NASCAR
William Byron Edges Truex In Vegas Overtime Dash
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – After leading 174 laps, William Byron found himself second on an overtime restart in Las Vegas. Thanks to Martin Truex Jr’s older tires, the 24 easily grabbed the lead by the white flag and won big in the desert. While Vegas dealt Byron a great hand early, it was on pit road late where the 24 rebounded to win.
The dominant car was clear early on, as William Byron took command on lap 10 and held on to win both Stages. The 24 only failed to lead 13 of the first 165 laps, going for a max-points day. Kyle Larson trailed Byron in each Stage, while Alex Bowman made it a Hendrick 1-2-3 sweep in Stage 2.
The turning point of the race would be when Joey Logano was forced into the wall on lap 184. Three-wide racing led to the polesitter’s first ever Las Vegas DNF, and saw a new contender emerge. On pit road, Hamlin leapfrogged the Hendrick cars by taking two tires. After Hamlin led a few laps, Kyle Larson was the new frontrunner.
Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch were 3-wide racing. Joey ended up in the grass. pic.twitter.com/ag7JQwnXXP
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 5, 2023
The 5 would hold serve leading through the final green flag pit stops. Larson was seemingly on cruise control in the closing laps, despite Byron reeling him in from second. The entire complexion of this race would change with two laps to go however, when Aric Almirola spinning triggered a caution.
While Martin Truex Jr. opted not to pit, Byron’s crew just edged him out ahead of Larson. This handed the 24 fresher tires and the front row for the restart. Truex’s 19 couldn’t fire off to maintain with Byron, as the 24 led by the white flag. As cars wrecked behind him, Byron won his way into his fifth-straight NASCAR Playoffs.
William Byron and Hendrick Motorsports have firmly asserted themselves in championship talks. This comes after a whopping 176 laps led in the first intermediate race of 2023. Only time will tell if the 24 can repeat this level of lights-out domination.
“Just been really confident about the group of guys I have on this 24 team,” Byron said. “They work extremely hard, and we spent a lot of time in the offseason going through the Chevrolet simulator and iRacing, trying to get better as a racecar driver and a team. It’s all about the team and the great pit crew.
“Thinking of Chase (Elliott) back home and wish he was here with us, he’s a great racecar driver and teammate, wish he was out here. But thankful to Mr. H and Jeff Gordon, I know he’s watching. This RaptorTough.com Chevy was awesome. I mean back in traffic it was a little tight, but we knew that we had speed. Just had to have the right things play out, and Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) made a great call.”
“The one pit stop we had where we lost the lead, I slid through the box. That delays the stop, so that was on me. I knew they could get it done at the end. Rudy’s been under the weather all day with a stomach bug, so he’s been quiet on the radio. Luckily it worked out there. Thanks to all the fans for coming out, always love racing at Vegas, especially how you can move around. I’m excited for the year.”
Behind Byron, Larson and Alex Bowman made it a 1-2-3 finish for Hendrick Motorsports. This marks the third top-three sweep for HMS, joining the 1997 Daytona 500 and Dover 2021. The rest of the top-10 were: Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, Martin Truex Jr., Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick, and Daniel Suarez.
Next week marks the end of the West Coast Swing, with Phoenix Raceway on deck. The United Rentals 500 will go green Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Debuting the new Cup Series short track rules package, this race may be one of the biggest question marks of 2023.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Meg Oliphant/Getty Images for NASCAR
