United Rentals Work United 500 highlights: William Byron wins in OT
The NASCAR Cup Series' March schedule continued Sunday with the United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway, which was the backdrop for NASCAR's unveiling of a new aerodynamic package for short tracks and road courses.
After an action-packed day of racing, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron came out victorious in a hard-fought battle.
The 312-mile race was made up of three stages: an opening stage of 75 laps, followed by 115 laps in the second stage and a 122-lap third and final stage. Fans were treated to even more action in Sunday's race, as things ended in overtime.
It all went down in front of a sold-out crowd, and we had you covered with all the action from start to finish, exclusively on FOX and the FOX Sports App.
Here are the top moments!
Seeing green
Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson has had the fastest car all weekend in practice and started on the pole Sunday after being as many as three-tenths faster than the rest of the field in qualifying.
Early contact
Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano got into each other on the exit of Turn 2, but both came out unscathed.
Elsewhere, Byron opened up a three-second lead on Larson, while Denny Hamlin was racing third.
Making a statement
Stage 1 went to Byron after he took the lead and never looked back. He was followed by Larson, Christopher Bell, Hamlin and Tyler Reddick rounding out the opening stage's top five.
On the move
Larson took the lead off pit road, while AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon were given speeding penalties.
Follow the leader
As the second stage got underway, Larson was able to hold off Byron, who unsuccessfully tried to pull a crossover to overtake his HMS teammate.
Elsewhere, BJ McLeod's race ended early with an apparent fuel pump issue.
Miscues
Green flag pit stops were troublesome for a few drivers. Exhibit A:
Rogue tire
There was trouble on the front-stretch for Aric Almirola, who lost a tire after hitting the wall on the exit of Turn 4.
He was assessed a two-lap penalty for his wheel falling off on the track — which is part of NASCAR's revised penalty structure for wheel failures. The green flag was back out on Lap 147.
Coming through!
There was a lot of tough racing on the restart, as the field of drivers made some big moves to better their position.
Close call
Chris Buescher and Daniel Suárez were this close to a big-time collision that could've had major race implications. However, both were able to avoid any major contact, as the second stage winded down.
Elsewhere, Larson had pulled away form both Byron and Kevin Harvick by one and two seconds, respectively, for the lead.
Second stage in the books
Larson dominated on his way to the win in Stage 2, marking a sweep of the first two stages for Hendrick Motorsports. He was followed by Byron, Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Reddick to round out the top-five finishers in the second stage.
Neck and neck
Larson and Harvick were racing first and second again with 50 laps to go in the third and final stage.
Making moves!
Harvick was able to close in and overtake Larson with 44 laps remaining.
Then, he opened up his lead to over a second with less than 40 laps to go.
Yellow!
After starting in 15th place, Harvick sailed out to a 3.3-second lead with 20 laps to go when chaos ensued on the track.
Harrison Burton spun around on the front-stretch, bringing out a late caution, which was lifted on Lap 303.
Shortly after, Larson took the lead on Lap 305 after Harvick had led the previous 35 consecutive laps.
Wild racing
A restart came with just three laps remaining — but another caution came out with two laps to go after a big crash off Turn 2 involving Ty Gibbs, Noah Gragson and Allmendinger. Just like that, things headed to overtime.
Overtime
In the end, Byron held on for the lead, cashing in for his second win in the past two weeks.
Ryan Blaney, Reddick, Larson and Harvick rounded out the top five.
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