Sheer poetry as Byron lords it in NASCAR
Hendrick Motorsports continued its early-season dominance as William
Byron became the organisation’s third different driver to win in the NASCAR
Cup Series’ first five races after Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson.
Byron held off repeated challenges for the lead in the final two laps, the last from Christopher Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, to win Sunday’s race at the revamped and reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. As it turned out, Bell was ruled by NASCAR to have passed below the red line on the last lap, and was sent to the tail end of the lead lap as a penalty. That left Ross Chastain (Trackhouse Racing Chevy), who was originally credited with third, as the runner-up for the second consecutive week. This was despite Chastain causing a caution when he hit the wall early on, and incurring a two-lap penalty for illegal refuelling.
Sunday’s race was the first in the Cup series on the newly revamped Atlanta track. The circuit was re-repaved and the banking increased from 24 to 28 degrees. In addition, the track width decreased from 55 feet to 40 in the corners. The race featured 46 lead changes among 20 different drivers – both track records – and was very similar to the pack racing seen typically only at Daytona and Talladega.
“It was so different,” said 24-year-old Byron. “Honestly, the last few laps there and trying to manage the gap to Bubba [Wallace] and trying to not get too far out front. Had a pretty rough practice [Saturday] and worked hard on it and got it handling well. It was kind of an intermediate style with a little bit of speedway into it, so a lot of fun.”
Kurt Busch took third in his 23XI Racing Toyota. Daniel Suarez factored in the battle for the lead in the early part of the third stage, but eventually finished fourth, while Corey Lajoie rebounded from a wreck to take his first career top-five finish for Spire Motorsports. Another Hendrick driver, Chase Elliott, was sixth and leads the points.