Byron cashes in at end
Hendrick driver secures lead in OT to win at Vegas
LAS VEGAS — William Byron took the lead on the second-to-last lap of overtime to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas on Sunday and put an exclamation mark on a dominant day for Hendrick Motorsports.
The top three drivers were from Hendrick, with Byron beating teammates Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman. Bowman won last year’s March race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Byron led 176 laps and won for the fifth time in his six Cup seasons.
Larson appeared headed for victory when when Aric Almirola hit the wall in turn four on lap No. 264, leading to the second caution of the day.
Most of the leaders pitted a lap later, with only Martin Truex Jr. choosing to stay out. Byron came out of pit road ahead of Larson and then easily overtook Truex on the restart.
Byron, who started in the first row with Joey Logano, swept both stages in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet for the first time in his career. Truex in 2017 and Kevin Harvick in 2018 also won both stages in Las Vegas and went on to win.
Elliott to start rehab
Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, will begin physical therapy Monday, his team owner Rick Hendrick told Fox Sports.
Elliott had surgery Friday to repair a fractured tibia, and Hendrick said Elliott has returned to his home in Dawsonville, Georgia. Elliott was injured in a snowboarding accident Friday. He and his family own a home in Vail, Colorado.
Elliott joked on Twitter “that the formal request I submitted for a slight edit to the March section of my script was indeed… declined.”
“In all seriousness, the support I’ve received over the last couple of days is far greater than I deserve,” he posted in a follow-up tweet. “I want to thank everyone who has lended it over in any form!”
Josh Berry took Elliott’s seat in the No. 9 Chevy.
Defending champ hits wall
Logano, the defending Cup champion who won the Las Vegas race in October, hit the wall in in turn four on lap No. 183, ending his day. He was running three-wide with Brad Keselowski in the middle and Kyle Busch on the apron when Logano bumped into Keselowski, sending his Team Penske No. 22 Ford into the wall.
“I’m sure (Keselowski) didn’t mean to do it,” Logano said. “What are you going to do, right? We got fenced.”
It was a tough day all around for Logano, who was running 15th after starting on the pole.
“Considering how we’ve been here in the past, you kind of expect it a little bit more performance today than what we had,” Logano said. “Just off on overall speed. We had the balance somewhat close, just not fast.”
No help at home
Sunday’s first stage wasn’t kind to Las Vegas drivers Busch and Noah Gragson. Busch bumped the wall, and Gragson twice was penalized for speeding on pit road. Gragson later was docked a third speeding penalty.
Struggles in his hometown are nothing new for two-time Cup Series champion Busch, whose only top-level win at Las Vegas was in 2009.
Gragson is a Cup Series rookie.
Xfinity race
Austin Hill overtook Chandler Smith just before the final lap to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday.
Smith, who was the pole-sitter, led 118 laps of the 200-lap race and appeared to be in good shape in the final laps before Hill made his late charge.
“I think with about 10 (laps) to go was where it set in I had a really, really good chance to win the race,” Hill said. “I knew once I got in there, I couldn’t mess around. I had to make my move right away, and he just happened to slip up in (turn) three or four and he gave me that opportunity to get underneath him.”
Hill also won the season-opening race two weeks ago at Daytona in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. The four-time series winner was sixth last week at Fontana, California.
Hill also won the second stage Saturday, and he leads the season standings by 12 points over Smith.
“I just think it shows that we mean business,” Hill said.