William Byron takes victory in a 'pretty awesome' race at Martinsville

William Byron celebrated his third win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville yesterday in what was the 40th-anniversary race for his team Hendrick Motorsports.

Byron has also won the Daytona 500 and the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas this season in dominant displays.

It did not look like victory was going to come easy for Byron yesterday as he started from 18th place and would have a lot of work to do to fight at the front. However, the 26-year-old picked off cars one at a time and put his #24 Chevrolet in a great spot towards the end of the race.

After a bold strategy call by his Crew Chief, Rudy Fugle, Byron found himself at the front and pulling away until a late caution came out with three laps to go, leading to an overtime finish. Luckily Byron still had the pace deciding not to pit for fresh tyres and pulled away to claim another win in the 2024 season.

After the race, Byron was stunned by what had just happened and was honoured to have claimed Hendrick Motorsports 40th-anniversary win, especially as he grew up a Hendricks fan:

“It is pretty awesome; it is pretty badass to win at Martinsville,” Byron told Fox Sports after the race.

“We have been struggling at the short tracks, but we kept inching up on it and I have a great team and they kept my head in it, and it stunk to do a restart there at the end like that, but it is the way it goes.”

Byron was asked about the bold strategy call by his team to be the first car and driver on the lead lap to pit under green flag conditions:

“That was a great call, it did not get us the track position right away, but we had a little bit more heat in our tyres, so I fired off a little bit faster than those guys and was able to get ahead of them, we had a great car in the third stage.”

The win was even more special for Byron and the Hendrick Motorsports team due to it being their 40th anniversary as a team:

“So proud of everyone at Hendricks Motorsports,” Byron said on Victory Road.

“I grew up a big Hendrick fan to be here for the fortieth anniversary and everything that goes into this organisation, all the people, and I just want to thank Mr Hendrick and Linda, and everyone involved.”