William Byron turned up the heat when it mattered most to win Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in overtime.
Byron, sporting a special Jeff Gordon throwback paint scheme from 1998, added his name to the illustrious list of Darlington winners after holding off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick to earn a career-best third NASCAR Cup Series win of the season.
For Byron, the victory was sweet redemption for last season’s spring race at the Lady in Black, where Joey Logano’s bump-and-run denied Byron his first victory at the fabled speedway.
It was an emotional win for Byron in more ways than one.
“It’s pretty amazing. My granddad passed away on Thursday, and just man, I wish my family could be here,” Byron said. “Just things have a way of working out, honestly. It just worked out that way today. We didn’t have the best third stage. We just kept battling, and things just kind of come back around.
“Want to wish happy Mother’s Day to my mom. My sister just graduated school, so big day. Definitely didn’t expect this. But just thankful for a great team, and yeah, just things have a way of working out, and come back here to Darlington and have it go exactly the other way.”
Byron gave Hendrick Motorsports their 15th win at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, the most by any organization. It was also the 100th win for the No. 24 in Cup Series competition.
Runner-up Harvick was pleased with the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team’s effort despite struggles throughout the 400-lap event.
“I think if you would have dropped us in first or second place we probably could have run there,” Harvick said. “The Fords struggle in traffic with this particular aero package and it’s hard to make up ground, and then we lost a bunch of ground on pit road under the green flag pit stop. Then we got toward the end and missed all the wrecks.
“Well, we came out the other side of the wrecks. We were in the wrecks, but just didn’t have any damage to the wheels and tires, just structural damage. WIlliam ended up being the only car that didn’t have damage and he just drove off, so still a good day for our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang and we’ll just keep plugging away.”
Byron’s teammate Chase Elliott notched his best performance since returning from a leg injury, finishing third in a throwback scheme honoring his father Bill Elliott.
It was Elliott’s second consecutive top 10 finish.
“I feel like our car was plenty good, really, throughout the whole day. I just do such a terrible job getting up through traffic,” Elliott said. “I get stalled out behind guys, and I just feel like people driving cars like mine don’t do that. They tend to get up through there and get to where they belong.
“I feel like everything on the other side of the wall and the car that I was driving was really, really good, so I need to just try to improve and keep going to work on the areas that I’m struggling in and try to build on the improvements we’ve made. But I certainly have a long ways to go. But really proud of our team effort to keep us in the fight,” Elliott continued. “Pit stops were unreal, and obviously got really lucky there at the end with those guys crashing and then the caution coming out quick for myself and guys like Brad (Keselowski) to keep our spots like that.
“I’ll certainly take third, and appreciate all the effort this weekend. We’re making some small gains here and there, just got to get some more.”
What Led To Byron’s Win?
The second to final restart came with six laps to go with Ross Chastain and Byron’s teammate Kyle Larson on the front row. Heading into turn one, Chastain darted low, but began to slide up the race track.
With Larson against the outside wall, Chastain eventually ran out of room, making contact with the No. 5 Chevrolet, sending the No. 1 of Chastain into the wall.
Both driver’s shot of victory were washed away.
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 14, 2023
After the race, Chastain took blame for the incident.
“Full commit. Into (turn) one, I got really tight, drove up and turned myself,” Chastain said. “I wanted to squeeze him, I wanted to push him up. We’d been trading back and forth all day. I wanted to push him up for sure, but definitely didn’t want to turn myself there.”
As Chastain and Larson collided, Byron snuck by on the bottom of the track to assume the top spot for the following restart.
What Else Went Down
Outside of fluid on the race track on lap 38 to bring out the caution, Stage One was calm at The Track Too Tough To Tame with polesitter Martin Truex Jr. winning the opening stage.
Stage Two began to get dicey at the end, foreshadowing what was to come later on. Getting caught up in lap traffic on the final lap of the stage, Chastain had Truex breathing down his neck as they barreled down to turn three.
After getting nudged by Truex, Chastain bounced off the wall into the No. 19, sending the JGR driver spinning aimlessly on the track. Truex wouldn’t sustain damage, finishing the stage in 10th.
Stage Two would go to Chastain, followed by Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson.
The ‘big one’ hit on lap 194 after Erik Jones spun coming off turn two. Jones’ right rear tire dislodged from his race car, sending the No. 43 into Ty Gibbs. Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell were also involved.
Jones was held on pit lane for two laps after the incident.
Shortly after, a strong run for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. stalled after a flat tire sent the driver of the No. 47 spinning on the apron with 83 laps to go. The reigning Daytona 500 winner would rebound to finish 13th.
Green flag pit stops would ensue on lap 244. Larson was able to leapfrog Chastain on the race track after short pitting with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell in his tracks with 30 laps to go.
Though a Ryan Newman crash would change everything with 18 laps to go as the caution flag waved.
A devastating blow to Bell’s race came after pit stops under caution, when his crew didn’t tighten a wheel enough. Bell was forced to pit from second position.
On the following restart with 13 laps to go, Truex’s promising day came crashing down after drifting up the track into defending winner Joey Logano. Truex’s No. 19 went sideways into the wall, giving Logano nowhere to go. Truex finished 31st after leading the most laps with 145.
The wreck collected Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola among others.
Chastain and Larson’s crash followed with six laps to go, prompting the lone overtime restart that led to Byron surging ahead to take the win.