Joey Logano would rocket off from the pole with a challenge from behind initially from Byron and Blaney before Blaney’s car handling would start to go away allowing Byron to make the pass then setting his sights on race leader Logano.
Within 10 laps Logano would lose the lead to Byron before ultimately dropping behind Larson and Chastain within laps of losing the lead.
With the first round of stops of the day well underway multiple cars would get tagged for penalties, Noah Gragson would get popped for speeding during his cycle then once again while serving his penalty, Gibbs crew would send too many crew members over the wall sending him back to pit road for a pass-through penalty.
As pit stops would cycle through, William Byron would once again assume the lead over Larson and Chastain halfway through the first stage of the day.
Stage one would continue on caution free to the end with William Byron taking home the opening stage win of the day over Larson, Chastain, Hamlin and Bell.
The opening laps of stage two would see a close call between Larson and Hamlin battling for second place allowing Byron to scoot away with a one second lead. Hamlin would ultimately fall back to seventh within laps as Chastain, Bell and others were able to capitalize on Hamlin troubles while racing with Larson.
Berry driving for the injured Chase Elliott would tag the wall as his day would continue to get worse from by 28th position and one lap down passing the 100 laps mark of the day.
Halfway would go up on the board with Byron still well in control of the race with 127 laps led over Larson who was inches his way back to the bumper of the race leader. Logano who started on the pole would continue a free fall through the field as he would tag the wall but continue on from the 15th position.
Stage two laps would come to a close with Larson once again trying to reel in Byron for the lead. Byron would use the apron and lapped traffic to keep Larson behind him with dirty air. At one point Larson was within reach of the lead before Byron would once again use cars and dirty air to keep the interval.
Byron would go on to stage home the second stage win of the day over Larson by 4/10th of a second followed by Bowman, Truex and Bell rounding out the top-five in stage two.
With 85 to go the first caution of the day would come out for an incident when Logano would get squeezed up into the wall in a three wide situation would come down on Keselowski before bouncing back up to the wall and taking a ride through the football field.
Hamlin would take a gamble under the caution and only take on two tires to win the race off pit road and take over the race lead. Byron, who was leading, would restart in the 4th position as Erik Jones would have to back all the way back to his pit stall after the team discovered the left front tire lug was loose.
Logano’s day would come to an end shortly after the green flag fell once again when the team would run out of time on the DVP clock sending them to the garage and the first car to retire for the day.
“Considering how we’ve been here in the past, you kind of expect it a little bit more performance today than what we had. Just off on overall speed. We had the balance somewhat close – just not fast. We have to go back to the drawing board for when we come back here.” Said Logano
Back up front the battle for the lead between Hamlin and Larson would see the two within inches of one another before Larson would have to bail out and gather it back up and finally run down on lap 196 passing Hamlin for the lead.
Byron would work himself back up around Truex and Bowman for the third spot as Reddick would go up and tag the wall falling back to the ninth spot.
Final stops of the day would see Larson once again cycle back to the lead over Hamlin but as laps rolled on Byron would get past Hamlin with 30 to go. However, Larson would have a near four second lead over second place Byron.
With the three laps to go and Byron cutting into Larson lead down to two seconds, Aric Almirola would spin and slam the wall on the exit of turn four to bring out the fourth caution of the day.
This would set up a NASCAR overtime situation as everyone but Truex would come to pit road. Byron would win the race off pit road with a two tire stop over Larson and Hamlin.
When the final green flag of the day would come out Truex and Byron would take off in a side by side battle before Byron would clear away from Truex heading towards the white flag. With the white flag in the air and a half lap to go a wreck down the back involving multiple cars behind the leaders involving AJ Allmendinger spinning then getting tagged by Preece and others.
NASCAR would hold the caution flag and allow the leaders to race back to the line.
Byron would sail off taking home the checkered flag after leading a race-high 176 laps of the day over teammate Larson and Bowman. Wallace and Bell would round out the top five of the day with Truex who restarted as the lead car on the final restart would end up seventh.
“Honestly, the one pit stop that they had that we lost the lead, I slid through the box or slid long, and that delays the stop. That was on me, and I knew they could get it done at the end.” Said Byron
“Just been really confident about the group of guys that I have on this 24 team. They work extremely hard, and we spent a lot of time in the off-season just going through running at the sim with Chevy and running on iRacing and just trying to get better as a race car driver and as a team.” Continued Byron
The NASCAR Cup Series moves onto Phoenix Raceway next Sunday, March 12th at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
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