Josh Berry won Sunday’s (Mar. 16) Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, winning the first race of his NASCAR Cup Series career and the 101st race for the historic Wood Brothers organization.
A caution with 73 laps to go flipped the front of the field as Wiliam Byron and Kyle Larson, two of the fastest cars of the afternoon, pitted in order to ensure they would make it to the end on fuel. That trapped them in the middle of the field. They were able to make up some ground, but not enough to be real factors at the front.
Berry, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Preece, among others, ran the final long green-fl agstint of the race without coming down pit road, which proved to be the winning strategy. When Noah Gragson brought out the yellow flag with 25 laps to go, Berry and Suarez had the track position necessary to pit and retain the top two spots.
Berry won by 1.358 seconds over Suarez. Preece tied his career-best finish in third, followed by Byron and Ross Chastain. Austin Cindric was sixth, then Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger and Larson. Chase Elliott completed the top 10.
Cindric won stage one, with Larson winning stage two.
The aforementioned lap 195 crash was the biggest incident of the day, taking out Ryan Blaney and Austin Dillon. Loose wheels were also a major factor, as Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell were all impacted by loose wheels over the course of the race.
With a 12th-place finish, Bell’s bid for a fourth consecutive win came up short.
“I don’t even know what to think,” Berry told Fox Sports’ Jamie Little. “We just battled and battled and battled. It was our day, I can’t believe it. Such a battle with Daniel [Suarez] there in the end.”
“[The Wood Brothers) have been so good to me. They’ve welcomed me with open arms. We have a great thing going on together.”
Suarez was disappointed, but took the time to congratulate his fellow competitor.
“First of all, congratulations to the No. 21 team,” Suarez told Fox Sports. “Josh did a good job. We did everything right. Our car was fast, we just struggled a little bit on the short run. I feel like that’s where we lost the race. Overall, just very proud of everyone at Trackhouse.”
NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 Results
The sixth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season will take place at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 23. The Straight Talk Wireless 400 will go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET, with coverage on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.