Las Vegas — Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 was a battle to the start-finish line between Kyle Larson on the outside and Alex Bowman on the inside. In the end it was Alex Bowman in the Ally Chevrolet who won in overtime in Las Vegas. This was Alex Bowman’s 7th career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
“We’re here with a new race car that has completely changed everything in our industry,” said Bowman during the post-race press conference. “Obviously it’s paying off how good everybody is at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s somewhat similar to two years ago here. Today, everybody pitted so it ended up working out for us. That’s why Greg gets paid the big bucks. I left the call to him and he made the right call. Daytona and Fontana didn’t go well for us. Happy to get a win this early. There are so many unknowns this year. Excited to keep dialing this thing in.”
Last week’s winner, Kyle Larson, finished second in Las Vegas by a margin of 0.178 seconds. Ross Chastain, driving the ACM Awards Chevy, led 83 laps but finished third. Las Vegas native Kyle Busch finished fourth in Ethel M Chocolates Toyota after leading 49 laps.
Kyle Busch started the race dead last after crashing his race car during practice. He battled back to the front of the pack using his backup car. Then, with just a few laps to go Erik Jones hit the wall and barely missed Ricky Stenhouse Jr. That brought out the caution flag and pit road was open. Teams had to decide to go with two new tires or four. Kyle Larson, Alex bowman and William Byron were the first three off pit road with just two new tires.
“It was hard to pinpoint if we could be strong,” said Jeff Gordon, vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports. “The guys had to overcome a few challenges along the way. Every one of our guys has to fight back from something. You just never know. What I really love seeing is all four of our cars being so close on the track. How much they’re in sync with one each other. The Chevys looked really strong but so did the Toyotas. I think we’ve seen great racing. The drivers are having to show their talent and ability. When you see guys spinning out by themselves we haven’t seen that in years. I’m incredibly impressed with what this car has to bring throughout the season.”
There were a total of 12 caution flags for 60 laps. The 2022 Pennzoil 400 featured 23 lead changes among 15 drivers. The race lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes long. The average speed during the race was 117.522 mph.
Alex Bowman also won the first stage of the race. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain won the second stage.
“These guys drive hard,” said Bowman’s crew chief Greg Ives. “They also push and try to encourage one another. It was a good drag race to the end. I was just as proud with the No. 5 winning and i’m just as proud with us winning. This is a new opportunity to utilize the resources we have at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s not surprising that some of these drivers are up front. I’m just happy for our team. This week brought another fast car and was able to close it out.”
Country music group Midland performed a pre-race concert on the frontstretch. Rising country music artist Tiera Kennedy performed the national anthem. Then, former Raiders running back Marcus Allen said the most famous words in auto racing, “Gentlemen, start your engines!!!!”
On lap 39, Cole Custer spun out in turn two. Then on lap 44, there was a four-way crash between Austin Dillon, Daniel Hemric, Kyle Busch and Justin Haley. Later on lap 65, Tyler Reddick spun out in turn four. On lap 94, there was a collision between Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez on the frontstretch. Then on lap 105, the cars of Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney collided in turn four. Later on lap 136, there was a three-way incident involving the cars of Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Harrison Burton. On lap 143, Christopher Bell spun out in the backstretch. On lap 222, Denny Hamlin stalled in turn two.
Hendrick Motorsports donated $2,000 to Ukraine relief efforts for each lap one of their drivers led during the race.
“We’re extremely proud to be able to support what’s happening in Ukraine,” Gordon explained.” I think everybody in the world is watching and wants to support that. We raised a lot of money for a great cause. We’ll look for more opportunities to do that in the future.”
Racing fans I spoke to said they had a great time at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. For many of the fans, it was their first time at a NASCAR race. Others have been to a race before and returned to the track.
“It was great,” said Brian Jannusch, a fan from Long Beach, Calif. “A lot of good racing, lead changes, some passing. A big fan of the new car. The guy that I know won, I like that very much.”
“It was definitely a good race,” said Bryana Alexander from Post Falls, Idaho. “I was not cheering for Kurt or Kyle Busch. I was happy to see that none of them won. It was a good race, lots of close corners. I like Chase Elliott, I like Joey Logano, I like Alex Bowman because he took over for [Dale Earnhardt] Jr. I’m happy that Alex won it today. He deserved it.”
Her daughter, Peyton, added: “It was a really good race. A lot of the racers were giving people a run for their money. Chase Elliott is my favorite driver.”
“I thought it was pretty cool,” said Trevor Obering, a fan from Cedar City, Utah. “I like the crashes. I’m glad nobody got hurt. It was a fun race. Lots of caution flags. There were a bunch that I saw.”
“The best part I like about it is the competition–just door-to-door racing,” said his father, Jeff Obering. “The weather was good, the entertainment was great and it was a good race overall.”
Next up, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix for the Ruoff Mortgage 500 on Sunday.
The 2022 NASCAR Pennzoil 400 is underway in Las Vegas! 
Third place finisher Ross Chastain in the No. 1 ACM Awards Chevrolet 
The caution flag is out at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 
Race cars passing turn four 
Daniel Hemric in his No. 16 South Point Chevrolet 
Country music group Midlland performed a pre-race concert 
The group performed many of their hit songs including “Burn Out” 
Former racer Jeff Gordon, who currently serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports