If you told me a year ago: “the Wood Brothers no. 21 will win twice in less than a year,” I would laugh you out the room.
Now it’s a reality, as Cup Series sophomore driver Josh Berry took NASCAR’s oldest team to victory lane in the Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas.
Atop Harrison Burton’s maiden win at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 last summer, Josh Berry became the 20th different driver to win for the famed no. 21 Wood Brothers Ford, putting them in the Playoffs for the second year in a row. This came just after his career best finish of fourth last weekend in Phoenix.
The 34-year old from Hendersonville, Tennessee took a highly popular underdog victory after a number of strategy and execution blunders from top teams and a race of attrition consisting of nine cautions and several tyre blowouts.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile tri-oval with multiple lanes. Reigning Cup Series champion Joey Logano believes Las Vegas is a fun race track thanks to its multiple lanes providing a variety of overtaking choices. Kyle Larson dominated this race one year ago, sweeping the stages and earning his spot in the Playoffs.
Michael McDowell in the no. 71 Group 1001 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet started the race on pole alongside Joey Logano who found a way past on lap three. Logano’s Penske team-mate, Austin Cindric, passed McDowell for second on lap 17. The other Penske of Blaney, after starting from 36th, gained 16 places in the opening 20 laps.
On Lap 32, Blaney pitted from 17th place but major issues during the stop put him a lap down. A flurry of green-flag pit stops followed, including Logano from the lead.
A loose wheel departed from Chase Briscoe’s no. 19 Toyota – causing the day’s first caution on lap 33. Cindric inherited the lead, followed by Alex Bowman and Logano after their pre-yellow flag pit stops. Chase Briscoe served a two-lap penalty (plus two crew members suspended) for the loose wheel, while Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch received penalties for speeding on pit entry.
Bowman and Cindric remained side-by-side for several laps after the restart, before the lead battle was disrupted by Bubba Wallace. Cindric found an opportunity to break away, winning stage one and becoming the ninth different stage winner this year.
Coming to the restart on lap 89, Wallace chose the inside lane over Cindric, while Larson, Bowman, Berry and Logano made up the second and third rows.
Shane Van Gisbergen spun across the backstretch exiting turn two in the middle of a three-wide situation between John-Hunter Nemechek and Chase Briscoe and triggered another caution.
Christopher Bell received a penalty for pitting outside of his own pit box under the yellow flag pit stops. One of his wheels was not fastened fully and he pulled into JGR teammate Briscoe’s pit box to have it tightened. It would have been a far heavier penalty had he left pit road in that condition.
Wallace led the field to green on lap 113 alongside Byron, followed by the second row consisting of Larson and Reddick. 12th-placed Kyle Busch lost a wheel, scraping the wall on the backstretch and bringing out another caution almost immediately. Byron restarted from first with Larson beside him and 23XI teammates Wallace and Reddick behind them. Larson cleared Byron, who fell behind Reddick on lap 143.
Four laps later another caution was called as Todd Gilliland hit the wall and rebounded off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ross Chastain, Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin won the race off pit road taking only two tyres each and restarted with 14 to go.
Chastain created a lead while the following cars battled hard, three-wide for several laps. Byron passed Chastain with 6 to go in stage two, followed closely by his Hendrick team-mate Larson, who later passed Byron to win stage two.
McDowell and Austin Dillon shared the front row after not pitting. Daniel Suarez in third only took two tyres – trying something different to gain that all-important track position. With 94 to go, the field took the green. In only one lap, Kyle Larson dispatched all three.
On lap 188, the caution came out following a big wreck for the no. 51 of Cody Ware, son of team owner Rick Ware. Carson Hocevar turned Ty Gibbs while coming out of his pit box when he took two tyres.
Chastain led the restart coming to lap 195 of 267 with Larson outside, with Cindic and Elliott behind. Stenhouse, Blaney and Jones were involved in a wreck on the backstretch, wiping out the best Ford all weekend and damaging other cars. Bell, not realising he was on the bottom of a four-wide situation, squeezed Blaney up into the cars to his outside, turning him hard into the wall.
Reddick led the field back to green with 67 laps to go. Berry took the lead when Hamlin and Reddick pitted for fresh tyres. With 25 laps to go, Noah Gragson shredded the wall on the outside of turn two when he blew a front-right tyre, ending his race prematurely and triggering the ninth caution of the day.
Suarez won the battle in the pits, leading from Berry, Ryan Preece, Chastain, Bowman and Cindric. With 19 to go, they resumed racing. Berry challenged Suarez for the lead, side-by-side while Byron kept Chastain company behind them. Berry eventually cleared Suarez as Ryan Preece miraculously found himself in third with a dozen laps to go.
The chequered flag waved, terminating the countdown to Josh Berry’s first Cup Series victory, celebrating with Wood Brothers Racing – their 101st as a NASCAR team – punching their ticket to the post-season Playoffs for the second consecutive season, following Harrison Burton’s shock Coke Zero Sugar 400 victory last summer.
Berry and his team absolutely deserved this. NASCAR’s oldest team were saved by the Ford Motor Company themselves as a family-run business in alliance with Penske; now they are flourishing with Berry at the wheel. The underdogs denied Suarez a third career victory through flawless execution and ended championship protagonist Christopher Bell’s winning streak.
“I don’t even know what to think – it’s just awesome,” Berry said In his post-race interview, “It’s just incredible, they’ve been so good to me … [I] thank everybody at Wood Brothers Racing and Team Penske as well, they welcome me with open arms.”
Now Berry is locked into the post-season Playoffs alongside Byron and Bell – who will join them next week in Homestead-Miami?
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