Byron holds off Logano in overtime
William Byron took the lead on pit road after Stage 2 stops and held it pretty much the rest of the way at Martinsville (Va.) 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 twolap 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 0.526-mile 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 green-flag 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.
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.
• Brandon Jones overtook Ty Gibbs on the last lap of a two-lap sprint to the finish and won the Xfinity Series race late Friday at Martinsville. When it was over, Gibbs and longtime rival Sam Mayer, both of whom were racing for a $100,000 Dash4Cash, came to blows on pit road. Gibbs was wearing his helmet, while Mayer was not, and when Mayer pushed him, Gibbs threw a punch and they came together in a melee as others tried to break it up.
The Cup Series is on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee next week.
Home track advantage
Colton Herta broke the Long Beach,, Calif., track record in qualifying, and the California native will start from the pole for his home IndyCar race. Herta turned a lap at 1 minute, 05.3095 seconds on the temporary street course set up through downtown Long Beach to earn his eighth career pole and the right to lead the field to green. ... Jimmie Johnson, who broke his right hand in a crash Friday during practice, wore a carbon fiber splint on it Saturday and qualified 25th in the 26-car field. He said he’s good to go for Sunday.
Ferrari on F1 pole
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed his second pole position of the year with a blistering final lap in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix Saturday in Melbourne. Leclerc, who won the season-opening race in Bahrain in March, posted a time of 1 minute, 17.868 seconds to edge Red Bull driver and defending series champion Max Verstappen by .286 seconds.