Ryan Newman picked up his first win of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday afternoon after taking the lead on the final restart of the Camping World 500.
Joey Logano dominates early
Joey Logano started on the pole, with Ryan Blaney flanking him on the inside. Entering the first turn, Logano got a good run and pulled out into the lead, as Blaney fell back out of the second position. Kyle Larson quickly moved into the second position, as the field battled for position behind the leaders.
Logano maintained the lead until the first caution of the race on Lap 27 for Corey Lajoie, who hit the wall entering turn three. While he suffered minimal damage, the majority of the field came down pit road, including Logano. He won the race off pit road, with Larson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. coming off in the second and third positions.
Logano gets a good restart
On the restart, Logano was able to maintain the lead, but Larson kept it close and didn’t allow Logano to pull away. Despite the best efforts from Larson, Logano was able to cruise to the stage one win.
At the stage break, most of the leaders came in for their second pit stops, with Logano again winning the race off pit road. He led every lap of the first stage except for one, which was a caution lap led by Reed Sorenson. That came while the rest of the field was on pit road.
Chase Elliott overtakes Logano early in stage two
When the green flag dropped on the second stage, Logano once again took the lead, but within the first few laps, he was overtaken by Chase Elliott and Larson, who then battled for the lead, a battle that Elliott won.
Elliott had breezed out to the lead on Lap 118 when the caution flag flew after LaJoie again hit the wall, this time suffering significant damage to the right side. This enabled the leaders to make another pit stop.
Unlike the earlier stop, Elliott won the race off pit road with just two tires and fuel, while everyone else took four tires. The risk paid off in the short-term, as Elliott was able to restart from the first position, with Larson in second.
Pit road trouble for Logano
Logano had left pit road in the third position, but he was busted for speeding and was forced to move to the back of the field. That allowed Kyle Busch to move into the third position for the restart.
On the restart, Larson and Elliott pulled away from the field, and despite Larson getting a good run on the inside, Elliott pulled in front and cleared Larson to take the lead.From there, Elliott was able to open up a 2.75-second lead en route to winning the second stage easily. Larson finished second, while Busch finished in third. Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five in the second segment.
Under the ensuing caution, the field made another set of pit stops, and this time Elliott took four tires, just like the rest of the field. He narrowly won the race off pit road, as Larson very nearly stole it from him.
Elliott pulls away on the restart
Larson got a big run on the restart, and led the first lap, though Elliott came back and passed him on the second lap. He pulled away again and had a large lead on Lap 192 when Matt Kenseth went hard into the outside wall coming out of turn four.
Kenseth was able to get out of the car, and walked to the ambulance, as is standard in NASCAR, while crews worked to tow his car from the track.
When the field came to pit road, Busch won the race off for the first time on the day, as Elliott came off in second. He got a great jump on the restart and pulled away from the field as Elliott fell back to third after being passed by Keselowski.
Busch didn’t have much time in the lead before the caution flag returned, as a two-car incident on Lap 205 halted the race. Nobody made a pit stop, and when the race went back to green Busch jumped out to the lead, while Larson and Keselowski battled for the second position.
Busch eventually opened up his lead to 2.5 seconds over Keselowski, who remained in the second position. His lead was erased on Lap 257 when Cole Whitt hit the wall and brought out the seventh caution. This allowed the field to make their final pit stops, with Busch winning the race off pit road followed closely by Larson.
On the restart, Busch again jumped out to the lead, though Larson refused to allow him to get very far away for a while before falling behind the leader by over a second. He had a three-second lead with six laps to go when Logano hit the wall and brought out another caution.
Under the caution, the field made one last set of pit stops, with the majority of teams taking just two tires and fuel. Larson won the race off pit road to restart in the first position.
On the final restart, Newman came out of nowhere and brought home his first win of the season, and the first win for Roger Penske. Newman will look to win two races in a row next weekend at Auto Club Speedway.