Just a few weeks ago, the narrative surrounding William Byron was that he was lagging behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammates in the win column since the start of 2021. Suddenly, Byron has not only completely shattered that narrative, but he's also become the top driver in the win column in 2022.
After dominating the second half of Saturday night's race, William Byron withstood an overtime restart and held off a challenge from Joey Logano to win the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Byron becomes the first repeat winner in 2022 after having previously won at Atlanta, and his first victory at Martinsville is the fourth of his Cup Series career.
1 - #24 - William Byron
2 - #22 - Joey Logano
3 - #3 - Austin Dillon
4 - #12 - Ryan Blaney
5 - #1 - Ross Chastain
6 - #45 - Kurt Busch
7 - #18 - Kyle Busch
8 - #10 - Aric Almirola
9 - #14 - Chase Briscoe
10 - #9 - Chase Elliott
After taking the lead from teammate Chase Elliott on pit road following Stage 2, Byron dominated the second half of the race and looked well on his way to an easy victory when Todd Gilliland hit the wall in Turn 3, bringing out a caution that set up an overtime restart. Byron was able to get free of Logano and Austin Dillon, managing to get enough of a gap on Logano entering Turn 3 for the final time that Logano wasn't able to put the bump-and-run on him.
"I knew when that last caution came out, I thought everyone behind us would pit. Luckily we stayed out, we were aggressive, we felt like we could re-fire on the tires and be okay," Byron told Fox Sports."You've got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in Logano. I chattered the tires in (Turns) 3 and 4, and kind of left the bottom open, but was able to kind of block my exits and get a good drive off."
Byron dedicated the victory to his mother, who was at the racetrack nearly a full year after being diagnosed with brain cancer following a mini-stroke.
"It means a lot to have her here. It's been a crazy year, but she's doing great," Byron said. "Thanks to everybody for the support -- I kind of felt like she was riding there with me."
Here are some of the other notable takeaways from William Byron's Cup Series-leading second win of the season.
The expectations for Martinsville's first race of the season were greatly raised by Friday night's Xfinity Series race that featured 16 cautions, a healthy dose of beating and banging, and a post-race fight on pit road for good measure. By that measure -- and most others -- Saturday night's race fell well short in the action department.
After rain rolled through in the early evening and delayed the start by about an hour, all existing rubber on Martinsville's surface had been washed off the racetrack. With unseasonably cold temperatures well down into the 40 degree marks, the track hardly rubbered back in. That -- combined with perhaps a change in driving style as drivers shifted in and out of the corners with the Next Gen car's five-speed transmission -- contributed to a race that saw no on-track green flag passes for the race lead and great difficulty passing being experienced throughout the field.
That might have been excused had the race offered some physical short-track action, but it lacked in that regard as well. The yellow flag only flew four times and just once for an on-track accident, marking only the seventh time in NASCAR's modern era -- and just the second time since the 1970s -- that a Martinsville race has featured less than five cautions.
"If you're in dirty air, you're in dirty air. You can't even get in the corner and roll to a guy and put the bumper to him. You just can't get there," Ryan Blaney told reporters. "I don't know if the hotter temperatures would have helped. You still would have been tight behind someone and slowing your center down too much to where you couldn't get a run on them."
"There was a ton of grip in the track -- it's freezing, the track's fast, fast lap times. We were averaging lap times close to qualifying there at the end when we were out front," Austin Dillon said, per Peter Stratta of TSJSports. "When it gets hot and slick, it'll be a whole other race."
For the first time since 1989, the NASCAR Cup Series will race on Easter Sunday with the running of the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The only Cup Series race on dirt will take place Easter Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET on Fox.
Joey Logano can't get close enough to William Byron to put the bump-and-run on him. Byron holds the lead in overtime and takes his second win of the season.
1 - #24 - William Byron
2 - #22 - Joey Logano
3 - #3 - Austin Dillon
4 - #12 - Ryan Blaney
5 - #1 - Ross Chastain
6 - #45 - Kurt Busch
7 - #18 - Kyle Busch
8 - #10 - Aric Almirola
9 - #14 - Chase Briscoe
10 - #9 - Chase Elliott
Green-white-checkered time. Byron, Logano, and Dillon. Green flag!
William Byron gets clear of Logano on the backstretch. White flag this time.
The Top 12 cars stayed on the racetrack for the start of NASCAR Overtime. Kyle Busch is the first car on new tires in 13th.
Choose Zone this time by: William Byron goes to the inside, Austin Dillon to the inside as well. Joey Logano to the outside with Ryan Blaney right behind him.
Almost no takers for tires at the front of the field. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones among some of the cars to pit.
Given how difficult it's been to pass tonight, it makes a lot of sense for the leaders to stay out and keep their track position.
CAUTION IS OUT! Todd Gilliland pounded the wall in Turn 3 and the yellow flag flies with just six laps to go.
10 laps to go. William Byron is on cruise control with over 2.5 seconds on Austin Dillon.
So much for that progress Dillon was making. He lost a bunch of time in lapped traffic and now trails William Byron by 2.5 seconds with 15 to go.
Austin Dillon is beginning to make up some ground as William Byron has hit lapped traffic. The margin is down to just under 1.5 seconds.
Chase Elliott, who dominated this race early, has finally made it back into the Top 10 by passing Tyler Reddick.
Austin Dillon has been able to hold off Joey Logano, but he isn't getting any closer to William Byron. The gap is now nearly two seconds with under 30 laps to go.
So much for the 1990s fest at the front of the field. Joey Logano is now on the bumper of Austin Dillon for second and Kurt Busch isn't far behind.
William Byron's lead over Austin Dillon is now one second. Coming up on 50 to go.
The paint schemes and drivers have changed since then, but there's major shades of the 1990s in the Top 2 as Hendrick Motorsports' No. 24 and Richard Childress Racing's No. 3 look to fight it out for the win.
It's been awhile since either car has visited the Winner's Circle at Martinsville. The last drivers to take them there were their two most famous pilots.
Austin Dillon is half a second back of William Byron and might have as good a car on the long run. Dillon is looking to snap a winless streak that dates back to Texas in July of 2020.
By the way, the No. 3 car has not won at Martinsville since Dale Earnhardt took it to Victory Lane in the Fall of 1995.
William Byron was able to get away from Austin Dillon after the restart. Lots of beating and banging from fifth on back. Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric are leaning on each other. Now Chase Briscoe is trying to use Cindric up. Quite a few cars on new tires trying to get all they can get early in the run.
Restart with 80 laps to go. We'll see if the action picks up from this point onwards -- If not, we might be in store for the first Martinsville race with three or fewer cautions since the 1970s.
Caution is out for debris in Turn 4. It's just the third caution of the night and the first for cause.
A number of cars come to pit road, including Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher and some others as well.
