William Byron Takes The Checkered Flag at Martinsville

It took eight races but there is finally a multiple-race winner in the Cup Series. William Byron became the first two-time winner this season when he took the checkered flag under the lights at Martinsville Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver, who previously won at Atlanta, led a race-high 212 laps on Saturday night.

Byron's weekend began with a grandfather clock on Thursday night in the Camping World Truck Series. Two clocks in the span of three days has the 24-year old smiling from ear-to-ear as his mother watched it all from the timing stand on pit road.

“This one is for my mom," Byron said. This same weekend last year she had kind of a mini-stroke and was diagnosed with brain cancer. It means a lot to have her here, and it’s been a crazy year, but she’s doing great, and thanks, everybody, for the support. I kind of felt like she was riding in there with me. It’s cool to have her here, and I’m definitely going to enjoy this one.”

This is the fourth career win for Byron, who got the job done after the start of the race was delayed nearly an hour due to rain.

“It feels awesome,” exclaimed Byron. “I knew when that last caution came out I thought everyone behind us would pit and luckily we stayed out. We were aggressive, we felt we could re-fire on the tires and you got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in Logano. I chattered the tires in Turns 3 and 4 and I left the bottom lane but was able to block my exits and get a good drive off."

Byron had the race well in hand in the closing laps, but a late race caution with just seven laps remaining could have thrown it all down the drain. The young driver kept his cool though, and was not rattled by the pressure from Joey Logano in the two-lap overtime finish. It was the best finish of the season for the Team Penske driver, and his second top-five result this season.

"Really hard to pass," Logano said after the race. "That final restart there, it's a front row, it's what you could ask for. I hate being that close to winning and not making it happen. It just stinks. Second just sucks sometimes, that's all."

Austin Dillon was set for a runner-up finish until the final caution flag gave him another opportunity to contend for the win. He did not have a great restart though, and finished 3rd as he was overtaken by Logano. Ryan Blaney earned his third 4th place result of the year and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five on Saturday, his fifth of the season.

“I’m a little bummed," Dillon admitted. "I like to pride myself when we get in those situations being clutch, and that was anything but that on that last restart. I spun the tires pretty good through the gears. Once I got back in line there I had some grip, and I feel like we had good forward drive all night long and I just felt like if we got to the gears we were going to have a shot at him."

The Busch brothers (Kurt and Kyle) just missed out on the top five, but led the way for Toyota with their respective teams. "It was really fun to drive Martinsville this way with this Next Gen car, but really had to work hard and I just think we maximized today,” Kurt said. “Our loose run was stage two, we were 12th and then, just couldn’t quite attack, you know, steering wheel and throttle at the same time. All in all, really happy. We know that sixth is good to right the ship for what we need to do at 23XI Racing. But, overall, we need to pick it up.”

Stewart Haas Racing teammates Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe also recorded top-ten finishes at the paperclip. Rounding out the top ten was Byron's teammate Chase Elliott, who led the first 185 laps on his way to Stage 1 and Stage 2 victories.

Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric had a good run on Saturday and finished 11th in what was a great day for Roger Penske's team. Alex Bowman was the third Hendrick driver to finish inside the top 12 with Erik Jones, Kevin Harvick, and Chris Buescher rounding out the top 15 at Martinsville.

Kyle Larson continued his odd season, finishing 19th while never getting himself up to the front of the field. Busch was solid but the other three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers did not perform well on Saturday as Christopher Bell (20th), Martin Truex Jr (22nd), and Denny Hamlin (28th) all struggled to get to the front.

The action on the track was not anything like what we saw on Thursday and Friday, when cars were beating and banging for position. There were not any green flag passes for the lead aside from pit stops, and several drivers were complaining about their lack of ability to get around other cars. The race took just 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete as there were only two natural caution flags during the event.

Blaney and Elliott are tied for the championship lead with Truex 19 points behind them in third place. All three drivers remain winless this season. Byron is the only driver inside the top five (4th) that has won a race this season.

With two races in six days in the state of Virginia, the Cup Series will focus forward on a third consecutive short-track race next weekend in Tennessee. This one will have a different twist though, as the Food City Dirt Race takes center stage at Bristol Motor Speedway. Race coverage on Easter Sunday begins at 7 PM ET on FOX.