William Byron lulled them to sleep en route to the NASCAR Cup Series win at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night.
Byron took the lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott on pit road after the end of the second segment of the race.
From there, Byron ran away from the competition, losing the point only during a around of green flag pit stops with 96 laps to go.
Not even a late caution – one of only two to not come at the end of a race segment – and an overtime restart could rattle Byron, as the Charlotte, North Carolina native held off a last lap charge and contact from Joey Logano to score the win.
“It feels awesome,” Byron said. “When that last caution came out, I thought everyone behind us would pit and luckily we stayed out. We were aggressive. We felt like we could re-fire on the tires and be okay, and you’ve got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in Logano. I knew I chattered the tires in (turns) 3 and 4 and kind of left the bottom open, but was able to block my exits and get a good drive off.”
It’s Byron’s second series win of the 2022 season, having won at Atlanta last month, making him the first driver to win more than once this season. He led the most laps on the night, pacing the field for 212 of the 403 laps.
It’s the fourth career series win for Byron, and it marks the fourth win of the season for Hendrick motorsports in eight races.
It’s also Byron’s second win of the weekend, after scoring the victory in Thursday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville.
“I’ve always wanted to win at Martinsville,” he said. “Got two clocks this weekend, so I’ll enjoy that.”
Byron dedicated the win to his mother, who was diagnosed with brain cancer a year ago. She was on the pit box to see Byron get the victory Saturday night.
“This one is for my mom,” Byron said. “This same weekend last year she had kind of a mini-stroke and was diagnosed with brain cancer. It means a lot to have her here and it’s been a crazy year. But she’s doing great. And thanks, everybody, for the support. I kind of felt like she was riding in there with me. It’s cool to have her here and I’m definitely going to enjoy this one.”
Logano moved to second on the overtime restart, and tried valiantly to challenge Byron for the win, but in the end had to settle for a second place finish.
“William did a good job of executing up front on the restart there,” Logano said. “I was able to get to him because he made a mistake off of four taking the white flag and I thought, ‘OK, this is my chance.’ My car didn’t fire off real fast, but kind of gave me the opportunity to get to him. I got to him and kind of rooted him up a little bit and then he came back down and just brake-checked me pretty good at the two-thirds as he should. I’m not mad about that. He should do that and that just killed my momentum off of two and gapped me by two car lengths almost into the final corner. I was too far back to get to him at that point, so I just hate being that close.”
Austin Dillon looked to have the only car during the second half of the race that could challenge Byron for the win, but began losing ground over the final 20 laps. He finished in third at the end of the night, his best career Martinsville result.
“I’m a little bummed,” Dillon said. “I like to pride myself in when we get in those situations being clutch, and that was anything but that on that last restart. I spun the tires pretty good through the gears. Once I got back in line there, I had some grip, and I feel like we had good forward drive all night long and I just felt like if we got to the gears we were going to have a shot at him.”
Ryan Blaney looked strong towards the end of the second segment, and appeared to be poised to move through the top five before ending up with a fourth place finish.
“It was overall a decent night,” said Blaney. “We had a pretty fast car, but never got out front and never got to where we could race for the lead. 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. Overall, it was a really good night.”
Ross Chastain continued the strong early season run for Trackhouse Racing with a fifth place result.
“It took 300-something laps just to where I could see the leaders,” said Chastain. “I don’t even know if we made any adjustments tonight. I don’t think we did, which was incredible because yesterday we needed a lot. For once I wish one of these Cup races went the full 500. That’s odd, I never think that. Proud of the effort. Proud of the rebound from yesterday for Trackhouse.”
Kurt Busch came home in sixth, with Kyle Busch in seventh, Aric Almirola in eighth, and Chase Briscoe in ninth.
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott started the night on the pole, and dominated the first half of the race, leading all 185 laps en route to winning both early race segments. After losing the lead to Byron on pit road after the end of the second segment, Elliott raced within the top five until a strategy call for tires on the lap 313 debris caution set him back in the field.
Elliott recovered to finish in 10th place.
NASCAR Cup Series
Martinsville Speedway – Martinsville, VA
Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 – April 9, 2022
1. (5) William Byron, Chevrolet, 403.
2. (14) Joey Logano, Ford, 403.
3. (23) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 403.
4. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 403.
5. (27) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 403.
6. (18) Kurt Busch, Toyota, 403.
7. (11) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 403.
8. (2) Aric Almirola, Ford, 403.
9. (19) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 403.
10. (1) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 403.
11. (13) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 403.
12. (15) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 403.
13. (24) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 403.
14. (6) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 403.
15. (4) Chris Buescher, Ford, 403.
16. (21) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 403.
17. (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 403.
18. (22) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 403.
19. (8) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 403.
20. (7) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 402.
21. (3) Cole Custer, Ford, 402.
22. (20) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 401.
23. (34) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 401.
24. (36) A.J. Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 401.
25. (16) Michael McDowell, Ford, 400.
26. (29) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 400.
27. (28) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 400.
28. (25) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.
29. (30) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 399.
30. (10) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 399.
31. (17) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 398.
32. (26) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 397.
33. (35) Cody Ware, Ford, 394.
34. (32) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, 392.
35. (31) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 391.
36. (33) B.J. McLeod, Ford, Handling, 132.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 79.244 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 40 Mins, 30 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.303 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 36 laps.
Lead Changes: 5 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Elliott 1-185;W. Byron 186-303;R. Blaney 304-308;W. Byron 309-319;A. Dillon 320;W. Byron 321-403.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) William Byron 3 times for 212 laps; Chase Elliott 1 time for 185 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 5 laps; Austin Dillon 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 9,24,41,20,10,4,12,22,2,45
Stage #2 Top Ten: 9,24,22,12,41,3,10,2,20,4
Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 276 (2 Wins); 2. Ross Chastain – 246 (1 Win); 3. Alex Bowman – 237 (1 Win); 4. Chase Briscoe – 220 (1 Win); 5. Kyle Larson – 201 (1 Win); 6. Austin Cindric – 201 (1 Win); 7. Denny Hamlin – 157 (1 Win); 8. Chase Elliott – 288; 9. Ryan Blaney – 285; 10. Joey Logano – 261; 11. Martin Truex, Jr. – 237; 12. Aric Almirola – 223; 13. Kevin Harvick – 222; 14. Kyle Busch – 221; 15. Tyler Reddick – 202; 16. Austin Dillon – 197.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
http://accesswdun.com/article/2022/4/1093504/byron-scores-dominating-cup-victory-at-martinsville