After surviving a series of late race restarts that saw other contenders take each other out, William Byron snuck through and held on in overtime to win the Goodyear 400 at Darlington. Byron's victory is the seventh of his career and his third of the 2023 season, setting a new career-high for wins in a season by the Charlotte, N.C. driver.
When a caution with 18 laps to go set up a series of late-race restarts, Byron capitalized on two major accidents in Turns 1 and 2 that occurred when other drivers at the front of the field ran each other into the outside wall. First, Martin Truex Jr. triggered a major accident by squeezing Joey Logano into the wall, and then the next restart would see Byron sneak through as Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson took each other out in a similar accident.
Byron's win made a major contribution to the legacy of the car he drives, as it marked victory No. 100 for the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 made famous by Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon. Byron, who has driven the No. 24 since 2018, sported a throwback paint scheme to the one Gordon drove in the 1998 Winston at Charlotte Motor Speedway commemorating what was then NASCAR's 50th anniversary.
"I'm just thankful that I was able to get in this 24 car," Byron told Fox Sports. "I was too young at the time (when I was hired) I feel like, but growing up, maturing and just having a great team around me, being able to build the core that we have -- I have a great group of guys. (Crew chief Rudy Fugle), Brandon McSwain, Tyler, my car chief, everybody on the team does a great job preparing good cars, and we work hard at it. It's nice to see it go our way once."
Byron's opportunity to win came as many of the other leaders' races unraveled over a pair of restarts. When Ryan Newman spun to bring out the caution with 18 laps to go, Darlington's corners -- notoriously difficult to run side-by-side through with enough room to operate -- would ensnare all of the day's dominant cars.
Martin Truex Jr., who dominated the first two stages of the race before losing track position after a spin, would be the first to fall when he ran up the racetrack and into Joey Logano, putting Logano into the wall and spinning Truex in front of traffic to trigger a multi-car accident.
The drama derived from that accident, though, paled in comparison to what was set to happen between race leaders Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain. After the two traded paint and sheet metal through Turns 1 and 2, Chastain inherited the lead at a scoring loop despite Larson's belief that Chastain had jumped the restart.
Chastain, feeling that Larson had tried to run him into the wall, upped the ante on the next restart with six laps to go and tried to run him tight to the wall. But his plan went awry when he ran up the racetrack, putting himself in the wall in addition to Larson and ending both of their chances at victory as Byron drove past to take the lead.
Chastain, NASCAR's biggest lightning rod, was once again put on the spot as he admitted that he erred in trying to squeeze Larson to his outside.
"I got really tight and drove up and turned myself," Chastain told Fox Sports. "I wanted to squeeze him, I wanted to push him up. We'd been trading it back and forth all day, and I wanted to push him up for sure. But I definitely didn't want to turn myself into the wall."
In the process of Chastain taking himself and the No. 5 out, Kyle Larson became the latest driver that Chastain has made an enemy out of. Larson was heard referring to Chastain as a "hack" on his team radio and later declined to speak to any media.
For the first time since 1996, NASCAR heads to the foothills of Western North Carolina and Wilkes County for the All-Star Race at the legendary and now-resurrected North Wilkesboro Speedway. That race is slated for next Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
One year after getting punted out of a chance to win this race, William Byron redeems himself a year later to pick up his third win of the 2023 season!
1 - #24 - William Byron
2 - #4 - Kevin Harvick
3 - #9 - Chase Elliott
4 - #6 - Brad Keselowski
5 - #23 - Bubba Wallace
6 - #21 - Harrison Burton
7 - #8 - Kyle Busch
8 - #31 - Justin Haley
9 - #12 - Ryan Blaney
10 - #17 - Chris Buescher
They finally get through Turns 1 and 2 clean, and Byron emerges with the lead. White flag next time by.
So now, William Byron is the race leader followed by Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton. Harvick, Elliott, and Keselowski were all caught up in that wreck between Truex and Logano, but all have kept going.
Overtime restart coming up.
NOW CHASTAIN AND LARSON ARE IN THE WALL! WILLIAM BYRON TAKES THE LEAD AND THE CAUTION IS OUT AGAIN!
If Kyle Larson thinks Ross Chastain jumped the last restart, he's going to have his opportunity to set it right: There will be six laps to go for this next restart.
To add to that sequence of about half a lap: Kyle Larson's team feels that Ross Chastain jumped the restart.
Per NASCAR rules, the leader controls the restart and must accelerate before anyone else in the restart zone. Evidently, NASCAR did not find issue with Chastain's acceleration on the restart relative to Chastain's.
Since that wreck took out a lot of the Top 10, the running order is going to be considerably jumbled up. I saw Harrison Burton up to fourth and Bubba Wallace back in the top five.
There's also some debate as to who was the leader at the moment of caution, as Chastain and Larson were side-by-side at the moment of yellow. The last scoring loop ruled Chastain to be ahead at the caution.
