Sometimes, things just work themselves out.
After winning the first two stages of the South Point Casino 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the race had somehow gotten away from William Byron. Kyle Larson was driving away to a five second lead inside of the final laps.
It was another could have been victory getting away from the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team dating back to last summer. Byron thought about a previous pit road mishap, picked apart his restarts throughout the day and every moment that could have been on Sunday.
And then, absolution.
Aric Almirola lightly slapped the wall with three laps to go, enough for race control to call a caution, and then it became decision time. Fourth running Martin Truex Jr. was kept out on old tires by crew chief James Small. The rest of the top-10 came down pit road for right side tires.
But there is more to this story.
Larson came down ahead of pit road ahead of Byron, but just barely lost the lead on pit exit. The race off pit road was to determine who would line up to the outside of Truex after he selected the bottom for overtime.
Truex tried his best to hang on but was ultimately a sitting duck. Byron drove away to claim the trophy he won, lost and somehow won again.
A clean sweep.
“I don’t think I’ve really dominated a race,” Byron said. “I’ve led a lot of laps in a couple races, but to be this good in a race with our team is definitely a good sign. It’s a different feeling at this point of my career, having a team around me that can just execute that well on pit road, strategy that good or adjustments. It’s real team effort.”
Say what you will about the overall performance of the No. 24, Larson and his No. 5 was just as good as the No. 24 as they ran 1-2 in some order for much of the race, and it just came down to track position and clean air.
Larson lost that chance at clean air when it mattered most.
“There wasn’t nothing I could have done on that restart, no,” Larson said. “I just needed to be about five feet further up leaving pit road than where we were to beat William and we would have won. I’m proud of the effort, proud of the car. We executed pretty well all day. The 24’s pit stop was just better at the end.”
It was an extreme track position race, reminiscent of the 550 package era races with high grip cars and minimal tire falloff on an especially cold afternoon in the desert.
The dynamic was best described by No. 24…
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