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#21: Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing, Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Mustang
(Photo by Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Thinkin’ Out Loud: The Best Las Vegas Race Ever? It’s Pretty Darn Close

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What Happened?

Josh Berry outran runner-up finisher Daniel Suarez to earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory during Sunday’s (March 16) event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ryan Preece, William Byron and Ross Chastain were behind them to round out the top five.

This is the first time the Wood Brothers Racing team has won a race in two consecutive years since 1986 and 1987 with Kyle Petty.

What Really Happened?

We tend to romanticize past races and feed our nostalgia pretty often when it comes to thinking about which races remain some of the best in history, but it’s hard to argue against what we saw on Sunday afternoon being perhaps the best NASCAR race in Las Vegas Motor Speedway history.

Hear me out on this one.

Put Berry’s popular win aside for one moment. This year’s Pennzoil 400 had 32 lead changes throughout its 267-lap distance. That’s the most in Las Vegas history not just in the Cup Series, but in any series at LVMS.

You could probably tell, too. At one point or another, many of the drivers in the field seemed to have a chance at the win. Drivers like Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric led multiple laps at a time, and that’s after the former earned his first-ever Cup pole on a 1.5-mile, non superspeedway oval in his 18 years of Cup competition.

Drivers like Preece and AJ Allmendinger earned a couple of their best finishes in a while as well. For Allmendinger, it was his best result since Homestead-Miami Speedway of last year.

Preece, however, has finished just as well only one time in his Cup career. It was at Talladega Superspeedway in 2019. Six years ago.

Of course, that’s not mentioning the biggest underdog story of them all: that No. 21 Ford.

Berry is now not only Las Vegas’ only first-time winner in its existence, but now he has given the Wood Brothers their first two consecutive years with a win since 1986 and 1987. It was also the first win for the historic team at a 1.5-mile track since Morgan Shepherd won at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1993.

On top of all of that, it’s just really darn cool to see the Wood Brothers win.

Now, let’s compare all of the above to any other Las Vegas race.

There are a few notables. In 2006, we saw a thrilling last-lap pass between two of the sport’s best in Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth. In 2013, there was the duel between Kenseth and Kasey Kahne. In 2019, Joey Logano tangled with Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski coming to the end.

But ask yourself if any of those were better than Sunday.

Who Stood Out?

There is no doubt that Berry and the Wood Brothers’ popular victory is the talk of the town. However, for a solid portion of the race, it was Kyle Larson who seemed to have the field dialed in.

Among 13 drivers that paced the field on Sunday, Larson did more so than anyone else. The Elk Grove, Calif., native led a race-high 61 laps that included a stage two victory.

It may not seem like much, but considering how competitive the day was, Larson appeared to have the fastest car as a result. Not to mention, it was one of his strongest performances on a mile-and-a-half track recently. The last time the No. 5 led so many laps on a 1.5-mile circuit was the spring Kansas Speedway race of last year.

After starting 10th, Larson hovered within the top 10 and methodically paced his way toward the front of the field. It was lap 100 when the No. 5 finally took the lead spot.

Near the middle of the final stage, it looked like he was going to convert it into a win, too.

Before one of the final cautions, Larson had a commanding lead ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron. Cliff Daniels and crew decided to relinquish the lead to top off on what they were hoping to be the last time the field came to pit road.

Unfortunately, only a handful of drivers came with him including teammate Byron, leaving him poor track position and little time to make up the lost ground. Another caution plagued the HMS No. 5’s efforts, and Larson had no choice but to pit with the rest of the field. The No. 5 was mired in the middle of the pack by then and only was able to manage an eighth-place result, not at all a reflection of the most dominant car in the most competitive race in Las Vegas history.

Who Fell Flat?

There was plenty of optimism to start the day for Christopher Bell. The Oklahoman had an opportunity to be the first driver since Johnson in 2007 to win four consecutive races.

But for most of the race, he was nowhere to be found. In fact, none of the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates were.

It began on lap 34 with JGR newcomer Chase Briscoe.

Lost wheels were plenty abundant on Sunday, but Briscoe was the first victim of the misplaced rubber, and arguably one of the worst affected. After successfully placing on a new Goodyear Eagle, the No. 19 was placed two laps down per NASCAR’s new lost-wheel policy. The result? A whopping four laps down for the Bass Pro Shops Toyota before the end of stage one.

Yet despite that, Briscoe not only miraculously returned to the lead lap before the checkered flag, but he rallied back into 17th, an unthinkable position to predict merely 200 laps earlier.

The next offender was Bell himself in what was one of the most bizarre pit stop sequences in recent memory as a result of another loose wheel.

Bell, while pitting under caution during stage two, ventured to pit road and received his normal service. Upon exiting, however, crew chief Adam Stevens noticed the left front wheel wasn’t tight enough and made a quick-thinking call that may have saved the No. 20 team’s race.

He told Bell to pit in teammate Briscoe’s pit box.

The result was a penalty for pitting outside of the pit box and starting at the end of the field, but that’s much better than being held for two laps like Briscoe.

Bell finished 12th, the highest finishing Toyota in the whole field. But he wasn’t the only JGR car to have woes on pit road, either.

Ty Gibbs seemed to lack speed for the entirety of the race. After starting 29th, the No. 54 actually lost positions and was holding ground around the 33rd-place mark.

But shortly after the beginning of the final stage, his day went from bad to worse. While entering his pit stall to receive maintenance on his Toyota, Gibbs was slammed into by an exiting Carson Hocevar.

The contact didn’t end his day, but Gibbs could only rally for a 22nd-place result.

If there was anybody who had a chance at victory on Sunday in the JGR camp, it was Denny Hamlin more than anybody else.

Hamlin cruised outside of the top 10 for most of the race but found himself among the top five thanks to pit strategy, but it was the same strategy that would be his undoing.

The No. 11 joined 23XI Racing frontrunner Tyler Reddick to pit road with a little less than 30 laps to go. It was the beginning of green flag pit stops, and the result was Hamlin was one lap down at the moment.

Then the caution flag waved.

Both Hamlin and his employee Reddick were caught one lap down and forced to do the wave around to get back onto and the end of the lead lap.

He would only return for a 15th-place result.

It was the first time all four Joe Gibbs cars finished outside of the top 10 since Watkins Glen International last year.

Paint Scheme of the Race

Backstreet’s back, alright.

Never thought that would be something I would type in a NASCAR article, but John Hunter Nemechek and Legacy Motor Club have surprised me this week.

It’s not very often we see musical artists on paint schemes nowadays, and it’s even more rare to see a boy band featured.

What’s Next?

NASCAR returns to the Sunshine State for some more mile-and-a-half racing.

The Cup Series heads to the Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Straight Talk Wireless 400. Broadcasting will be live on FOX Sports 1 at 3 p.m. ET.

Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.

Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT

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