William Byron was able to sweep past teammate Kyle Larson on a Green-White-Checker restart to steal the lead away Sunday (March 12). From there, he held on to win the United Rentals Work United 500, his second straight win.
Byron dominated stage one to claim a playoff point, but had faded to fourth with 73 laps to go. However, a late race caution due to Harrison Burton‘s spin put the cars on pit road with eight laps to go. Kevin Harvick came in the leader and left in seventh after taking four tires. Byron took two tires and was able to get by Larson, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick to take the lead on the final lap.
Larson had been dominant from stage two forward, winning that stage and was leading with 43 to go. That’s when Harvick made his move. It’s a heartbreaker for Harvick, who was looking for his 10th win at the track in the desert.
Blaney scored his best finish of the season, finishing second. Reddick rebounded nicely on four fresh tires to finish third. Larson and Harvick rounded out the top five.
Sunday marked the debut of a new short track aero package that took away 30% of the downforce on these cars. The package seemed to improve racing quality throughout the day, as drivers had difficulty passing and were sliding around all day long.
The NASCAR Cup Series will be seen again at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 19 at 3 p.m. ET.
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