MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With a NASCAR Cup Series title shot on the line, William Byron put the bumper to Ryan Blaney to win Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
It was the last race of the third round of the playoffs, as well as the last one to determine the final two of four drivers who will be competing for the championship in the season finale next weekend at Phoenix Raceway — and it was a must-win situation for Byron.
He started in pole position and made his winning move with 43 laps remaining, seizing the bottom lane in the first turn in the Hendrick Motosports No. 24 Chevrolet and moving Blaney’s Team Penske No. 12 Ford up the track by tagging it in the left rear.
He led the rest of the way and fended off Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion, on a restart with 11 laps remaining. Byron led a race-high 304 of 500 laps for his third victory this season, with the win on the 0.526-mile track following his second straight Daytona 500 win in the season opener way back in February and a triumph at Iowa Speedway in early August.
“I thought William drove the race of his life,” said Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon, the former No. 24 driver who was a four-time Cup Series champion and a nine-time winner at Martinsville in a NASCAR Hall of Fame career.
Byron won the regular-season championship despite a six-month drought between his first two wins and no other first-place finishes after Iowa until Sunday.
He had one top-five finish (third at New Hampshire Motor Speedway a month ago) in the previous eight playoff races. That included opening the third round by finishing 36th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and winding up 25th last weekend at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway, results that left him in a win-or-else position to make his third consecutive appearance as one of the final four drivers in the playoffs competing for the title.
The 27-year-old Byron delivered with the 16th victory of his Cup Series career but his first in a playoff elimination race.
“Damn, I got a lot to say,” said Byron, who won the spring regular-season race at Martinsville in 2022 and 2024. “Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable.
“We just worked so hard, and you put everything into Sundays. Sometimes you don’t get anything in return. That’s been the last couple of weeks and honestly throughout the year, but sometimes life is that way. You’ve just got to keep being resilient. We were. Just feels damn good.”
Blaney also was in a must-win situation to advance to the title round. He won the playoff race at Martinsville the past two years but came up one spot short this time, unable to get all the way there after overcoming qualifying 31st to lead 177 laps Sunday.
There were no hard feelings afterward as Blaney congratulated Byron in victory lane.
“That’s just two guys going for it. I don’t blame him for taking that,” Blaney said about Byron making contact on the pass for the lead. “I would have done the same thing. I knew it was going to be tight. I tried to crowd him as much as I could. Just proud of the effort from the team. They gave 100% of what they had, and that’s all you can ask. Wasn’t quite enough.”
Chase Elliott, who was also among the eight playoff drivers entering Sunday’s race, finished third in another Hendrick Chevy. Ross Chastain, who was eliminated earlier in the postseason, was fourth in a Trackhouse Racing Chevy.
Hendrick’s Kyle Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champ, finished fifth and captured the final title-eligible berth for the season finale. He finished seven points ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, whose seventh-place finish was the best for a Toyota driver Sunday at Martinsville and not enough to advance.
“What a performance by William,” Larson said. “Happy for Hendrick Motorsports. This win is as good as it could have been, for us to score more points than Christopher then have William win, too. Hopefully one of us can win it.”
Bell again was the first driver left out of the final four, but he could live with the outcome more than last year’s race at Martinsville, when he was bounced by Byron in a finish tainted by manipulation.
“I feel content with the results,” Bell said. “The four are legitimate contenders. Whoever the champion is, it’s going to be well-deserving.”
Byron and Larson will join JGR drivers Denny Hamlin (who advanced with a win at Las Vegas) and Chase Briscoe (who advanced with a win at Talladega) in racing for the title next Sunday at Phoenix. The championship will be awarded to the driver with the best finish of the four drivers, and Larson is the only one of the bunch with a Cup Series title.
In addition to Bell, Blaney and Elliott, Penske’s Joey Logano was eliminated from title contention. Logano won last year’s Cup Series title, the third of his career.
Briscoe and Hamlin both suffered engine failures at Martinsville.
Hamlin was running second on the 334th lap when he pulled his sputtering No. 11 Toyota into the garage. Martinsville marked the third race during the playoffs with a mechanical problem for Hamlin, who also needed a push from team members Saturday when his car failed to start in qualifying.
“I felt like the car was coming to us and was just starting to close in on Blaney,” said Hamlin, who finished 35th after winning at Martinsville in March. “I didn’t feel anything. The engine was running and then not. We’ll work on it. I’m obviously concerned, but obviously nothing I can do about it. So we’re going to have to live with it and hopefully we get lucky next week. I’m confident on speed we’ll be good next week. We’ll bring our best, and hopefully it lasts.”
Briscoe finished last when his No. 19 Toyota lost power after 295 laps.
“Went to upshift and something happened,” said Briscoe, who was running 12th before the failure. “Not really sure, but next week is what it’s all about anyway.”