NASCAR Cup Series at Las Vegas results: William Byron capitalizes on overtime restart to win the Pennzoil 400

A late caution erased what looked to be a certain win for Kyle Larson, giving Byron his fifth career win in a banner day

After a rough start to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, it looked as if Kyle Larson was on his way to bouncing back in the most emphatic way possible: cruising to Victory Lane in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But a caution with four laps to go forced an overtime restart, opening the door for another Hendrick Motorsports driver to triumph.

William Byron, who swept the stages and led a race-high 176 laps, surged past Martin Truex Jr. and Co. to win his fifth career Cup Series race -- and first at Las Vegas -- in dominant fashion. The win was his first since last April at Martinsville. 

Despite the metaphorical gut punch to Larson, it was as good a day Hendrick Motorsports could ask for considering the awful news it endured earlier this week: Hendrick driver Chase Elliott suffered a leg fracture while snowboarding in Colorado that will keep him out for several weeks. But with Elliott sidelined for the first time since his Cup Series rookie year in 2016, Hendrick finished 1-2-3 as Larson and Alex Bowman rounded out the top three behind Byron. 

After the race, Byron credited his team and gave a special shoutout to Elliott. 

"Just been really confident about the group of guys I have on this 24 team. They work extremely hard," Byron said. "... It's all about the team. It's a great pit crew. Thinking of Chase back home. Wish he was out here with us. He's a great racecar driver, great teammate. Wish he was out here. But thankful to [Rick Hendrick], Jeff Gordon. ... When we got back in traffic it was a little tight, but we know we had speed, so we just had to have the right things play out, so it was good." 

Pennzoil 400 unofficial results

1. #24 - William Byron
2. #5 - Kyle Larson
3. #48 - Alex Bowman
4. #23 - Bubba Wallace 
5. #20 - Christopher Bell 
6. #2 - Austin Cindric 
7. #19 - Martin Truex Jr. 
8. #31 - Justin Haley 
9. #4 - Kevin Harvick 
10. #99 - Daniel Suarez

Lean, Mean, and Green

Compared to last year's races at Las Vegas, where the yellow flag flew 12 times in the spring and eight times in the fall, almost the entirety of Sunday's race ran clean as a whistle. The race started with two extremely long runs through the first two stages, with the only cautions being competition yellows at the stage end. The first caution for cause did not come out until Lap 183, when a three-wide battle between Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano ended with Logano getting squeezed into the wall off Turn 4 and through a spin and slide through the infield grass.

The caution did not fly again until four laps to go, when a single-car incident by Aric Almirola brought out the yellow to set up overtime. A multi-car crash occurred on the backstretch on the final lap involving AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell, Erik Jones and more, but the caution did not come out as NASCAR officials elected to let the field race back to the line.

Berry Getting By

The long runs seen Sunday contributed to a long day for Josh Berry, who was hastily named the substitute driver for the injured Chase Elliott on Friday. Berry, who had never driven a Next Gen car prior to this weekend and was making his third Cup start overall, qualified 32nd and saw his opportunities to remain on an even playing field with the leaders be limited.

Driving a Hendrick Motorsports car marked a major career milestone for Berry, who looked to be on a path toward becoming a career late model short track racer before a 2020 NASCAR Weekly Series Championship led to him getting an expanded chance to drive for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. But while Berry has become a five-time race winner and championship contender in Xfinity, he was only able to muster a 29th-place finish, two laps down, in his first try behind the wheel of Hendrick's No. 9.

Despite a disappointing finish, Hendrick Motorsports team president and general manager Jeff Andrews told reporters post-race that the team was pleased with Berry's performance.

"Josh did an amazing job for us given the circumstances, and given the fact he's not ever been in one of these Next Gen cars before," Andrews said. "Really happy with what he did for us today. We've got some things to work on. We think we had a little bit of an issue there that was causing him a little bit of — some issues with his throttle there during the race that we've got to get fixed and remedied, but really, really pleased with the job he did for us today."

Andrews said that a decision has yet to be made on a substitute driver for Elliott next week in Phoenix, though Berry figures to be a potential option both next week and long-term. Berry had made two Cup starts prior to Sunday, both of which came as a substitute driver for Spire Motorsports in 2021.

Race Results Rundown

• William Byron's win marked the third win of the season for Chevrolet, which means that one manufacturer has won the first three races of the season for the first time since 2010. The Bowtie Brigade also opened the 2010 season with three wins in a row, with Jamie McMurray winning the Daytona 500 before Jimmie Johnson won the next two races in a row.
• For the first time in their Cup careers, Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez have opened the 2023 season with three consecutive top-10 finishes. Bowman's third-place run gives him an average finish of 5.3 on the year, while Suarez kept his streak going with a 10th-place run.
  
• Austin Cindric had a great come-from-behind performance on Sunday, battling back from going a lap down to earn a sixth-place finish. It's Cindric's first top-10 finish since a ninth-place run at Talladega last fall, and his first on a non-superspeedway since he finished second at Indianapolis last July.
• Arguably no driver capitalized on overtime more than Justin Haley. While most of the leaders pitted for two tires, Haley's team elected to give him four fresh tires, a move that paid off when Haley went from 16th on the final restart to eighth at the checkered flag. That marks Haley's first top-10 finish since a fifth at the Charlotte Roval last fall.
• As one might have expected from him, Tyler Reddick used the entire racetrack in moving all the way up from the rear of the field to the outskirts of the top 10. Reddick's driving on the edge only got him a 15th-place finish, but it did get him off the schnide after two straight DNFs to open the season.
• Corey LaJoie continues to show that he and Spire Motorsports have stepped their game up for 2023, as he ran in the top 20 throughout the day before finishing 20th at the end. This marks the first time LaJoie has ever had three straight finishes inside the top 20 to open a season.
• Ty Gibbs earned the best starting spot of his young Cup career when he qualified fourth, but he couldn't hang at the front and eventually drifted all the way back to a lap down in 22nd at the finish. He fared better than fellow rookie Noah Gragson, who finished 30th after multiple pit road speeding penalties.
  

Next Race

NASCAR will continue its West Coast swing next week with the United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway. That race is slated for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on Fox and streaming on fuboTV (try for free). 

[Mar 5, 2023 at 6:38 pm ET · Wajih AlBaroudi]

Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Alex Bowman and mothers head to pit road before the overtime restart. Byron, who swept the first two stages, wins the race off pit road. Martin Truex Jr. elected not to pit. 

[Mar 5, 2023 at 6:35 pm ET · Wajih AlBaroudi]

Caution is out after Aric Almirola gets loose and slams into the wall. Looks like we're getting an overtime finish. 

[Mar 5, 2023 at 6:17 pm ET · Wajih AlBaroudi]

Noah Gragson just earned his third pit road speeding penalty of the day. Not a day to remember for the rookie from Las Vegas.