Two Gibbs drivers appeared to settle the Las Vegas win between them, but late yellow puts Hendrick in position: Alex Bowman wins ahead of Kyle Larson
The first race of NASCAR’s new generation of cars (Gen7, or Next-Gen) on a 1.5-mile oval featured some gripping racing on Sunday, though it often went awry. Alex Bowman (Hendrick-Chevrolet) won the Pennzoil 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway after twelve yellow phases including overtime. For a long time, however, he did not look like a candidate for victory.
With three laps to go, Kyle Busch (Gibbs-Toyota) had the best chance. He had started from the back of the field but had just managed to keep teammate Martin Truex Jr. at bay in the final segment of the race and looked set to claim his second home win. But things turned out differently.
In the final caution period, which called for overtime, Busch’s crew chief Ben Beshore opted for four fresh tyres. The Hendrick trio of Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, William Byron each got only two fresh tyres and thus moved ahead of Busch. On the final restart, Larson led but lost the top spot after a close team duel to Bowman, who eventually took the win.
“The car was actually fast all day, but we never really had the track position,” said Bowman, who has now put his 2022 season on track with his first win of the season after two failed performances at Daytona and Fontana (P24 and P25).
Kyle Busch was relegated to the back of the field after crashing his Gibbs Toyota in practice on Saturday, while Tyler Reddick (Childress-Chevrolet), Daniel Hemric (Kaulig-Chevrolet) and Cole Custer (Stewart/Haas-Ford) were all relegated to the back of the field after modifications were made to their cars.
While local hero Kyle Busch had to start from the back of the grid, one of his three Gibbs teammates started from pole for the first time in a Cup race: Christopher Bell. The first segment of the race (Stage 1) directly saw four yellows, one of which was planned, the other three were due to spins.
Stage wins for Bowman and Chastain – many incidents
The spins mostly happened shortly after a restart in the pack and involved Justin Haley (Kaulig Chevrolet) and Cole Custer and Tyler Reddick, who started from the back. Kyle Busch also got into trouble when Haley spun. The Stage 1 win went to Alex Bowman ahead of Hendrick team-mate William Byron and Ross Chastain (Trackhouse-Chevrolet).
In Stage 2, the turbulence continued. Michael McDowell (Front Row Ford) did not change his tyres during the stage caution. This had indirect consequences. Shortly after the restart he went off track in a duel with Erik Jones (Petty/GMS-Chevrolet). McDowell caught Chase Briscoe (Stewart/Haas-Ford), who in turn caught Daniel Suarez (Trackhouse-Chevrolet). Suarez was the one to suffer, as he crashed into the wall at the start/finish line as an innocent party.
Suarez’s crash triggered the first of four caution periods in Stage 2. The remaining cautions in this second segment were due to a crash by Brad Keselowski (RFK-Ford), which took Ryan Blaney (Penske-Ford) out of the race, simultaneous crashes by Austin Cindric (Penske-Ford) and Chase Briscoe, and finally a spin by pole-sitter Christopher Bell. The Stage 2 win went to Ross Chastain ahead of Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.
Tacky Gibbs team duel – and then another yellow
As turbulent and rich in incident as the first two race segments were, the final segment was quiet for a long time. Although it was the longest of the three race segments with 102 scheduled laps, there was initially only one yellow phase. The reason was that Denny Hamlin disassembled the sequential gearbox of his Gibbs Toyota.
As a result, two of Hamlin’s Gibbs teammates seemed to decide the victory between themselves: Kyle Busch, who had started the race from the back of the field, and Martin Truex Jr. Busch led, but had Truex Jr. directly in his slipstream with 20 laps to go. With 16 laps to go, Truex Jr. pulled level but couldn’t get by. Three laps later, he got by, but Busch countered right back.
Kyle Busch, the 2015 and 2019 NASCAR champion who hails from Las Vegas, already appeared to be on his way to his second home win from the back of the field, having done just that once before in 2009. But then there was another yellow with three laps to go. The reason was a crash by Erik Jones at the start/finish line, in which Bubba Wallace (23XI-Toyota) was also involved.
Alex Bowman defeats Kyle Larson in overtime
So it was off to the pits once more. And during this last pit stop, Kyle Larson got into the lead because only two tyres were changed. Earlier in the race, last year’s champion had suffered two setbacks and had to fight his way back to the front each time.
In Stage 1, Larson had to make an unscheduled pit stop due to a vibration. In Stage 3, he collected a speeding penalty, but was lucky to be able to redeem it during Hamlin’s yellow phase, which was favourable for him. So Larson “only” had to go to the end of the lead lap for the penultimate restart. Under green he would have lost a lap.
The overtime with its two laps brought the decision. Larson led the outside lane on the restart, with William Byron behind him. Alex Bowman led the inside lane, with Kyle Busch behind him. And Bowman managed to pull alongside Larson after one lap and pass him a little later. So it was he who dusted off the win in Las Vegas.
Larson still remained P2 after his double recovery. Third was Ross Chastain, who caught the unfortunate Kyle Busch (4th) and also William Byron (5th). Sixth-placed Aric Almirola (Stewart/Haas-Ford) also finished in the top 10 in the third race of the season, making the driver retiring at the end of the season the only one to have always finished in the top 10 so far in 2022.
This year’s West Coast Swing will conclude next Sunday with the race at the one-mile oval in Phoenix, which will then host the season finale for the third straight year with a four-race title decider in November.
