William Byron won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Texas, giving him a spot in the Round of 8.
Sunday’s win for Byron also was a milestone for the Hendrick Motorsports organization. Byron gave HMS its 300th win in the Cup Series. Geoff Bodine was the first driver to win a race for the organization back in 1984 at Martinsville.
“Number 300 for Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle really deserved this one,” Byron told NBC Sports post-race. “Gotta say those guys guys were really fast all day. Hate it for them but man it was awesome to get our car to the front. I love clean air.”
“Just thankful for all the people and the men and women back at Hendrick Motorsports and Mr. Hendrick for his investment in me and telling me at 17 years old that he was going to take me Cup racing. Just appreciate everything he’s done for me and this is awesome,” Byron added post-race.
Driver No.24 took advantage on the final restart driving to the bottom of the track as Bubba Wallace and Chase Briscoe raced side-by-side for the race lead. Byron would clear both Briscoe and Wallace and would go onto hold a size-able lead over the second and third place running drivers. Byron would hold on for the final six laps of the race and score his 10th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Rounding out the top five were Ross Chastain in second, Bubba Wallace in third, Christopher Bell in fourth and Denny Hamlin in fifth.
Bubba Wallace, who finished second led a race-high of 111 laps after eating the pole position during qualifying on Saturday.
Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson led a good portion of the race before losing control of his car battling Bubba Wallace for the lead. Larson would finish 31st.
Rounding out the top ten were Kevin Harvick in sixth, Brad Keselowski in seventh, Daniel Suarez in eighth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in ninth and Chase Briscoe in tenth.
Kyle Busch finished 34th after a crash on Lap 74. Busch now sits below the cutoff line heading into Talladega next Sunday.
Martin Truex Jr. finished the day with a 17th place finish on Sunday. Driver No. 19 had good speed early on until contact from Erik Jones sent Brad Keselowski into Truex’s rear. Truex would be able to continue in the race but wasn’t as competitive. Truex said over his team radio that it felt that his tires weren’t pointed in the right direction and had trouble turning the No.19 Joe Gibbs Toyota Camry.
William Byron sits atop the playoff leaderboard after his win on Sunday. Denny Hamlin is second with +37 points above the cutoff, Chris Buescher is third (+22), Christopher Bell is fourth (+20), Martin Truex Jr. is fifth (+19) Ross Chastain is sixth (+12), Brad Keselowski is seventh (+8) and Kyle Larson is eighth and sits +2 points above the cutoff line.
Drivers below the cutoff line include Bubba Wallace at -2, Tyler Reddick -3, Ryan Blaney -11 and Kyle Busch at -17.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday, October 1st at 2 p.m. Eastern on NBC.
Stage 1 Winner: Tyler Reddick
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson
Race Winner: William Byron
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