William Byron entered the Pennzoil 400 as the championship leader, but much of the attention was on second-place finisher Christopher Bell, who was chasing his fourth straight win. While Byron acknowledged Bell’s incredible form, he remained focused on his championship campaign.
William Byron Unbothered by Christopher Bell’s Incredible Form
Byron kicked off his 2025 Cup Series run with a Daytona 500 victory, but he hasn’t won since. Meanwhile, Bell rattled off three consecutive wins, yet he still trails Byron in the standings. Even with Bell’s hot streak, his rival isn’t letting it distract him from the bigger picture.
Frontstretch asked Byron ahead of the race whether he could keep Bell from winning. The Hendrick Motorsports driver kept it simple:
“We’ll just continue, you know, sort of bringing the speed that we’ve had. I mean that’s all you can do and I don’t really, it’s easy for you guys to worry about the outside but I feel like for me it’s just trying to worry about our team and what we can do better.
“So yeah, I thought last week we weren’t quite as good as we needed to be but still in the mix and I think this week, you know we should be good again. So just got to put the whole weekend together and that’s all that’s all I’m really focused on. Those guys have obviously been on a great streak and they’ll I’m sure they’ll be ready to, you know, have another great race this weekend too.
“We haven’t won, you know, more than one race. But umm, that’s pretty good for four, right? One out of four, so we will try to get another one.”
Bell, however, couldn’t match Jimmie Johnson’s record of four straight wins. Instead, he settled for a 12th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver climbed as high as second but ran into pit road issues throughout the race. His crew failed to tighten the left front wheel under yellow, forcing Bell to make an extra stop. The team was then penalized for pitting outside the designated area, dropping him further back.
Byron, meanwhile, finished fourth and took home 42 points, keeping him atop the standings with 207. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson—the defending event champion—finished ninth.
Josh Berry won a tense battle with Daniel Suárez following a restart with 19 laps to go, securing his first Cup Series victory. The win was especially meaningful for Berry, who had already won twice at Las Vegas in the Xfinity Series. He also became the fourth straight Wood Brothers Racing driver to earn their first Cup win in the iconic No. 21 Ford.