The NASCAR Cup Series visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon in the Pennzoil 400. Michael McDowell of Spire Motorsports started the race on the pole with Team Penske driver Joey Logano starting in the second position.
This race featured a lot of drivers experiencing tire problems either having them cut during the race or their pit crew forgetting to tighten the lug nuts. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe lost a left rear tire after pitting on lap 34 bringing out the first caution of the race. The other drivers who had problems with tires were Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Busch, and Cody Ware.
There were nine cautions for 53 laps. The big crash happened on lap 196 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun leading to a seven-car crash that involved Ryan Blaney, Noah Gragson, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, and Bubba Wallace.
In Stage 1, Team Penske driver Austin Cindric led 43 laps to win Stage 1. He became the ninth driver to win a stage this year. The other drivers who led the stage were Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, and Alex Bowman.
In Stage 2, Kyle Larson led 43 laps to win the stage. The other drivers who led in Stage 2 were Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, and Ross Chastain.
In the final stage, the battle for the lead came down to Daniel Suarez and Josh Berry. Berry was side-by-side with Suarez before taking the lead on lap 252. He led the final 16 laps to win his first Cup Series race by .015 seconds over Daniel Suarez.
Berry won two Xfinity Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and was the fourth straight driver to win his first career race for Wood Brothers Racing. There were 32 lead changes among 13 drivers.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Ryan Preece third, William Byron fourth, Ross Chastain fifth, Austin Cindric sixth, Alex Bowman seventh, A.J. Allmendinger eighth, Kyle Larson ninth, and Chase Elliott tenth.
The Cup Series visits Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at 3 pm on FS1. Purchase NASCAR Cup Series tickets today at StubHub.
