(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden

Main Takeaway

They’ve only gone and done it again.

For the second-straight week, William Byron led early only to look like he would lose out in the closing laps. But once again the No. 24 team parlayed timely cautions, perfect pit strategy and well-executed restarts to a NASCAR Cup Series victory.

This time Byron’s victory came at the expense of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson. Larson had led early in Stage 3 and Harvick had emerged as the likely winner, passing the 2021 Cup champ with 44 laps remaining and seemingly driving off into the Phoenix sunset.

But a late caution for a Harrison Burton spin shuffled up the race. Teams had to make decisions about whether to come to pit road and how many tires to take.

Harvick’s No. 4 team elected to go on the offensive, taking four tires and emerging seventh. Larson and Byron took two tires and emerged at the front of the field.

The two-tire call wound up being the prevailing strategy, particularly after a second caution in Turn 3 on the restart and sent the race into overtime. That seemingly gave Larson the inside track to victory, but Byron snuck by him on the outside lane in overtime to take a second unexpected victory in the united Rentals Work United 500.

Byron’s win came just a week after his No. 24 pit crew helped the North Carolinian prevail at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, getting Byron off of pit road with the lead on the final round of stops.

“You’ve got to have a chance there on the front row to really have clean air on your nose and make the right moves,” Byron said. “We were able to get on the front row there and stay on the outside of Kyle (Larson) the second time and have a good-enough restart.”

Larson seemed to have caught a good break a week after losing a race to a late caution. But the second yellow left him vulnerable and overtime saw Larson fade to fourth after being passed by Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick.

A “pissed off” Larson admitted that he “got lucky with the (first) caution.”

“(Crew chief Cliff Daniels) made a great call to take two, get us out in the lead,” he said. “Restarts are just tough. I felt like I ran William up pretty high. I was expecting him to lose some grip. But he did a really good job of holding it to my outside, clearing me down the back.”

The Californian did take one positive away from the experience. His No. 5 Chevrolet ran better than it had in last fall’s season finale, giving him optimism for title success should he return to Arizona with a Championship 4 spot in the fall.

It’s a long season, but hopefully we’re in the final four when we come back here in November and can have a run similar to that, with speed, and try to execute a little bit better in the end,” he said.

The big loser in the late pit shuffle was Harvick. The nine-time Phoenix winner was unable to move forward on the inside line during the brief first run. He fired off better on the outside line in overtime, but only rallied from eighth to fifth before the checkered flag flew.

It was a disappointing result for the 2014 Cup champ, who was looking to claim an early win in his final season. Harvick defended crew chief Rodney Childers’ four-tire call, saying it was “what I would have done,” but was admittedly let down by the end result.

“That one is not fun to swallow,” he said. “We had a great car and didn’t need that caution at the end. We had a strong car and a chance to win. Just hate missing an opportunity when you have a car that strong.”

Byron and the No. 24 team are riding high. Their late heroics have all-but assured them a playoff berth and host of playoff points to go with it.

Meanwhile Larson and Harvick are left to sort out what’s gone wrong and how to fare better next time.

 

Good, Bad and Ugly

Bad: Louvers have entered the chat

NASCAR has a decision to make regarding the sport’s top current team.

The sanctioning body confiscated the louvers – radiator duct coverings meant to direct air flow over the hood – of all four Hendrick Motorsports entries after practice Friday. They also snagged the louvers from Kaulig Racing’s No. 31 Chevrolet on Saturday.

This comes at a time where teams have had some issues with getting the louvers to fit with the new hoods. NASCAR instructed teams not to modify the preexisting louvers, with plans to issue new ones to them soon.

The parts have been taken from Hendrick at a time when the organization is thriving. Rick Hendrick’s company went 1-2-3 in Las Vegas and won again with Byron two days after the confiscation in Phoenix.

Things seem to be going well. But if Hendrick is found to have illegally modified these parts, the repercussions could be significant. NASCAR penalized three teams 100 points, $100,000 and four-week suspensions for crew chiefs tied to the modification of single-sourced supplier parts in 2022. The option to take playoff points also exists, should it be warranted.

Hendrick could appeal any penalties and delay suspensions. But if any of its four teams are docked for infringements, the road back to title contention could be lengthy and require a win.

 

Good: A better day for Berry

Josh Berry’s first run in the No. 9 Chevrolet didn’t quite go to plan. But given another opportunity to showcase his abilities, the short track ace impressed for Hendrick Motorsports.

Berry overcame a slow start to the weekend and marched into the top-20, where he spent the majority of the race. The Arizonian was slated to finish around 15th until the late cautions gave his No. 9 team a chance to advance their position.

With four fresh tires, Berry snuck into 13th on the initial restart and then jumped up to 10th in overtime to score the first top-10 of his Cup career. In doing so Berry made sure that all four Hendrick Motorsports cars finished in the top 10, following Byron (first), Larson (fourth) and Alex Bowman (ninth).

The end result was a final positive on a “really solid day” for the JR Motorsports regular.

“We were able to improve a lot from what we had last week,” Berry said, referring to his 29th-place run at Las Vegas. “We were able to stay on the lead lap basically the whole race. We had a couple of runs in there that were really good. A couple runs where we fell back a little bit, but it’s just all part of a learning experience for me.

Berry has also identified his biggest opportunity to improve. “These races are so long, and I need to be able to learn this car a little bit better where I can give Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) a little bit better direction on how to help me,” he said.

The 32-year-old has shown early promise. Next up for him is his first try at drafting-focused pack racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Bad: The on-track action

Sunday’s race was saved a bit by the late cautions and ensuing dramatics. But it’s fair to say the on-track product was underwhelming overall.

Clean air was king overall, as indicated by Byron’s early dominance and subsequent inability to get back to the front before late restarts opened the door. Harvick admittedly broke up the status quo and marched to the lead over a long run in the final stage, but couldn’t make up ground with fresh tires after the late cautions.

The driver that emerged with the lead on the overtime restart was almost guaranteed to score the win. Byron pulled off the feat and marched away from everyone else over the last lap.

Such was the quality of the racing on Sunday. There was improvement with the new lower-downforce package being ran on low-banked short tracks and road courses, particularly in the midfield.

The issue wasn’t so much the cars or tires. Phoenix’s layout has proven tricky to nail a proper racing setup for regardless of the package or series. The track just seems to be a difficult sell for the sort of action-packed racing fans clamor to see on most weekends.

Traditional fans can appreciate the strategy and tire management involved in Sunday’s race, particularly with Harvick and Larson at the front of the field. But it’s safe to question whether Phoenix will ever be capable of delivering a truly dramatic Cup Series finale, save perhaps for a race ended with a late restart.

 

Ugly: How old Friday’s ARCA winner made me feel

The late chaos of a controversial ARCA Menards Series race at Phoenix Raceway saw teenage prospect Tyler Reif score an unexpected victory in just his third start.

William Sawalich had dominated the race, but was spun from the lead after contact from Bradley Erickson on an overtime restart. That gave the lead to Reif, who briefly lost it on the final restart, but quickly overtook Erickson and Landen Lewis over the two laps to score his first win.

He did so at just 15 years old, having been born on June 5, 2007.

To put that birth date into context:

  • The first Car of Tomorrow race in the Cup Series came over two months earlier on March 25, 2007.
  • One day before Reif’s birth, Martin Truex Jr. scored his first Cup win at Dover Motor Speedway. It would be his only win in the No. 1 Chevrolet. Casey Mears had also earned his first Cup win one week earlier in the Coca-Cola 600.
  • Just over one week after Reif’s birth, on June 13, Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that he was shifting to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.
  • Jimmie Johnson had only earned one of his seven Cup titles.
  • The now-classic photo finish for the Daytona 500 between Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin had just taken place four months earlier. Harvick is retiring this year and Martin’s been out of Cup since 2013.

Feeling old yet?

(Actually) Ugly: Commercial cringe

Mike Joy has an important job. He’s been the voice of countless iconic moments in NASCAR history, while also serving as the liaison between the racing product and commercial partners during broadcasts.

That means he often has the unenviable duty of rolling into, through and out of various commercial breaks and sponsored segments – a subject of much ire from fans frustrated with the choppy, segmented sensation that comes with modern race broadcasts.

To his credit, Joy is typically a consummate professional. That’s what made it all the more cringe-inducing to see him take a shot at “keyboard warriors” and their criticism of the rampant advertisement in race broadcasts.

Joy is a respected veteran of the industry and has earned his right to speak on topics that draw his ire. He also has an insider’s understanding of the advertisement structure within races, something he used to give some context on his Twitter account and elsewhere.

But it was a bit off-putting to see the voice of FOX’s NASCAR coverage disparagingly call out “keyboard warriors” over criticism that most would consider valid, if unsolvable in the short-term. Hopefully this divide between the producers and consumers of auto racing can be closed over time.

Good: Sammy Smith’s Phoenix showcase

With most prospective winners in the field on Saturday, the veteran Ryan Truex’s runner-up result would have felt deflating from a storyline perspective.

But there was another feel-good story ahead of Truex as the checkered flag flew.

Sammy Smith fended his temporary Joe Gibbs Racing teammate off over a final 15-lap run to become Phoenix Raceway’s youngest Xfinity Series winner. The 18-year-old, still in high school, led 92 laps and passed Kyle Busch en route to his first win in 13 starts.

He was pushed late, with three cautions and subsequent restarts in the final 50 laps. But Smith held his ground to prevail in a race that truly showcased the Toyota prospect’s potential.

This is a dream come true, and I did know that at some point this was coming,” Smith said. “It took a lot of hard work and a lot of great people around me. Without all of these guys, I wouldn’t be here.”

Truex winning would have been a positive story for different reasons, the veteran making good on his JGR opportunity with a big early victory. But the younger brother of Cup Series veteran Martin Truex Jr. was content with second on a day where his teammate had the field covered.

“That was a good restart at the end,” Truex said. “I thought I could at least try to make it exciting. Congrats to Sammy – he was the class of the field all day. His car was so good. He could really kind of do whatever he wanted.

“Sammy was just a little bit faster, but I’ll try again next time.”

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William Byron