This past Sunday, March 15, marked the biggest day of Wood Brothers Racing’s newest driver’s career, as he fended off 35 competitors to secure his first career win at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Josh Berry will remember the 2025 Pennzoil 400 for the rest of his life and has locked himself into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs this coming September. Here’s how it went down in Sin City.
The race started with Michael McDowell leading the field to the Green Flag, with defending Champion, Joey Logano alongside him. Logano utilized the inside lane to his advantage, surging ahead of McDowell to lead 30 laps before Green Flag Pit Stops began. Logano pitted from the lead on Lap 34, before Chase Briscoe’s #19 Toyota Camry lost a wheel coming out of the pits, prompting a caution.
When the race resumed on Lap 41, the field had 40 laps to collect those valuable Stage Points toward the Playoffs. Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman led the charge coming to the line, with Cindric prevailing. The Team Penske driver collected the Stage 1 victory, and finishing behind him respectively were Bowman, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson.
When Stage 2 got the Green Flag on Lap 89, Bubba Wallace surged ahead of Cindric, but Kyle Larson’s fast #5 Chevrolet made a hard charge for the lead, passing him on Lap 100. On Lap 108, Shane van Gisbergen spun out on the Backstretch, bringing out the Yellow.
During the caution, Christopher Bell stopped in his teammates’ pit stall to tighten a loose wheel, but NASCAR did not penalize him for this. They later deemed it legal when clarifying going forward.
When the race resumed on Lap 113, Kyle Busch brought out another caution after losing a tire, just like Chase Briscoe earlier. Busch’s #8 Chevrolet brushed the wall in the process, but was able to continue.
The race went Green once again on Lap 120, with Larson dominating before another caution for Todd Gilliland and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. getting in an accident on Turn 4. A lot of pit stops took place under caution, with Ross Chastain and Erik Jones leading to the Green with 13-to-go in Stage 2. Jones faded, while Chastain held onto the lead until William Byron and Larson passed him to, with the Top-5 coming out of Stage 2 saw Larson winning, winding up Byron second, Chastain finishing third, Bubba Wallace ending up fourth and Carson Hocevar rounding out the Top-5.
The start of the final stage was chaotic, as Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones, amongst others, ended up in a wreck on the Backstretch. This ended Blaney’s day, after having a rough weekend in Practice and Qualifying.
While the race saw a side-by-side battle for the lead with Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez battling it out with less than 40-to-go, Noah Gragson slammed the Turn 1 wall with 25 remaining. He had too much damage and was credited with a 31st-place finish.
The race continued with 20-to-go, and it was an all out free-for-all at that point. Suarez led the pack coming to the Green, but Josh Berry was able to overtake Suarez with 15-to go and was able to hold him off en-route to his first NCS victory and collected the 101st for Wood Brothers Racing.
Berry will roll off Second for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which takes place March 23 at 3:00PM EST/Noon CST on Fox Sports 1. Coming into Miami, William Byron leads Christopher Bell by +29 and drivers will ride the wall, rather than the waves all afternoon in South Florida. The worn-out surface will provide a challenge for drivers and fans will be in for a treat.
Every Man on Every Crew, LLC. 
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