William Byron held off Joey Logano in an overtime finish to win Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, scoring his second win of the season.
Byron capped off a surprisingly uneventful race for the half-mile short track as Byron led 212 of 403 laps and there wasn’t a single on-track pass for the lead under green. On a cold night dominated by Hendrick Motorsports, Byron and pole-sitter Chase Elliott combined to lead all but six laps in a race that only had two “natural” cautions.
The last came with six laps to go when rookie Todd Gilliland shot up the track and hit the wall in Turn 4, setting up the overtime sprint.
Byron, who claimed his fourth career win, is the first repeat winner through eight races this season.
“It feels awesome, when that last caution came out I thought everybody behind us would pit,” Byron told Fox Sports. “We stayed out, we were aggressive and felt like we could re-fire on the tires and be OK. You got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in Logano. … Was able to block on the exits and get a good drive off.Â
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“This one’s for my mom, this same weekend last year she had a mini-stroke and was diagnosed with brain cancer. It means a lot to have her here.”
Byron’s win comes two nights after he dominated and won the NASCAR Truck Series race at Martinsville.
Logano earned his second top five of the year.
“It was a good race down to the end,” Logano told Fox Sports. “Really hard to pass. … William kind of mess up off of (Turn) 2 and let me get to him. He did a good job of brake checking. … His corner entry was really good, too.”
In third was Austin Dillon, who also earned his second top five of the year. That exceeds his total from 2021.
“I’m a little bummed,” Dillon said. “I spun the tires pretty good through the gears … We had good forward drive all night long and I just felt like if we could get through the gears I could have a shot at him.”
Dillon has three straight top 10s.
The top five was completed by Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain.
‘We had a pretty fast car, but never got out front and never got to where we could race for the lead,” Blaney said. “You have to be a half-second faster than somebody to pass somebody. You’d run someone down by four seconds and then get stuck behind them, so that was pretty disappointing.”
The race’s two “natural” cautions were the fewest in a Cup race at Martinsville since 1971.
First Stage
Within the first 20 laps, Elliott helped Hendrick Motorsports reach the 10,000-laps led mark at Martinsville Speedway. Hendrick is the first team to lead that many laps at a single track.
Elliott began lapping cars within 35 laps.
Denny Hamlin, running in 24th, went a lap down with five laps left in the stage. Rookie Todd Gilliland, who started 10th, was the last car lapped before the stage end. Hamlin tried to move him out of the way coming out of Turn 4, but didn’t time it right get the position. Hamlin would finish three laps down in 28th.
Elliott won the stage after leading every lap.
Top 10 after 80 laps: Elliott, Byron, Custer, Bell, Almirola, Harvick, Blaney, Logano, Cindric and Kurt Busch.
Second Stage
The race resumed on Lap 92 with Elliott retaining the lead over Byron.
Elliott would lead beyond Lap 128, making him the driver to lead the most laps to start a race since Matt Kenseth led 163 laps in the spring 2017 race at Richmond Raceway.
Bubba Wallace, who had a pit crew penalty during the stage break, was able to hold off Elliott from lapping him for the last segment of the stage. Wallace managed a lead-lap finish in 16th.
Elliott won the second stage having led the first 180 laps. The the first two stages went completely caution free.
Austin Dillon was sixth after starting the race in 23rd.
In the pits, Byron was first off pit road ahead of Elliott, while Blaney beat Logano.
After running in the top five almost all night, Custer was penalized for an uncontrolled tire that went bouncing down pit road.
Final Stage
Byron would keep the lead until green flag stops.
Logano eventually took second from Elliott with 120 laps to go with the help of his front bumper as Elliott dropped to fifth and eventually finished 10th.
Green flag stops began with 110 laps to go as the Joe Gibbs Racing cars of Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. hit pit road first.
Barely two laps after his pit stop, Truex suffered a flat right-front tire, sending him back to pit road. He finished 22nd, two laps down.
Bell’s team was penalized for going over the wall too soon. Byron pit from the lead with 97 laps to go, giving the lead to Blaney.
Larson was called for speeding ever returning to the track in the top 10. Byron returned to the lead once Blaney pit.
Almost as soon as green flag stops ended the first natural caution of the night occurred for Hamlin being slow on the track.
Elliott, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Bowman and Wallace were among those who pit under the caution.
The race resumed with 80 to go as Byron led over Dillon.Â
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