion, a way-too-early but confident prediction for 2023: Hendrick Motorsports is indeed the organization to beat.

Posted on by Zack Albert

LAS VEGAS – Martin Truex Jr. nearly converted on his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in a year and a half in the most Las Vegas cliché of ways.

Truex seemed poised for a top-five finish in the closing laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but (ahem) a gamble on pit strategy gave his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota a slender hold on the lead when Sunday afternoon’s Pennzoil 400 lurched into overtime with a late-race caution period. Truex made the most of crew chief James Small’s decision to stay out on older tires – which moved him from fourth to first for the final restart — and though he eventually slid to a seventh-place finish, the veteran driver applauded the call.

“Could never quite get it where we need it. I think we were about a third-place car, maybe fourth. Just a good, solid day,” Truex said. “We’re in Vegas, we might as well roll the dice, and like everybody says, we come here to gamble. I was proud of James for that. Last year, we didn’t, and it bit us. We gave up a few spots, but all in all, it was a solid day.”

RELATED: Las Vegas race results | At-track photos: Vegas

The result marked Truex’s sixth straight top-10 finish at the 1.5-mile Nevada track. His reference to last year’s outcome was the No. 19 team’s choice for four fresh tires on the race’s final pit stop when most of his rivals took just two.

Sunday’s wager took a different tack. Perhaps taking note of JGR teammate Denny Hamlin’s ability to stay competitive with the Hendrick Motorsports duo of eventual winner William Byron and runner-up Kyle Larson after a two-tire stop earlier in the final stage, Small called for Truex to stay out while the rest of the front-runners took new rubber.

Truex lined up on the inside of Byron for the last green flag of the day and launched well for the final two-lap dash, keeping close with the No. 24 Chevrolet driver for most of the next-to-last lap. After the white flag, Hendrick mates Larson and Alex Bowman took divided lines around him, and Truex settled in to his final result.

“Well, you gotta win, don’t you?” No. 19 crew chief James Small told NASCAR.com, explaining the risk-reward reasoning behind the strategy play. “We hadn’t been that great on a short run most of the day, and we knew everybody was going to do right-side tires. Really just needed another couple of takers, and nobody came. He said it actually fired off really well. He’s just, he should have wrapped the bottom there on that last lap coming off of (turn) two. And he went up to try and fade and kill that run, and he just got really tight. If he’d just stuck on the bottom, he said he would have been fine.

“So you live and learn, and what, we gave up three places. You look at the 11 car (Hamlin), he ended up back in 11th. So either way, it’s a lottery. It went a lot better than we thought. So anyway, try again next week.”

MORE: Byron banks dominant win at Vegas

Putting aside his victory in the season-opening Busch Light Clash exhibition in Los Angeles, Truex notched his best result of the three-race-old season. He ranks fifth in the Cup Series standings but is still seeking his first points-paying victory since September 2021 (Richmond).

Sunday seemingly inched the team closer to ending that drought, but Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets logged a clean sweep of the top three as Byron and Larson combined to lead 239 of 271 laps.

“Yeah, they were really strong,” Small said. “They were fast to fire off, and then they held on as well. So just looking at it, they just kept turning a little better than us on exit, and that was kind of our weakness all day. That yellow doesn’t come out at the end, and we would’ve wound up around third, and that’s really the best we could do. The 5 and the 24 (Larson and Byron), you know, were kind of in their own league for most of the day. Anyway, it’s a step forward, and yeah, we’ll keep fighting.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

William Byron won the most important race Sunday afternoon — by inches off pit road.

Quick work by Byron’s pit crew enabled the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver to beat teammate Kyle Larson off pit road for an overtime restart in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and that was the decisive factor in Byron’s fifth career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

RELATED: Official results | Elliott gives thanks for well wishes 

When Aric Almirola spun into the Turn 4 wall with four laps left of a scheduled 267, the race turned upside down. At that point, Larson held a two-second lead and appeared the almost certain winner.

After NASCAR called the fourth and final caution, Martin Truex Jr. stayed on the track, with Byron, Larson and most of the other contenders pitting for two tires. Byron’s crew was a fraction of a second faster on the stop, and Byron claimed a front-row starting spot for the overtime to Truex’s outside.

On the first overtime lap, Byron surged past Truex as the cars entered Turn 3 at the 1.5-mile track and pulled away to win by 0.622 seconds over Larson and 0.766 seconds over teammate Alex Bowman. It was the third time Hendrick Motorsports had finished 1-2-3 in a Cup Series event.

The drivers accomplished the feat with their fourth driver, Chase Elliott, watching from North Carolina with team owner Rick Hendrick. Elliott broke his left tibia in a snowboarding accident in Colorado on Friday and will miss multiple races as he recovers from surgery.

Josh Berry, substituting for Elliott, finished 29th and two laps down in his first race in NASCAR’s Next Gen car.

“Yeah, just been really confident about the group of guys that I have on this 24 team,” said Byron, who led 176 of 271 laps, swept the first two stages and won for the first time at Las Vegas. “They work extremely hard, and we spent a lot of time in the offseason just going through running at the sim (simulator) with Chevy and running on iRacing and just trying to get better as a race car driver and as a team.

“Thinking of Chase back home. Wish he was out here with us. He’s a great race car driver, great teammate. Wish he was out here.”

For the overtime restart, Larson chose the inside lane behind Truex and was bottled up behind the No. 19 Toyota. But Larson acknowledged the race was lost on pit road.

“Damn,” Larson said with a wry laugh. “It’s just part of Cup racing. It seems like kind of laps down, lap by lap, and then, sure enough, the yellow lights come on. You’ve just got to get over that and then try to execute a good pit stop, and I thought I did a really good job getting to my sign and getting to the commitment line.

“I had a gap to William behind me, and their pit crew must have just done a really good job and got out in front of us, and that gave up the front row. I knew I was in trouble with the 19 staying out. I felt like William was going to get by him.

“Yeah, just a bummer that we didn’t end up the winner, but all in all, William probably had a little bit better car than I had today, and their pit crew executed when they needed to there at the end.”

MORE: Polesitter Logano out after wild spin | Photos from Las Vegas

In the overtime scramble, Bubba Wallace finished fourth and Christopher Bell fifth, both in Toyotas. Austin Cindric, who had been lapped at one point, recovered to run sixth as the top-finishing Ford driver. Truex, Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick and Daniel Suárez completed the top 10.

In a race that featured 13 lead changes among eight drivers, Larson took the top spot on Lap 196 after restarting third behind Denny Hamlin and Bowman on lap 190. The 2021 series champion extended his advantage to nearly five seconds over Byron during an exchange of green-flag pit stops before Almirola’s accident caused the fourth caution on Lap 263.

Byron had cut Larson’s lead to two seconds before the accident forced overtime.

The first caution for an on-track incident didn’t occur until Lap 183, nine laps after the final stage went green. Pole winner Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch were running three-wide through Turn 4 when disaster struck.

With Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford in the middle, Logano ran out of room to the outside, and after contact with Keselowski’s car, Logano’s No. 22 Ford bounced off the wall and spun into the infield grass.

Logano brought his car to pit road, but his crew couldn’t repair the Ford before the seven-minute time limit ran out under NASCAR’s damaged vehicle policy.

Asked whether Keselowski pinched him into the corner, Logano replied, “Yeah, he did. I’m sure he didn’t mean to do it. It is what it is. What are you going to do, right? We got fenced.”

The 2023 Cup Series season continues Sunday, March 12 at Phoenix Raceway for the United Rentals Work United 500 at 3:30 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Inspection in the Cup Series garage is complete with no issues, confirming the No. 24 entry of William Byron as the race winner.

Contributing: Staff Report

Posted on by Staff Report

After starting on the pole and running inside the top 15 throughout much of the afternoon, Joey Logano’s winning hopes faded with hard wall contact and a gnarly spin through the infield in the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On Lap 182 of the 267-lap marathon, Logano and Brad Keselowski made contact fighting for position in the turn, sending Logano’s No. 22 Ford bouncing off the wall and through the infield. While Logano was able to work his way back to pit road, the 10-allotted minutes on the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock expired, forcing him behind the wall and into the garage.

RELATED: Race results | Watch Logano’s wreck from in-car

“Yeah, he did,” Logano said, when asked if Keselowski pinched him in the corner. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to do it. It is what it is. What are you going to do, right? We got fenced.”

Logano finished 13th in Stage 1 and 14th in Stage 2. He was credited with a last-place finish and his first DNF in 20 starts at Las Vegas.

Keselowski suffered minor damage, stayed in the race and finished 17th.

Posted on by Sean Montgomery

Days after breaking his leg in a snowboarding accident in Colorado, Chase Elliott took to social media to offer appreciation to those who reached out during his recovery phase.

During Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, FOX Sports reported Elliott had successful surgery and flew home to watch the race with team members. Filling in for Elliott in his absence was Xfinity Series regular Josh Berry, who pilots the No. 8 entry for JR Motorsports, to make just his third Cup Series start and first behind the wheel of the Next Gen car.

ICYMI: Elliott sidelined after snowboarding injury | ‘No timetable’ for return

So far, Hendrick Motorsports has stated there is no timetable for Elliott’s return behind the wheel, as he will undergo physical therapy in the coming weeks. But if anyone was wondering if the 2020 champion was still in good spirits, he confirmed that with a little bit of humor.

RELATED: Remaining Cup Series schedule