Berry & Wood Brothers Score Big With Vegas Victory

Josh Berry celebrates in victory lane Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (HHP/Jacy Norgaard photo)

LAS VEGAS – He was a 40-to-1 long shot entering the day, but Josh Berry played all his cards right at the end of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 to hit the jackpot at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

After staying out for track position during the penultimate yellow flag and then pitting late to have fresh tires at the front of the field, Berry outdueled Daniel Suarez at the 1.5-mile oval and pulled away to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory and the 101st for Wood Brothers Racing.

Berry lined up on the front row when the green flag waved with 19 laps left, after the ninth caution period of the day was called when Noah Gragson cut a right-front tire and hit the turn-two wall.

Though Suarez initially got a push from his Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain to clear Berry’s No. 21 Ford down the backstretch, Berry was able to stay close to Suarez’s bumper and in position to make a move, thanks in part to Chastain and William Byron fighting furiously for third behind him.

The move for the win came with 16 laps left, when Suarez got loose on the exit of turn two, allowing Berry to wrap the bottom of the racetrack and get door-to-door with Suarez’s Chevrolet.

Berry led back to start-finish on lap 252, with Suarez throwing just enough of a block on Chastain in turn three to keep the battle for the top spot from becoming a three-wide affair. Once Byron got alongside Chastain in the race for third, it allowed Berry to focus forward on completing the pass for the top spot.

It took three full laps of side-by-side racing, but Berry finally cleared Suarez in turns three and four coming to 13 to go and drove off in clean air after that.

The Hendersonville, Tenn., native went on to take the checkered flag in front by 1.358 seconds, becoming the 206th different driver to win a race in NASCAR’s premier series and the first driver in history to earn their first Cup Series triumph at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

With two prior NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at the track and after qualifying seventh, perhaps Berry’s win on Sunday shouldn’t have been a shock. But the driver in question was equal parts jubilant and stunned at the end result.

“I don’t even know what to think. This is just awesome,” said Berry, who led 18 laps total, after climbing from his race car. “I love this track. Las Vegas has been so good to me. I’ve had so many great moments here, but just struggled in the Next Gen car. Miles (Stanley, crew chief) and this whole (No.) 21 team, though, they gave me a great car today. We battled and battled and battled … and it was our day.

“Such a battle with Daniel there at the end, beating and banging on a mile-and-a-half. That was crazy,” he added. “Whoever got out front was probably going to win, and we were able to get in front.”

Including Berry, the last four winners for the iconic Wood family in NASCAR’s Cup Series have been first-time winners at the top level of stock car racing, going back to Trevor Bayne in the 2011 Daytona 500.

Berry joined that club in just his fifth start with the team and let the emotions take hold as he celebrated.

“It’s just been incredible,” said Berry of his early time with the Wood Brothers. “They’ve been so good to me. It’s just been a great relationship so far. Obviously, thanks (to) everybody at Wood Brothers Racing, but thanks to (technical partner) Team Penske as well. They’ve welcomed me with open arms and tried to help me and accelerate my learning process as much as they can.

Daniel Suarez (99) and Josh Berry (21) race for the lead at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (HHP/Tom Copeland photo)

“I can’t say enough about Miles Stanley, too. He is so good at what he’s doing,” Berry continued. “We have a great thing going on together and he really believes in me. … I know all our partners – Motorcraft, Quick Lane, Ford – are going to be excited about this one. We’re just going to enjoy the moment.”

Suarez struggled to find anything he could have done differently in the final laps, noting he felt his team “did everything right” to give themselves a chance at victory.

Still, his second-place finish was a season-best and much needed, as he hadn’t had a top 10 in 2025 yet prior to Sunday afternoon.

“I’ll admit I’m a little disappointed,” said Suarez. But congratulations to the (No.) 21 team and Josh. They did a great job and they’ve been fast lately.

“We did everything right, you know? The team did an amazing job on the strategy, we had great pit stops … and our car was fast. We just struggled a little bit in the short run,” Suarez explained. “I mentioned to my crew chief just before the last run, ‘Hey, (if) we want to be up front, I need a little bit better short run (speed). I am having too much contact (with the racetrack) in (turns) one and two.

“Unfortunately, I feel like that’s why we lost the race … I mean, I almost wrecked in one and two when (Berry) got under me. But overall, just very, very proud of everyone at Trackhouse. We’ve been working very hard and it’s showing.”

Ryan Preece made a late charge to tie his Cup Series career-best in third, followed by Byron and Chastain. Stage-one winner Austin Cindric, who led 47 laps early on, finished sixth.

Alex Bowman and A.J. Allmendinger both had solid days in seventh and eighth, respectively, while Kyle Larson was ninth after topping the second stage and leading five times for a race-high 61 laps.

In a final stage that featured three cautions for incident – including a seven-car crash on the backstretch that eliminated Ryan Blaney – and shifting strategy almost every lap, Larson pitted for fuel with 70 laps left in hopes that the race would run green to the finish.

It didn’t and cost the three-time Las Vegas winner all of his hard-earned track position from then on.

Chase Elliott closed the top 10, while Christopher Bell finished 12th in his quest to win a fourth-straight Cup Series race after multiple maladies in the race. Bell was the top-finishing Toyota driver Sunday.

Two drivers – Chase Briscoe on lap 33 and Kyle Busch on lap 113 – had detached wheels that led to caution flags during the race. Both teams will be subject to penalties in the coming week. Briscoe ended his day 17th, while Busch spent time in the garage for repairs and was 35 laps down in 33rd place.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves next to Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, where 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick won last fall when the track was in the playoffs.

Broadcast coverage of the Straight Talk Wireless 400 is slated for Sunday, March 23 at 3 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.