William Byron earns second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series win in thrilling finish
Two weekends.
Two late-race restarts.
Two William Byron wins.
The No. 24 car needed a serendipitous late-race caution and then a great pit-crew performance and then a solid restart — and Byron got all of that and more to take the win at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has now won back-to-back races and has now notched a field-best two wins on the 2023 season.
Ryan Blaney finished second on Sunday. Tyler Reddick was third.
So much of Sunday resembled last weekend’s race at Las Vegas. There were very few cautions-for-cause. The same handful of cars ran in the Top 10 all day. The only car that seemed to rise through the field belonged to Kevin Harvick, whose reputation at Phoenix precedes him. (The No. 4 car came into this race with a record 19 consecutive Top 10s and nine wins at Phoenix Raceway.)
For so long in Stage 3, the race seemed like it would culminate in a battle between Kyle Larson and Harvick. The two cars were separated from the rest of the field by seconds.
At the climax of a long run, with about 40 laps to go, Harvick passed Larson — and then “The Closer” extended his lead as he so often has here. He was running five seconds ahead of anyone else. The race was all but his.
Fate would intervene, though.
With 10 laps to go, Harrison Burton spun out. A caution was thrown. A late-race restart would commence. Harvick elected to get four tires while much of the rest of the field chose to grab two, burying the No. 4 car in the field at seventh.
Then came another caution. A final restart. And then an overtime finish that featured three-wide turns and a bunch of slipping and sliding with Byron emerging above the rest.
Byron said post-race that he owed this race win to his crew chief, Rudy Fugle, considering how well his team executed after late-race cautions for a second week in a row.
“Owe the last couple weeks to him,” Byron said, fresh off another burnout in front of a sold out Phoenix crowd, on the FOX broadcast. “He’s done a really good job strategy-wise and execution-wise we’ve done a good job to put ourselves in those positions on the front row with a shot at the end.”
Harvick addressed his team’s decision to go with four tires at the end. The all-time great driver, who is retiring at the conclusion of the 2023 season, still ended up salvaging a solid result: He finished fifth — marking his 20th straight Top 10 at Phoenix.
“It’s what I would have done,” Harvick said, referring to the pit-road decision. “I’d always rather be on offense. I just didn’t get a couple cars when that first caution came out. Kind of lost our chance. Still thought I had a chance there at the end. Those cars were quite a bit slower. They get all jammed up.
“That’s the way it goes. Just smoked ‘em up until the caution.”
There were 10 lead changes and six leaders on Sunday — and a bunch of those changes came toward the end of the race.
Reddick also pitted and took four tires before that fateful restart.
“I just needed to execute on that restart,” Reddick said. “Just didn’t get the launch I needed to with William’s back bumper to take advantage of it in turn one. Very frustrating naturally. Last year, same thing, didn’t have the best of restarts and finished third.
“Everybody on the Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry TRD did really good job. This car was solidly, I would say, a third- to fifth-place car all day long. Bringing home third, but obviously when you’re on four, have a position to have the restart, you want to capitalize. So frustrated for sure.”
A potential Larson win was foiled thanks to a late caution last weekend at Las Vegas. On Sunday, redemption almost returned to the No. 5 team.
A win still eludes Larson in 2023 — but based on how his team is running, a win will come soon enough.
“We got lucky with the one caution,” Larson said. “Team made a great call to take two, get us out in the lead. 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.”
Larson added: “Yeah, I’m pissed off. Great fight by the team, great car, way better than we were here last year. Yeah, I mean, it’s a long season, but hopefully we’re in the Final 4 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 at the end.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2023 at 7:56 PM.
