Byron dominates on Texas road course for second win of year
AUSTIN, Texas — William Byron won the Daytona 500 with an agonizing final lap under a caution flag. He took the checkered flag Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas at full throttle.
Bryon started from pole position and delivered a dominant drive in NASCAR’S first road course race of the season. He led 42 of 68 laps and built the big lead he needed to hold off a hard-charging run from Christopher Bell over the final two laps.
Bell shaved nearly three seconds off Byron’s lead to create some late drama before Byron slammed the door over the final corners.
“I was trying to not make mistakes,” Byron said. “I knew that last lap he was going to be pushing hard.”
Even when he was building the lead, Byron said he knew the victory would be tight at the end.
“Everyone is too good, and that car (was) too close,” Byron said.
Byron earned career win No. 12 and his second on a road course.
Ty Gibbs, the 21-year-old grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, finished third after getting passed by Bell with three laps to go.
“Another lap I would have gotten there for sure,” Bell said. “Passing (Byron) would have been difficult. I needed him to make a mistake and he didn’t make a mistake.”
■ Formula One: Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended Red Bull’s winning streak when he took advantage of Max Verstappen’s early retirement to win the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne just two weeks after missing the previous race in Saudi Arabia due to an emergency appendectomy.
Sainz, who started on the front row alongside Verstappen, kept his place into turn one, but passed the points leader on lap two for the lead. He took control once his rival retired two laps later with a fiery mechanical failure.
Verstappen had won the first two F1 races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and was on a nine-race winning streak.
Sainz finished ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc for Ferrari’s first 1-2 result since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, with Mclaren’s Lando Norris finishing in third for his first podium at Albert Park.
■ Indycar: At Thermal, Calif., Alex Palou.won the Thermal $1 Million Challenge on Sunday in a total rout, leading all 20 laps of Indycar’s first non-points race since 2008. The race at the members-only Thermal Club was for 12 drivers who earned their way into the main event through a pair of heat races earlier in the day.