Josh Berry Stuns by Capturing First Career Cup Win at Las Vegas
Well, how about that for an unexpected result? Josh Berry, who was competing in his fifth NASCAR Cup Series race in his tenure the Wood Brothers Racing team, emerged victorious in Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The 34-year-old won two NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway while driving for JR Motorsports prior to moving to the NASCAR Cup Series full-time in 2024. Following his latest win, Berry was overcome with joy about the good times he's experienced at LVMS.
"Oh, man, I don’t even know what to think. Just awesome," Berry said. "I love this track. Las Vegas has been so good to me. So many great moments here."
The short tracker, who worked his way up the local ranks from Hendersonville, Tennessee, found himself locked in a battle for the win with Trackhouse Racing's Daniel Suárez on the final restart of the event on Lap 249.
Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400
After having a good run on the initial restart, Berry prevailed after a hard-fought few laps with Suárez at the front of the field. With 16 laps to go, Berry fired his No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the inside lane in Turn 1, and as he committed to the low side, Suárez's car got loose, and Suarez had to chase his No. 99 Chevrolet up the track.
This allowed Berry to nose past Suárez on the backstretch, and as Berry was going by for the race lead, Suárez made slight contact with Berry in an effort to stall out Berry's charge to the lead. It didn't work, and Berry would be credited as the leader at the finish line.
After several laps of running side-by-side with Suárez, Berry would completely clear his competitor in Turns 3 and 4 coming to 13 laps to go. Berry would not look back, and would hit all of his marks on the path to a victory by a margin of 1.358 seconds over Suárez.
"Such a battle with Daniel there at the end, beating and banging on a mile-and-a-half, crazy. Whoever was going to get out front was probably going to win. We were able to get in front," Berry stated.
While Berry had enjoyed previous wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Las Vegas, success hadn't been as easy to find in the NASCAR Cup Series at the facility. In his three previous NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas, Berry's best finish at the track was a 20th-place effort last Spring. He credited his new team for bringing him the car he needed to get the job done on Sunday.
"Just struggled in the Next Gen car here. But [crew chief] Miles [Stanley] and this whole 21 team, everybody at Wood Brothers Racing, they gave me a great car today," Berry explained. "Just battled and battled and battled. Man, it was our day. I just can’t believe it."
While the win was just the first of Berry's young NASCAR Cup Series career, it marks the 101st win all-time for the legendary Wood Brothers Racing team. And the win comes a season after Harrison Burton won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, which means this is the first time the Wood Brothers Racing team has won in back-to-back NASCAR Cup Series seasons since 1986-87.
Suárez, who desperately needed a solid finish after suffering disastrous luck at Circuit of the Americas and again last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, was still left disappointed with a runner-up finish due to seeing a win slip from his grasp in the closing laps.
“Definitely a little disappointed," Suárez explained after climbing from his car, "but first of all, congratulations to Josh Berry and the No. 21 team. They did a great job and they’ve been fast. The No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy team did everything right. The pit crew did an amazing job with the pit stops. We did everything right with the strategy."
While Suárez and his team played their strategic cards right to give them a chance to pick up their first win of the season, ultimately, they lacked the speed they needed on the short run to hold off Berry for the race win.
"Our Chevy was fast, but we just struggled a little bit on the short runs," Suárez said. "I mentioned to my crew chief – before the last run, I told him that if we’re going to be up front, we’re going to need a better car for the short run. I was having too much contact over there in (turns) one and two. Unfortunately, I think that’s why we lost the race. We just had a little bit too much contact. I almost wrecked in one and two."
Ryan Preece, who suffered a spectacular flip in the season-opening Daytona 500, notched a third-place result in the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse. The podium finish ties Preece's career-best finish, which he also achieved at Talladega Superspeedway in 2019.
William Byron, the winner of the last two Daytona 500s, finished in fourth, and continued his impressive start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. On the strength of his third top-five finish, and fourth top-10 result through the opening five events, Byron maintained his NASCAR Cup Series regular season point lead, and he extended his advantage to 29 points over Christopher Bell.
Ross Chastain, Suárez's Trackhouse Racing teammate, would end the race in the fifth position.
Austin Cindric, who won the Opening Stage of the race, would finish sixth, and he would be followed across the finish line by Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Stage 2 winner Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott.
Christopher Bell, who was attempting to become just the seventh driver to win four consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races in the modern era (1972 to present) of NASCAR, failed in his quest as he finished 12th. Bell's bid for a fourth-consecutive win started with adversity as he had to drop to the rear of the field prior to the start of the race due to a throttle body change on his car following Saturday's qualifying session.
In the race, Bell worked his way up the running order, but a pit road miscue led to him dropping to the rear one last time. This time proved to be too much to overcome.
Joey Logano ended the race disappointingly in the 15th position after a sluggish final pit stop of the race. Logano had the race lead prior to a late-race caution, which triggered a final round of yellow flag pit stops. With the 15th-place run, Logano, the defending series champion still has yet to record a top-10 finish during the 2025 season.
Despite no top-10 finishes, Logano has racked up a lot of Stage Points, which has allowed him to still rank eighth in the overall NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after five events.
Tyler Reddick won the Xfinity Fastest Lap Award thanks to a 29.194 second lap he turned on Lap 202 of the 267-lap event. Unfortunately, Reddick would limp home to a 24th-place finish on Sunday.
The race featured a seven-car crash on Lap 195, which swept up Ryan Blaney, and several others. The incident was triggered by wild five-wide racing on a restart, and eventually, everyone ran out of room.
Blaney, who was alongside Bell at the time of the incident, made contact with Noah Gragson, which sent him crashing out of the race.
Here's the crash that occurred moments ago, which has ruined Ryan Blaney's day, and others. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/tPR2OpS9R0
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 16, 2025
Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and AJ Allmendinger would also receive damage in the incident.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is a date with the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead is set for Sunday, March 23, and that event will be televised on FS1 with coverage beginning at 3:00 PM ET.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.