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| Meg Oliphant/Getty Images |
Alex "The Showman" Bowman showed up when it counted the most in Sunday's "Pennzoil" 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and that was towards the end of the race. The driver No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro made a pass for the race lead on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in the NASCAR Overtime "Green-White-Checkered" finish.
Pole winner Christopher Bell led the first 32-laps, which would be straight green-flag racing until NASCAR threw the competition yellow flag at lap-32. After drivers and team finished their pit stops and lined up to go back under green flag racing, the race became a whole different game. As cautions always lead to more cautions, that is exactly what happened.
Barely 3-laps after the competition caution had ended, Cole Custer went for a solo spin in Turn 2, bringing the yellow flag back out. After the field when back green, Austin Dillon got loose off of Turn 2, getting up into the No. 31 car of Justin Haley, causing himself and Haley to spin. Kyle Busch and the No. 16 of Daniel Hemric got a piece of that incident as well, but none of the cars involved were severely damaged. The rest of the first stage would be fairly tame, even though Tyler Reddick's No. 8 machine went for a solo spin, bringing out another caution before the stage end.
Alex Bowman would get the best of teammate William Byron for the Stage 1 win.
The second stage would have its fair share of incidents, unfortunately these ones ending a few drivers' day in Las Vegas. Daniel Suarez, who had been very solid at Auto Club Speedway last week and having a good day in Nevada, would get involved into a crash with the No. 14 car of Chase Briscoe. Briscoe would go on to run a few more laps, while Suarez's car was unable to be repaired. Briscoe's fate would come shortly after, in a lap-135 accident triggered by a solo spin by the No. 2 car.
The next bigger caution would fly on lap-104 for Brad Keselowski, who had originally gone for a solo spin coming off Turn 4, but drifted up towards the outside retaining wall, where Ryan Blaney had nowhere to go.
Ross Chastain, leading the most laps for Trackhouse Racing, would bring the organization to win their first stage victory, leading a race total of 83-laps and winning Stage 2.
The final stage of the race was mainly green-flag laps, only two cautions, the first being triggered by Denny Hamlin breaking a transaxle leaving pit road during green-flag pit stops. Otherwise, the race appeared to be heading into finishing under the advertised distance, that is until the No. 43 car made a sudden jerk to the right and slammed into the outer retaining wall. Bubba Wallace would hit the inside wall trying to miss the Erik Jones machine. That incident would put the race under an overtime attempt, something then race leader Kyle Busch did not want to see happen.
Three Hendrick Motorsports drivers would play strategy on pit road, taking two fresh tires instead of a complete set of four used tires, rendering the lead to Kyle Larson. Alex Bowman would best Larson's restart, staying side-by-side with him until the final lap, in which he broke away from the No. 5 car to take the checkered flag.
Here are the complete race results for the 2022 "Pennzoil" 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
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| NASCAR.com |
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