Byron steers clear of late wreck and drives to win at Darlington
William Byron avoided a wreck between Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson on a restart six laps from the end and held on to win the Goodyear 400 in overtime at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Sunday.
Byron, who got pushed out of the way by winner Joey Logano two laps from the end here a year ago, drove away from Kevin Harvick during a green-white-checkered finish for his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and the seventh of his career.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Byron said. “Things have a way of working out.”
Harvick was second and Chase Elliott third, his best finish since he returned from a broken leg he suffered while snowboarding.
Brad Keselowski was fourth, followed by Bubba Wallace, Harrison Burton, Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher.
It was the 100th win for Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 car and the organization’s first victory at Darlington since Jimmie Johnson won the 2012 race.
It looked as if 2021 champion Larson or points leader Chastain had the strongest cars and figured to be there at the end.
Instead, Chastain was alongside Larson during a restart and acknowledged that he tried to squeeze his competitor against the wall in Turn 2. Both wound up wrecking.
Larson finished 20th and Chastain, who punched Noah Gragson in a pit-road confrontation a week ago at Kansas, was 29th.
“I wanted to squeeze him,” Chastain said of Larson. “I wanted to push him up. We’ve been trading back and forth all day.”
Larson moved into the
lead when Denny Hamlin went to the pits with 30 laps left and was in prime position for a victory until tangling with Chastain.
Martin Truex Jr. started from the pole and led 146 of the first 151 laps before he was clipped by Chastain.
Truex turned into Logano while the two were running third and fourth with less than 15 laps left, touching off an eight-car accident and scrambling the field.
That wreck followed an earlier dustup in which Erik Jones, who won the Southern 500 here last Labor Day weekend, had his right, rear tire spin off the car on Lap 193.
One of the drivers caught up behind Jones was Ryan Newman, who was competing in his first race since the 2021 season finale as he returned to NASCAR with Rick Ware Racing.
Coming up next Sunday is the NASCAR All-Star Open at revamped North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina.
Kurt Busch hoping for NASCAR return
Kurt Busch hasn’t given up hope of competing in the Cup Series again.
Busch has been sidelined since he suffered a concussion during a crash in qualifying at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania last summer. He announced in October that he would be stepping out of his ride at 23XI to continue his recovery.
“I’m feeling much better,” Busch, 44, said. “The improvements that I’ve made have been tremendous.”
He was at Darlington Raceway alongside Ricky Craven, who finished twothousandths of a second ahead of Busch in 2003 at the track “Too Tough To Tame” in what remains the closest finish in NASCAR history.
Busch captured the 2004 Cup Series title and has won 34 races. He was named one of the circuit’s 75 greatest drivers of all time, a group that was recognized during Darlington’s throwback weekend.