Byron races to 2nd victory
Hendrick Motorsports driver first repeat winner this season in Cup Series
William Byron took the lead on pit road after Stage 2 stops and held it pretty much the rest of the way at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night to become the first repeat winner this season in NASCAR’s Cup Series.
Byron needed to hold off a challenge — and a nudge — from Joey Logano on a two-lap overtime sprint to finish it, but won for the fourth time in his career and gave Hendrick Motorsports four victories in eight races this season.
Byron had both a fast car that allowed him to pull away on restarts and a strong one on long runs, critical since there wasn’t a caution for anything but the end of a stage until the 311th of 400 laps on the 0.526mile oval.
That changed when Todd Gilliland had a flat tire and hit the wall with five laps to go. Byron and the top eight cars on the track opted not to pit, with Byron picking the inside lane and Austin Dillon on the outside running second.
Logano, running third and behind Byron, got a better jump than Dillon on the restart and bumped Byron in Turn 2 on the last lap, but Byron held on for his second win of the weekend. He won in the Truck Series on Thursday night.
Logano was second, followed by Dillon, Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain.
Dillon appeared to have a car likely to challenge on a long greenflag run, and beat Logano for second on a restart with 80 laps to go, but after Byron pulled away, lapped traffic and consistency helped him build a nearly 3-second lead.
The start of the race was delayed by more than an hour when rain and some sleet fell on an already frigid night. It got underway with radar suggesting more precipitation was coming, perhaps even some snow, but none materialized.
It all conspired to provide a clean track, and a virtual parade.
Pole-sitter Chase Elliott led the first 185 laps, winning the first and second stages for the fifth time in his career, but lost the lead in the caution stops that followed Stage 2 and had trouble as the night went on. He finished 10th.
Quirky
Elliott’s 185 laps led to begin the race matched what Darrell Waltrip did at the start of the 1980 race at Martinsville. Waltrip, though, went on to win.
JGR struggles
Coming off a victory at Richmond Raceway and to another short track where he leads all active drivers with five wins, any hope Denny Hamlin brought to Martinsville was taken away bit by bit. He qualified 25th, was lapped by Elliott at the end of Stage 1 and made laps in the back of the field and finished 28th.
The rest of the Joe Gibbs Racing stable didn’t fare much better, though Kyle Busch rallied for seventh. Martin Truex Jr., who’d won three of the last five races here, finished 22nd and Christopher Bell was 20th.
Up next
The top series moves to its third straight short track, this time on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway next Sunday.