Josh Berry captures his first NASCAR Cup Series win
Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Winning an intense battle against Daniel Suárez after a restart with 19 laps left, Josh Berry pulled away to a convincing victory in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The win was Berry’s first in the NASCAR Cup Series at a track where he won twice in a NASCAR Xfinity Series car. Berry is the fourth straight Wood Brothers Racing driver to pick up his first Cup win in the No. 21 Ford.
“Oh, man, I don’t even know what to think,” Berry said after climbing from his car on the frontstretch. “Just awesome. I love this track. Las Vegas has been so good to me. So many great moments here.
“Just struggled in the Next Gen car here. But (crew chief) Miles (Stanley) and this whole 21 team, everybody at Wood Brothers Racing, they gave me a great car today. Just battled and battled and battled. Man, it was our day. I just can’t believe it.
“Such a battle with Daniel there at the end, beating and banging on a mile-and-a-half—crazy! Whoever was going to get out front was probably going to win. We were able to get in front.”
Berry and Suárez restarted side-by-side on Lap 249 of 267. Suárez didn’t surrender the lead until Lap 252, when Berry nosed ahead at the start/finish line. Lap 253 was nearly a dead head with Berry ahead by inches, but the No. 21 Mustang cleared Suárez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet through the tri-oval on Lap 254.
“We did everything right, you know?” Suárez said “The team did an amazing job on the strategy, pit stops. We did everything right. Our car was fast. We just struggled a little bit in the short run.
“I mentioned to my crew chief just a little bit ago, before the last run, I told him, ‘Hey, we want to be up front, I need a little bit better short run. I am having too much contact (with the bumps in the racing surface) in (Turns) 1 and 2.
“Unfortunately, I feel like that’s why we lost the race, just a little bit too much contact. I mean, I almost wrecked in 1 and 2.”
After clearing Suárez, Berry widened the gap in clean air and crossed the finish line 1.358 seconds ahead of the runner-up, earning a victory that also ended Christopher Bell’s three-race Cup winning streak.
Berry got his chance when a Lap 195 caution for a seven-car wreck on the backstretch interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops and wrested control of the race from Stage 2 winner Kyle Larson, who had led 61 laps before pitting on Lap 197.
With the field flipped, Larson restarted 18th and could only work his way back to ninth before the race ended.
Berry, on the other hand, restarted seventh on Lap 201, worked the top of the track masterfully and snatched the lead from Suárez for the first time on Lap 234, before surrendering it to Cup champion Joey Logano two laps later.
Noah Gragson’s hard contact with the Turn 2 wall on Lap 243 caused the ninth and final caution of the race and took fuel consumption out of the equation. Suárez regained the lead with a blistering four-tire stop, with Berry second off pit road, as Logano lost 19 positions during a fraught pit stop.
But it didn’t take Berry long to set sail toward the 101st victory for the Wood Brothers, who got No. 100 last year at the hands of Harrison Burton.
Ryan Preece ran third on Sunday, followed by series leader William Byron, who paced a group of four Hendrick Motorsports drivers in the top 10. Tire strategy helped Ross Chastain secure fifth place.
Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Larson and Chase Elliott completed the top 10 on a day when pit road resembled a comedy of errors. Both Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch jettisoned loose wheels onto the track, though Briscoe rebounded from four laps down to finish 17th.
In a race that featured 32 lead changes among 13 drivers, Austin Cindric was second to Larson in laps led with 47, followed by Logano with 40, Tyler Reddick with 34, Bubba Wallace with 20 and Berry with 18.
For practical purposes, Christopher Bell’s bid for a fourth straight Cup Series victory came to an end during pit stops under caution for Shane van Gisbergen’s spin off Turn 2 on Lap 107.
By then, Bell, who started from the rear because of an unapproved throttle body change, had advanced to second in the running order, but his front tire changer failed to secure the left-front wheel before Bell left his stall, located near the entrance to pit road.
After frantic radio communication, Bell pulled into the pit of teammate Chase Briscoe, where the front tire changer on the No. 19 team tightened the loose lug.
Bell dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for receiving service outside his pit box and could make no progress in dirty air after two subsequent restarts. His No. 20 Toyota was running 29th when the No. 34 Ford of Todd Gilliland bounced off the Turn 4 wall on Lap 147 to cause the fifth caution of the afternoon.
Complaining of a loss of rear grip, Bell finished Stage 2 in 27th place, his chances for a rare four-race winning streak all but gone.
Bell subsequently ran as high as sixth after a two-tire stop on Lap 189 to gain track position, but he lost spots when the field flipped for the Lap 201 restart and could only recover to 12th at the finish.
“It was a grind today for sure,” Bell said. “I don’t really know how I feel yet, but we certainly didn’t do what we did the last couple of weeks, and that was just have a nice clean race.
“I think the Interstate Camry was definitely capable of competing for the win when we were at our best, but just going to the back and to the front and to the back and to the front, we just didn’t get a handle on the balance, because it changes so much from being back there. I felt like we were in position in Stage 2 to contend for another win, but it got away from us.”
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 5
Race Results for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube - Sunday, March 16, 2025
Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV - 1.5 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 267 Laps - 400.5 Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 3/16/2025 @ 07:05 PM Eastern
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 7 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 267 8 8 46 Running 2 18 5
2 23 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 267 7 39 Running 4 12
3 12 60 Ryan Preece Consumer Cellular Ford 267 34 Running
4 8 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 267 2 42 Running 2 10
5 19 1 Ross Chastain Kubota Orange Days Sales Event Chevrolet 267 3 40 Running 3 14
6 3 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 267 1 41 Running 3 47 1
7 6 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 267 2 39 Running 1 2
8 18 16 AJ Allmendinger Action Industries Chevrolet 267 6 34 Running
9 10 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 267 5 1 44 Running 5 61 1
10 16 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 267 3 35 Running
11 27 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Ford 267 26 Running
12 13 20 Christopher Bell Interstate Batteries Toyota 267 10 26 Running
13 11 17 Chris Buescher Smith's/Dasani Ford 267 24 Running
14 33 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 267 23 Running
15 2 22 Joey Logano Pennzoil Ultra Premium Ford 267 7 26 Running 2 40
16 1 71 Michael McDowell Group 1001 Chevrolet 267 21 Running 2 5
17 24 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Spring Fishing Classic Toyota 267 20 Running
18 31 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Real American Beer Chevrolet 267 10 20 Running
19 34 35 Riley Herbst # SunnyD Toyota 267 18 Running
20 30 42 John Hunter Nemechek Backstreet Boys Toyota 267 17 Running
21 17 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 267 16 Running
22 29 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 267 15 Running
23 9 38 Zane Smith TitleMax Ford 267 14 Running
24 14 45 Tyler Reddick The Beast Toyota 267 9 16 Running 4 34
25 15 11 Denny Hamlin Yahoo! Toyota 267 12 Running
26 26 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Ford 267 11 Running
27 5 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 266 10 Running 1 1
28 20 23 Bubba Wallace U.S. Air Force Toyota 266 4 4 23 Running 3 20
29 32 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 265 8 Running
30 25 77 Carson Hocevar Delaware Life Chevrolet 265 9 5 15 Running
31 21 4 Noah Gragson Beef A Roo Ford 241 6 Accident
32 22 3 Austin Dillon Dow MobilityScience Chevrolet 240 5 Running
33 4 8 Kyle Busch BetMGM Chevrolet 232 4 Running 1 3
34 28 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # Red Bull Chevrolet 195 3 Accident
35 36 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Pennzoil Ford 194 6 7 Accident
36 35 51 Cody Ware Evel Knievel/Parts Plus Ford 186 1 Accident
Fastest Lap Bonus: # lap 202 / 29.194
45
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 13 Mins, 13 Secs. Average Speed: 124.368 MPH Margin of Victory: 1.358 Seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: 2, 48, 9, 23, 5, 16, 22, 21, 77, 20
Stage 2 Top 10: 5, 24, 1, 23, 77, 12, 99, 21, 45, 47
Race Comments: Josh Berry won the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his first NASCAR Cup Series victory. Prior to the green flag, the following cars dropped to the rear: No. 12 (DNQ), Nos. 20, 35, 42, 47 (unapproved adjustments).
Failed to Qualify: None.
Caution Flags: 9 for 53 laps; Laps: 34-40 (Tire on racetrack [51]); 82-88 (Stage 1 Conclusion [54]); 108-112 (#88 spin backstretch [12]); 114-119 (Tire on racetrack [11]); 148-152 (#34, 47 incident turn 4 [54]); 167-173 (Stage 2 Conclusion [51]); 189-194 (#51 incident turn 3 [34]); 196-200 (#12, 43, 4, 3, 23, 47, 16 incident backstretch [19]); 244-248 (#4 incident turn 2 [None]).
Lead Changes: 32 among 13 drivers; M. McDowell 1; J. Logano 2-31; A. Cindric 32; K. Busch 33-35; T. Reddick 36; A. Cindric 37-40; A. Bowman 41-42; A. Cindric 43-84; B. Wallace 85-99; K. Larson 100-108; B. Wallace 109-112; W. Byron 113-119; K. Larson 120-148; T. Reddick 149; R. Chastain 150-151; E. Jones 152; R. Chastain 153-159; W. Byron 160-162; K. Larson 163-168; B. Wallace 169; M. McDowell 170-173; K. Larson 174-188; D. Suarez 189; R. Chastain 190-194; K. Larson 195-196; T. Reddick 197-199; D. Suarez 200; T. Reddick 201-229; D. Suarez 230-233; J. Berry 234-235; J. Logano 236-245; D. Suarez 246-251; J. Berry 252-267.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: March 23, 2025 - Homestead-Miami Speedway
NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875
NASCAR Cup Series Points Report
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube
UNOFFICIAL Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 3/16/2025 @ 07:28 PM Eastern UNOFFICIAL
Rank Driver Car Starts GL Points Ldr Nxt Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts
1. William Byron 24 5 0 207 0 0 1 1 6
2. Christopher Bell 20 5 0 178 -29 29 3 1 16
3. Tyler Reddick 45 5 0 159 -48 19 0 0 0
4. Chase Elliott 9 5 -1 159 -48 0 0 0 0
5. Alex Bowman 48 5 -1 156 -51 3 0 0 0
6. Kyle Larson 5 5 -5 152 -55 4 0 2 2
7. Ryan Blaney 12 5 3 143 -64 9 0 1 1
8. Joey Logano 22 5 -1 136 -71 7 0 1 1
9. Chris Buescher 17 5 -1 133 -74 3 0 0 0
10. Ross Chastain 1 5 -6 128 -79 5 0 0 0
11. Bubba Wallace 23 5 -1 125 -82 3 0 1 1
12. Denny Hamlin 11 5 5 122 -85 3 0 0 0
13. Josh Berry 21 5 -8 119 -88 3 1 1 6
14. Michael McDowell 71 5 -1 117 -90 2 0 0 0
15. John Hunter Nemechek 42 5 2 116 -91 1 0 0 0
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 5 2 116 -91 0 0 0 0
17. Kyle Busch 8 5 9 114 -93 2 0 0 0
18. Ryan Preece 60 5 -6 102 -105 12 0 1 1
19. Daniel Suarez 99 5 -10 94 -113 8 0 0 0
20. Chase Briscoe 19 5 0 94 -113 0 0 0 0
21. Austin Cindric 2 5 -11 93 -114 1 0 1 1
22. Carson Hocevar 77 5 4 92 -115 1 0 0 0
23. AJ Allmendinger 16 5 -5 92 -115 0 0 0 0
24. Todd Gilliland 34 5 7 91 -116 1 0 0 0
25. Erik Jones 43 5 6 85 -122 6 0 0 0
26. Ty Dillon 10 5 3 85 -122 0 0 0 0
27. Riley Herbst # 35 5 0 79 -128 6 0 0 0
28. Justin Haley 7 5 -2 78 -129 1 0 0 0
29. Zane Smith 38 5 3 77 -130 1 0 0 0
30. Brad Keselowski 6 5 -3 73 -134 4 0 0 0
31. Shane Van Gisbergen # 88 5 9 72 -135 1 0 0 0
32. Austin Dillon 3 5 7 71 -136 1 0 0 0
33. Noah Gragson 4 5 2 59 -148 12 0 0 0
34. Ty Gibbs 54 5 0 56 -151 3 0 0 0
35. Cole Custer 41 5 0 47 -160 9 0 0 0
36. Jimmie Johnson 1 0 34 -173 13 0 0 0
37. Cody Ware 51 5 0 24 -183 10 0 0 0
38. Corey Lajoie 2 0 21 -186 3 0 0 0
39. Katherine Legge 1 0 7 -200 14 0 0 0
40. Jj Yeley 1 0 1 -206 6 0 0 0
41. Martin Truex, Jr. 1 0 1 -206 0 0 0 0
42. Justin Allgaier(i) 1 0 0 -207 1 0 0 0
43. Bj Mcleod(i) 1 0 0 -207 0 0 0 0
44. Connor Zilisch(i) 1 0 0 -207 0 0 0 0
45. Chandler Smith(i) 0 2 0 -207 0 0 0 0
46. Anthony Alfredo(i) 0 0 0 -207 0 0 0 0
47. Helio Castroneves 1 -2 0 -207 0 0 0 0
-Ldr/-Nxt = Points behind Leader/Next higher, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Our Partners
.png)
