3 takeaway's from today's NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400

William Byron won the latest NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This is Byron’s first victory since last year’s spring race at Martinsville Speedway.

Byron dominated the action by leading 176 out of 271 laps. It looked like his teammate Kyle Larson was on his way to victory when a late race caution triggered a GWC finish. Byron got ahead of Larson on the pit road and passed Martin Truex Jr for the win.

This article will discuss three takeaways from today's NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

#3 Fords struggled this week

Ford's week to struggle

Much like Toyota’s last weekend at Fontana, the Fords struggled this week.

While they came off the truck fast with Joey Logano winning the pole, they were pretty much a non-factor after Byron passed Logano for the lead. The highest-finishing Fords were Austin Cindric in sixth and Kevin Harvick in ninth.

With only three races into the NASCAR Cup Series season, it seems like unless you are in a Chevrolet, you have some work to do.

#2 NASCAR still has work to do on the aero package

The Next Gen is a work in progress

After last year, when it looked like NASCAR finally got the intermediate package right after years of that being their biggest issue, today was a step back in that process.

While both of last year's Vegas races were some of the best of the season, today was a flashback to the Gen 6 days. One car dominated the race and the leader was ahead by multiple seconds.

Every race obviously can’t be a blockbuster, and it is possible that the cool, overcast, and windy conditions could have been a factor. But dirty air is still an issue and NASCAR may need to make some tweaks to the package if this becomes a trend.

#1 Hendrick’s domination

Hendrick comes up aces in Vegas

While Chevrolet as a whole seem to be the clear dominant manufacturer early on, Hendrick Motorsports seem to be on top of their game once again.

As mentioned before, Byron led 176 out of the 271 laps run. When Byron wasn’t leading, it was his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson who was on top of the scoring pylon. Larson was the only one in the same area code as Byron for the majority of the race.

Alex Bowman also produced a good performance today. He was in the top 10 or the back end of the top 5 all race long. He came home third to round out the Hendrick 1-2-3 finish.

Josh Berry, who was filling in for the injured Chase Elliott, struggled on the day. He made contact with the wall multiple times and finished 29th. This is an outlier though, as Berry is a substitute driver and this was his first race in the Next Gen car.

With Hendrick being eight wins away from 300 victories overall as an organization, that milestone may come sooner rather than later.