William Byron was in the right place at the right time, and it paid off with a win Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
Byron was running in third when race leaders Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson crashed in turn one with just six laps to go.
That moved Byron to the lead in overtime. He held off a charge from Kevin Harvick on the final restart, and went on to get the NASCAR Cup Series victory.
The win was an emotional one for Byron, who lost his grandfather on Thursday.
“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. My granddad passed away on Thursday, and just man, I wish my family could be here,” said Byron. “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.”
It marks a series leading third win of the season for Byron, the seventh of his series career, and the 100th victory for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team.
“Definitely didn’t expect this,” Byron said. “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.”
Over the closing laps, looked like it would come down between two of the most aggressive drivers in NASCAR today – Chastain and Larson. On the previous restart, Larson held the lead on the inside line, and made contact with Chastain as the two raced into turn one. The two were battling when a crash broke out behind them, bringing out the caution. NASCAR officials determined that Chastain had the lead when the caution came out.
On the final regulation restart, Chastain returned the favor, taking the inside line and pressuring Larson in the same way he had been done the previous restart. This time, the two made contact in turn one, sending Chastain spinning and putting Larson into the inside wall. The chance to win was gone for both drivers.
Larson was able to continue, and finished 20th.
“How does that make any sense, running us into the fence?” Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief said on the team radio. “That’s three races he’s (Chastain) taken us out of — the 1 car — three races he’s taken us out of.”
Chastain’s car was too heavily damaged to continue. He was credited with a 29th place finish.
“Full commit into (turn) one,” said Chastain. “I got really tight, drove up and turned myself. I wanted to squeeze him, I wanted to push him up. We had been trading positions back-and-forth all day and I wanted to push him up, for sure, but definitely didn’t want to turn myself into the wall.”
That opened the door for Byron to score the 15th series victory at Darlington for Hendrick Motorsports.
“Everybody on the team does a great job preparing good cars, and we work hard at it,” Byron said. “It’s nice to see it go our way once.”
Behind Byron, the next three finishers were all cars that had been damaged in a multi-car crash with 13 laps left to go.
Harvick finished in second after challenging Byron briefly on the final restart.
“I didn’t have anything for William (Byron),” Harvick said. “The front is tore up pretty good, but they did a great job and just kind of kept ourselves in the game and you never know what’s gonna happen.”
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott was not a factor for most of the day, but was able to finish third with a damaged race car.
“Yeah, I feel like our car was plenty good, really, throughout the whole day,” Elliott said. “I just do such a terrible job getting up through traffic. 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.”
Brad Keselowski also suffered damage to his Ford in that multi-car shunt, but crossed the finish line in fourth.
“I felt like at the end it turned into a wreckfest and we got tore up and salvaged what we could salvage,” Keselowski said. “Ultimately, we were a fifth or sixth-place car all day and ended up fourth. It was a real solid day.”
Bubba Wallace avoided trouble on an attrition filled day, and came home in fifth.
“Yeah, unfortunately we had that one bad pit stop that set us behind, but this team never gives up,” Wallace said. “It feels good to rebound fifth.”
Harrison Burton, Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top 10.
Darlington Raceway is touted for how tough it can be on drivers, and the track lived up to that reputation on Sunday, with a pair of multi-car crashes.
The first occurred on a lap 194 restart, when Erik Jones’ car lost a right rear tire off of turn 2. His car spun, triggering a 10-car melee that gathered up Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Noah Gragson, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman, and Todd Gilliland.
The second came on a restart with just 13 laps left to go, when third place runner Martin Truex, Jr. got into Joey Logan, setting off a crash in turn one that included Elliott, Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Aric Almirola, Keselowski, and Blaney.
In all, the race was slowed by caution eight times for on-track incidents.
NASCAR Cup Series
Darlington Raceway – Darlington, SC
Goodyear 400 – May 14, 2023
1. (4) William Byron, Chevrolet, 295.
2. (20) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 295.
3. (21) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 295.
4. (10) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 295.
5. (2) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 295.
6. (14) Harrison Burton, Ford, 295.
7. (12) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 295.
8. (22) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 295.
9. (11) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 295.
10. (27) Chris Buescher, Ford, 295.
11. (24) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 295.
12. (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 295.
13. (3) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 295.
14. (16) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 295.
15. (32) Ryan Preece, Ford, 295.
16. (13) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 295.
17. (31) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 295.
18. (15) Joey Logano, Ford, 295.
19. (25) Austin Cindric, Ford, 295.
20. (7) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 295.
21. (17) Aric Almirola, Ford, 295.
22. (9) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 295.
23. (30) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 294.
24. (34) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 293.
25. (28) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 293.
26. (29) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 293.
27. (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 293.
28. (26) Ryan Newman, Ford, 291.
29. (5) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 287.
30. (23) Josh Berry(i), Chevrolet, 286.
31. (1) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, Accident, 280.
32. (35) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, Steering, 226.
33. (19) Michael McDowell, Ford, Accident, 200.
34. (6) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, Accident, 199.
35. (18) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 196.
36. (36) Brennan Poole(i), Ford, Transmission, 39.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 118.88 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 23 Mins, 23 Secs. Margin of Victory: .781 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 47 laps.
Lead Changes: 19 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Truex Jr. 0;B. Wallace 1;M. Truex Jr. 2-138;R. Blaney 139-141;B. Wallace 142;M. Truex Jr. 143-150;R. Chastain 151-189;K. Larson 190-202;R. Chastain 203-247;K. Harvick 248-251;R. Blaney 252;B. Wallace 253;D. Hamlin 254-262;K. Larson 263-276;R. Chastain 277;K. Larson 278-279;R. Chastain 280-287;W. Byron 288-292;K. Harvick 293;W. Byron 294-295.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Martin Truex Jr. 2 times for 145 laps; Ross Chastain 4 times for 93 laps; Kyle Larson 3 times for 29 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 9 laps; William Byron 2 times for 7 laps; Kevin Harvick 2 times for 5 laps; Ryan Blaney 2 times for 4 laps; Bubba Wallace 3 times for 3 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 19,24,23,1,8,6,47,4,45,20
Stage #2 Top Ten: 1,8,5,24,6,20,4,12,47,19
Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 387 (3 Wins); 2. Kyle Larson – 363 (2 Wins); 3. Kyle Busch – 353 (2 Wins); 4. Christopher Bell – 402 (1 Win); 5. Denny Hamlin – 393 (1 Win); 6. Martin Truex, Jr. – 385 (1 Win); 7. Tyler Reddick – 371 (1 Win); 8. Joey Logano – 334 (1 Win); 9. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 325 (1 Win); 10. Ross Chastain – 429; 11. Kevin Harvick – 400; 12. Ryan Blaney – 381; 13. Brad Keselowski – 365; 14. Chris Buescher – 329; 15. Bubba Wallace – 293; 16. Chase Briscoe – 275.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
