NCS: William Byron gets second straight win of season at Phoenix

William Byron went back-to-back winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway.

Byron took advantage of a late race restart to secure his second win of the season.

Rounding out the top five were Ryan Blaney in second, Tyler Reddick in third, Kyle Larson in fourth and Kevin Harvick in fifth.

Harvick, who finished second led 36 laps before a late race caution hurt his chances at victory.

Driver No. 24 took two tires under caution to give him a restart in the front row. Byron would restart ahead of Kevin Harvick who had dominated late in the race after passing Kyle Larson. Harvick would take the lead with 44 laps to go.

Harvick had a near 5 second lead over second place Kyle Larson with 10 laps to go when Harrison Burton spun out and brought out the caution, setting up a late-race restart. The race would resume with 4 laps to go, but a caution would come out after AJ Allmendinger, Noah Gragson and Ty Gibbs crashed. That would result in the race going into overtime with Hendrick Motorsports teammates Byron and Larson on the front row respectively.

Byron would emerge past Larson, who held a race high lead of laps led with 201 laps and would not be challenged over the final laps.

“We’ve done a good job to put ourselves in those positions on the front row with a shot at the end,” Byron told FOX Sports post-race.

Josh Berry, who is currently filling in for Chase Elliott while he recovers from a leg injury finished 10th on Sunday giving all four Hendrick Motorsports a finish in the top ten.

Sunday’s race featured the debut of of NASCAR’s new short track package which is designed to lower downforce. The changes made cars harder to drive for drivers on Sunday, however there was little competition except on the late race restarts. 

Rounding out the top ten were Christopher Bell in sixth, Chase Briscoe in seventh, Kyle Busch in eighth, Alex Bowman in ninth and Josh Berry in tenth.

Alex Bowman, who finished ninth currently holds a three point lead over Kevin Harvick in second.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Sunday on March 19th at 3 p.m. Eastern on FOX.

Stage 1 Winner: William Byron
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson
Race Winner: William Byron

Matthew Jackson
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