William Byron earned his fifth win of a breakout 2023 season in convincing fashion at Watkins Glen International, leading 66 of 90 laps on the day to win the Go Bowling at The Glen. Byron's victory is his very first on a road course and the ninth overall of his career, and it also marked Hendrick Motorsports' fifth straight victory at Watkins Glen.
After taking the lead following the opening round of green flag pit stops, Byron firmly controlled the race the rest of the way, cruising to the checkered flag by three seconds over Denny Hamlin. The victory was also a special one for crew chief Rudy Fugle, who is a native of nearby Livonia, N.Y.
Byron prevailed in what was, time-wise, the shortest NASCAR Cup Series race in the sport's modern era. With only one caution slowing an otherwise blistering pace, Sunday's race took just one hour, 58 minutes and 44 seconds to complete, breaking the previous record set at Watkins Glen in 2017.
Go Bowling at The Glen unofficial results
- #24 - William Byron
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #16 - AJ Allmendinger
- #54 - Ty Gibbs (R)
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #22 - Joey Logano
Byron's win comes after he experienced a summertime swoon that followed his win at Atlanta, as he had finished no better than 14th in the five races after. Trailing off in the summer months has been a trend for Byron throughout his career, but today's win marked a reversal of that trend as Byron prepares to pursue the Cup Series championship as one of the top seeds in the playoffs.
"We seem to go through that summer slump in July and August, and for some reason we just can't quite put the races together. I think it's the racetracks itself," Byron told NBC Sports. "Yeah, just came this weekend with a good mindset, focusing on trying to get ready for the post-season, and we've had fast cars, we just haven't executed races. But today was flawless, and just Rudy, everybody, all the spotters.
"Thanks to everybody. This is a cool win. Like I said, road courses have been tough, so it's fun to get a win."
Bubba on the Bubble
In the grand scheme of the playoff race, Byron's victory meant that only one playoff spot now remains. With no new winner, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski both clinched spots in the playoffs on points, leaving just the 16th seed -- currently held by Bubba Wallace -- available.
With road courses far from his comfort zone, and only one week after losing significant ground over the cut line at Indianapolis, Sunday had the potential to set Wallace even further back as he tries to make the playoffs for the first time in his career. Instead, Wallace had the best road course race of his career from start to finish, earning points in both stages on his way to finishing 12th, mitigating some of the gains that Ty Gibbs made on him as he earned multiple stage points and tied his best-career finish in fifth.
As a result of that -- as well as some pre-race encouragement from IndyCar legend Scott Dixon -- Wallace now enters the final race of the regular season with a 32-point advantage over GIbbs for the final playoff spot. Wallace also has a 43-point lead on Daniel Suarez, who is the only other driver with a mathematical chance of making the playoffs on points.
"I talked to (Dixon) this morning about the mental piece of it," Wallace told NBC Sports. "It's hard when you climb in at a road course race and you tell yourself that you're gonna crash or you're gonna suck. But when you tell yourself that every time ... He basically told me to shut the hell up and I'm here for a reason and to trust in myself and believe in myself, and this is what can happen. So I don't think I had one lap where I said I was gonna suck. So it was good."
Chase Running Empty
Arguably the greatest threat to a potential playoff spot for Wallace entering Sunday was Chase Elliott, who was a trendy pick to win given his four top fives in a row at The Glen with two victories. Elliott appeared to have the pace necessary to drive to the front, making his way up into the top 10, until disaster struck midway through the race.
As the field was making its second round of green flag pit stops, Elliott's No. 9 team apparently grossly miscalculated how much fuel they had in their reserve tank. As a result of that error, Elliott ran out of fuel and came to a rest in the bus stop, bringing out the only caution of the race and relegating the 2020 Cup champion to a 32nd-place finish.
Elliott's last chance to make the playoffs will now come at Daytona, an unenviable situation given that much is out of a driver's control in superspeedway racing. However, all may not be lost: Elliott has three wins in his career at drafting tracks (twice at Talladega and once at Atlanta), and he also has two career runner-up finishes at Daytona.
Heroes to Zeroes
The only driver that was any match for William Byron was Michael McDowell, who early on appeared to be the class of the field one week after his win at Indianapolis. McDowell paced the field for much of the opening stage and appeared to be the car to beat after winning Stage 1, but unforced errors would lead to the complete opposite outcome for the No. 34 team.
Shortly after winning the opening stage, McDowell incurred a pit road penalty for driving through too many boxes on the way to his pit stall, dropping him back from what would have been second after stops cycled through all the way to mid-pack. Then, McDowell's crew went over the wall too soon on his second stop, leading McDowell to have to serve yet another pit road penalty.
The No. 34 team got bailed out by the caution for Chase Elliott, meaning that they were able to preserve track position and eventually settle into eighth position over the final run. But then, it all came unraveled when McDowell's car lost power due to a terminal electrical issue, relegating him to a last-place finish in 36th despite 17 laps led and one of the fastest cars in the field.
Race results rundown
- Sunday's race marked the first time that there has only been one caution in two Cup races in a row since 1978, when both the Napa 400 at Riverside and the Gabriel 400 at Michigan were slowed by only a single yellow flag. Interestingly, both races preceded the Firecracker 400 at Daytona just as both Indianapolis and Watkins Glen have this year.
- With a sixth-place finish, Martin Truex Jr. now holds a 39-point lead over Denny Hamlin for the regular season championship entering Daytona next week. Those two are the only drivers mathematically able to win the regular season title, and Truex will easily have the inside track to what would be his second regular season triumph and a significant bonus in playoff points.
- With a seventh-place finish, Chris Buescher earned his 11th top-10 finish of the season, setting a new career-high for himself in that category. That marks the first time that any RFK Racing driver has had more than 10 top 10s in a single season since Ryan Newman had 14 back in 2019.
- One week after it was announced that he would be back with Front Row Motorsports in 2024, Todd Gilliland continued to show why he has figured into the team's long-term plans. Gilliland just missed out on a top-10 finish in 11th position, giving him his ninth top-15 finish of the season.
- Mike Rockenfeller put all those laps he made in a NASCAR stock car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans to good use, driving the No. 42 for Legacy Motor Club to a 19th-place finish. That finish, by far, is Rockenfeller's best in four career Cup starts.
- Kevin Harvick ran Sunday's race without usual crew chief Rodney Childers, who had to return home to North Carolina to address a family emergency concerning his mother. With team engineer Stephen Doran serving as crew chief, Harvick finished 21st in his final start at The Glen.
- One of the only accidents of note in Sunday's race took place in the final corner, when Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon took each other out while racing for 19th spot. Larson finished 26th and Dillon 31st, and the two had a short but terse-looking conversation on pit road afterwards.
Next Race
The NASCAR Cup Series regular season concludes with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, next Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET on NBC.
