Alex Bowman holds off Larson with overtime surge for Las Vegas win

By
Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service March 6, 2022 at 7:33 PMLAS VEGAS — Alex Bowman won in a dramatic overtime ending Sunday in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – gambling on a two-tire final pit stop for his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and holding off the field in a two-lap sprint to decide the NASCAR Cup Series race.

Bowman and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson made up the front row on the restart – the pair along with teammate William Byron took two tires on the final pit stop while Kyle Busch, who had led 40 of the previous 45 laps, opted to get four tires and start just behind on the second row.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

The two-tire stop, however, proved to be enough with Busch unable to even make a pass attempt as the Hendrick cars decided the trophy. The Tucson, Arizona, native Bowman, 28, crossed the line 0.178 seconds ahead of the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson to earn his first trophy of 2022 and seventh of his career. It was Bowman’s first top-20 finish after a frustrating start to the three-race old season.

“This thing was so fast all day,’’ said Bowman, who led 16 of the 274 laps. “Just never really had the track position to show it. But man, what a call by (crew chief) Greg Ives and the guys to take two (tires) there and obviously it paid off.

“Racing Kyle (Larson) is always fun and I’ve got to race him for a couple wins and we always race each other super clean and super respectively. Just can’t say enough about these guys.

“It’s been a pretty awful start to the year so to come out here and get a win on a last restart, I feel like that’s pretty special.’’

The runner-up finish for Larson, who led three times for 27 laps on the day, was good enough to propel him into the championship lead for the first time this season. He holds a six-point advantage over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., who finished eighth on Sunday.

Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who led a race-best 83 laps and scored the two-year-old team’s first stage victory, finished third. The Las Vegas native Busch was fourth and a third Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron, rounded out the top five.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola earned his third consecutive top 10 with a sixth-place finish. Tyler Reddick, Truex, Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and polesitter Christopher Bell completed the top 10.

For most of the race’s final laps, it looked like Busch would claim his first NASCAR Cup Series trophy at his “home track” since 2009. It has been 46 series wins since that triumph.

And Busch’s work in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on Sunday was especially impressive considering he crashed in opening practice on Saturday and was forced to use a backup car originally sent to the track for spare parts. The car wasn’t prepared in time for qualifying so Busch started last in the race.

His rally for a near-win was enthusiastically appreciated by the home crowd even if the ultimate Top five was still a bit disappointing for the former two-time series champion considering his time out front (49 laps) in the closing laps.

“Everybody really had a hand in making us go today, really appreciate that,’’ Busch said, acknowledging crew members from all four JGR cars frantically worked to get his car race ready. “It was good, fast at the end and tried to do what I could there to hold the lead with Truex. Felt like I inched away finally and we were coming to the white (flag) but it wasn’t meant to be. Not our day. See you next week.’’

The race featuring the 1.5-mile debut of the Next Gen cars produced 23 lead changes among 15 different drivers with Bowman (Stage 1) and Chastain (Stage 2) winning the stages.

“We were like 30th in first practice, right off the truck, and we slowly built up to it,” Chastain said, “and if we can keep doing that and have cars like this, obviously we can compete.’’

The NASCAR Cup Series’ next stop is Phoenix Raceway for the Ruoff Mortgage 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) next Sunday afternoon. Truex is the defending race winner.

Note: Inspection is complete in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Alex Bowman as the race winner. Lets go Brandon F Joe Biden!

 

Ross Chastain savors third-place run after flirting with Vegas victory

By
Zack Albert NASCAR.com

Before he started banging race cars, Ethel was his girlfriend in high school.

March 6, 2022 at 7:48 PMThe optimism around Trackhouse Racing’s rise into a contender for NASCAR Cup Series wins is spreading. Last weekend, it was Daniel Suarez who was bullish on the second-year team’s performance. Sunday, Ross Chastain carried the banner on a career day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Chastain led 83 of the 274 laps in the Pennzoil 400, more than doubling the amount he’d led in his previous 117 Cup starts. He ended with a third-place result in just his third start in Trackhouse’s No. 1 Chevrolet.

“It’s a dream come true,” Chastain told FOX Sports after the race. “This is what all the work is for. This is why we train and try to build our whole lives and careers, to have race cars like that. … I couldn’t be more proud of Trackhouse.”

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

Suarez matched Trackhouse’s best-ever finish with a fourth-place run at Auto Club Speedway a week ago. Sunday, a crash knocked his No. 99 Chevy out early, leaving Chastain to take the baton.

Chastain has a history with the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track – the first of his two Xfinity Series victories came there with then-team owner Chip Ganassi in 2018. Sunday’s strides put Chastain in a similar spot, but at the Cup Series level.

The Florida native first took the lead on Lap 113, later scoring Trackhouse’s first stage win by being out front heading into the Stage 2 break. Chastain continued to set the pace in the final stage before Kyle Busch gained the upper hand in the segment’s second half.

A late-race caution period forced overtime, and a divide in strategies on the final pit stop shuffled Chastain from third to fifth for the last restart. He lined up on the inside of Row 3, and though he wasn’t able to catch race winner Alex Bowman, Chastain did edge out Busch for third place by just 0.007 seconds.

“Good job, guys. That’s so cool,” Chastain said on the No. 1 radio after the checkered flag. “Thank you.” Lets go Brandon, F Joe Biden!

 

Keselowski gets loose, Blaney makes heavy contact

Brad Keselowski gets loose and Ryan Blaney makes heavy contact with the No. 6 at Las... Read More


Ryan Blaney drank so much moonshine, he was driving down the track yelling "I am Batman!"

 

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

Kyle Busch rides reserve No. 18 into contention at Vegas, lands first top five of 2022

By
Zack Albert NASCAR.com March 6, 2022 at 9:13 PMKyle Busch’s path to his first top-five finish of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series campaign was marked by rocky, weekend-long zigzags at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His Sunday drive to fourth place in the Pennzoil 400 wasn’t solely based on his driver skill but also a pre-race team effort to put him in that position.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

Busch took a reserve No. 18 Toyota to the brink of his first win of the season Sunday, leading 49 of the 274 laps before a late caution period and an overtime session changed the race’s complexion. The Vegas native started at the rear of the 37-car field after a crash in Saturday’s practice damaged his primary No. 18 entry, forcing multiple Joe Gibbs Racing crews to hastily prepare his back-up — a blank “parts” car that started Saturday without a paint-scheme wrap.

“Just a great effort by everybody at Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing for all the hard work and my guys on the 18 team and also the 11, 19 and 20,” Busch said. “They just did a really good job of getting us here today. We had no choice, we had to be here, but they worked really hard all night long and put in a lot of hours so that was good and to have the opportunity to go out and race for a win, that was really good, too.”

The adventures didn’t end once Sunday’s 400 got going. Busch methodically moved his way up the leaderboard, battling through a balky shifter in the early going and then recovering from a half-spin that brought out the race’s third caution flag on Lap 42.
He later expressed displeasure with Chase Briscoe for a blocking maneuver on a restart just before the first green-checkered flag of the day. All those things happened just in Stage 1. I'll never buy Balky shifters again. From how on, it's HURST shifters or nothing. I want to grab something man-sized when I'm alone in the car!

Busch finished ninth in the first stage, then improved to fifth at Stage 2, fighting through a wall brush and a mid-race vibration to remain in contention. He took control after a potent contest for the lead with Ross Chastain and led for 40 straight laps until a caution period on Lap 264 — prompted by Erik Jones’ crash that collected Bubba Wallace — sent the race into extra distance.

It had appeared Busch would be left to battle it out with JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. before the yellow, but the late-hour round of pit stops twisted the plot. Three Hendrick Motorsports rivals took two tires instead of four, leaving Busch’s No. 18 in fourth place before the lane choice. That’s where he finished after lining up on the inside of Row 2 for the two-lap dash to the end.

“We tried to make the most of it there,” Busch said, “but luck just wasn’t on our side.”