After a late caution that forced NASCAR overtime and a great pit call to take two tires, Alex Bowman outdueled Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson to win the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Bowman, who had run up near the front all afternoon, was in the top five when a caution flag came out for Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace crashing with two laps to go. On the ensuing pit stop, Bowman, along with teammates Larson and William Byron, only changed two tires while the rest of the lead group changed all four.
The win marked Bowman’s first top-20 finish of the young season, and the seventh career win for the Tucson, Ariz. driver.
“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. 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.”
Larson held on for second, while Trackhouse Racing had a banner day with their driver Ross Chastain, who led a race-high 83 laps and collected the second-year team’s first ever stage victory en route to a third-place finish.
“We were like 30th in first practice,” Chastain said regarding his car, “and we slowly built up to it and if we can keep doing that and have cars like this, obviously we can compete.”
Fourth place was bittersweet for two-time series champion and Vegas-native Kyle Busch, who led 49 laps on the day and appeared to be on his way to his first home track Cup win in over a decade until the final caution.
Busch’s drive was especially impressive considering he crashed in opening practice on Saturday and was forced to use a back-up 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.
“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….tried to do what I could there to hold the lead with [Martin] 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.”
Byron rounded out the top five, while Aric Almirola remains the only driver to have recorded a top-ten finish in every Cup race this season, finishing sixth in Vegas.
As for the championship standings, Kyle Larson holds a six-point advantage over eighth-place finisher Martin Truex Jr.
The Cup Series will return for the final leg of the West coast swing at Phoenix Raceway for the Ruoff Mortgage 500 on Sunday March 13.