Sunday saw William Byron, for two-weeks in a row, beat Kyle Larson in a overtime restart to win the Cup Series race, this time at Phoenix Raceway in the United Rentals Work United 500. Kevin Harvick had overtaken Larson for the lead with 43 laps to go but a caution with 11 laps to go for Harrison Burton blowing a tyre, saw Harvick lose the lead on pit road and fall back to seventh, having taken four tyres, while Larson and Byron came off pit road first and second on just two tyres. 

• Race summary
• Rest of race recap
• Full race results
• Point standings

William Byron had taken the lead away from pole-sitter Kyle Larson on lap two and went on to win stage one but Kyle Larson took the lead back on pit road during the stage break and won stage two.

Heading towards the white flag, Tyler Reddick gave a helpful push to Byron coming down the backstretch heading, as Blaney, Larson and Byron were three-wide for the lead with Byron on the outside, helping Byron clear Larson and Blaney going into turn four to take the white flag and the checkered flag.

It’s Byron sixth career win and his first at Phoenix in the Cup Series.

Byron thanked crew chief Rudy Fugle for the win saying: “Owe the last couple weeks to him. 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.”

Kyle Larson led 201 of the 312 laps so was not too pleased to come in fourth after losing the win to Byron in the same fashion for two-weeks running, being beat in last week’s overtime restart in Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 400-mile race, saying: “Restarts are just tough. [Byron] did a really good job of holding it to my outside, clearing me down the back. Yeah, I’m pissed off.”

Kevin Harvick aka “The Closer” was looking to become a 10-time Phoenix Cup Series winner. Having started 15th, he finished eighth and third in stages one and two respectively before in the final stage on a long green flag run passed Larson for the lead with 43 laps to go.

Harvick was clear sailing prior to the caution with 11 laps to go and was not able to gain any positions when the field went back to green with three laps to go before Noah Gragson, AJ Allmendinger, and Ty Gibbs wrecked in turns one and two sending the race into overtime.

Harvick said: “That’s the way it goes. Just smoked ’em up until the caution. They did a great job with our Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang. Didn’t need the caution at the end.”

It was Harvick’s 20^th straight top-10 finish at Phoenix Raceway in the Cup Series.

Ryan Blaney had a strong race from start to finish coming home in the runner up spot. Blaney finished sixth and eighth in stage one and two respectively. The Team Penske driver was running sixth at the time of Burton blowing his tyre.

Ford and former Penske teammate Brad Keselowski also had a strong race prior to the overtime finish, being ninth and fourth in stages one and two respectively before finishing eighteenth.

Josh Berry, subbing for the injured Chase Elliott, drove the No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet to an impressive 10^th place finish. Berry was getting used up in stage one struggling to get inside the top 25. The full-time JR Motorsports Xfinity driver worked his way into the top 15 in the final stage before finishing one place behind Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman, placing all four Hendrick Chevrolet’s in the top-10.

Rest of race recap

The United Rentals 500 marked the debut of the new short track package, seeing a 30% reduction in downforce compared to last year’s short track package, due in part to halving the spoiler from four inches to two.

The cars were permitted to race in wet conditions  if they occurred during the race as part of NASCAR’s expansion to allow wet-weather racing at one mile or less sized oval tracks in addition to the road course races.

2021 Phoenix winner Kyle Larson led the field to green flag before Byron released Larson of the lead getting by on the inside of turn one on lap two.

With under ten to go in stage one, BJ McLeod retired with a fuel pump issue before Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tagged the turn one wall running 25th but was able to continue. Byron led the rest of the laps to win stage one.

During the stage one caution break, Kyle Larson was able to win back the lead on pit road in part to having the number one pit stall at the end of pit road.

Aric Almirola brought out the caution on lap 139 after his wheel hub and tyre broke free. Larson was first off pit road again and went on to win stage two.

Harvick started the final stage side-by-side with Larson on the restart but Larson quickly pulled away to a 2.5 second gap by lap 207.

During the rest of the final stage, the whole field split the 127-lap stage in half except Erik Jones who stayed out in the lead on old tyres until Kyle Larson caught and passed him for the lead on much fresher tyres with 52 laps to go. Jones was hoping for a caution to force everybody else down pit road again while with the lead but one didn’t come before having to pit. Jones finished 21^st.

As the run went on Harvick closed back down the gap to Larson to just 0.3 seconds and cleared him coming out of turn three with 43 laps to go.

The crash that led to the overtime finish came from Gragson and AJ Allmendinger colliding into the turn two wall together, while Gibbs piled into the back of them after getting tangled with Corey Lajoie on the high lane in turn one.

The 2022 Hamlin-Chastain clash was revived on the final lap when Denny Hamlin washed up the race track in turn two dragging Chastain into the wall. Hamlin had spent most of the day in the top five but would only come home 23^rd in the end, with Chastain 24^th. Both had a long conversation with each other on pit road post-race.

The next race for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway this Sunday, with the race starting at 3pm ET.

Featured image: William Byron, driver of the #24 Valvoline Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 12, 2023 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

Full race results 

1. William Byron
2. Ryan Blaney
3. Tyler Reddick
4. Kyle Larson
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Christopher Bell
7. Chase Briscoe
8. Kyle Busch
9. Alex Bowman
10. Josh Berry
11. Joey Logano
12. Ryan Preece
13. Michael McDowell
14. Bubba Wallace
15. Chris Buescher
16. Austin Dillon
17. Martin Truex Jr.
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20. AJ Allmendinger
21. Erik Jones
22. Daniel Suarez
23. Denny Hamlin
24. Ross Chastain
25. Austin Cindric
26. Corey LaJoie
27. Justin Haley
28. Ty Gibbs
29. Noah Gragson
30. Ty Dillon
31. Zane Smith
32. Todd Gilliland
33. Aric Almirola
34. Cody Ware
35. Harrison Burton
36. BJ McLeod

Stage one 

1. William Byron
2. Kyle Larson
3. Christopher Bell
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Tyler Reddick
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Ross Chastain
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Brad Keselowski
10. Kyle Busch

Stage two 

1. Kyle Larson
2. William Byron
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Tyler Reddick
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Christopher Bell
8. Ryan Blaney
9. Ross Chastain
10. Chase Briscoe

Points standings after 4 of 36 races 

1. Alex Bowman – 154
2. Kevin Harvick – 151
3. Ross Chastain – 148
4. William Byron* – 144
5. Kyle Larson – 137
6. Christopher Bell – 137
7. Denny Hamlin – 125
8. Ryan Blaney – 124
9. Kyle Busch* – 122
10. Martin Truex Jr. – 122
11. Daniel Suarez – 119
12. Joey Logano – 118
13. Brad Keselowski – 115
14. Chris Buescher – 112
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.* – 104
16. Bubba Wallace – 92
    

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17. Austin Cindric – 81
18. Corey Lajoie – 79
19. Michael McDowell – 76
20. Tyler Reddick – 72
21. AJ Allmendinger – 71
22. Austin Dillon – 63
23. Ty Gibbs – 62
24. Justin Haley – 60
25. Chase Briscoe – 59
26. Aric Almirola – 56
27. Ryan Preece – 54
28. Erik Jones – 53
29. Chase Elliott – 49
30. Harrison Burton – 48
31. Todd Gilliland – 46
32. Noah Gragson – 43
33. Cody Ware – 38
34. Travis Pastrana – 26
35. BJ McLeod – 26
36. Ty Dillon – 17
37. Jimmie Johnson – 10