After back-to-back rough, disasterous weekends at Las Vegas and Talladega, William Byron was well aware that winning Sunday’s XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway was going to be his only opportunity to make the Championship 4 for a third straight year.
So, in a gutsy performance that could very well be considered of championship caliber, Byron rose to the occasion and made something incredible happen on Sunday, putting his No. 24 Cincinnati, Inc. Chevrolet in Victory Lane for the third time in his career at Martinsville — but for the first time in the racetrack’s October event.
This wasn’t just another victory, though. It was a decision one. The Charlotte, North Carolina-native spent 304 of 500 laps pacing the NASCAR Cup Series field on Sunday, winning the event from the pole position.
It’s the first time since the Spring of 2013 that a NASCAR Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway has been won from the pole position, and just the second time in the track’s last seven events the race has been won from a top-10 starting spot.
RACE RESULTS: 2025 NASCAR Cup Series XFINITY 500 at Martinsville
“Damn, I got a lot to say,” Byron exclaimed after climbing from his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet post-race. “Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable.”
After a caution (for a spinning Erik Jones) in the middle of green-flag stops with just over 100 laps remaining, the battle came down to Ryan Blaney — who had flipped the second stage to get the race lead — and William Byron.
It took a couple of restarts before the race got back into a rhythm, where Byron, at the advisement of his crew chief Rudy Fugle, was saving his tires for when the field got into lapped traffic. The red, white, and blue No. 24 found the perfect opportunity with 43 laps remaining, and dove inside of Blaney entering Turn 3, making a three-wide situation with the lapped car of Ty Dillon.
From there, the 27-year-old driver was unfazed, even through several late-race cautions and a restart inside 15 laps to go, getting away from the Team Penske driver to collect his third victory of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign.
“No. I mean, we just worked so hard, all of these guys work so hard,” William Byron said about his post-season experience. “You put everything into Sundays. Sometimes you don’t get anything in return. That’s been the last couple weeks. Honestly, throughout the year, I had some close calls. But, sometimes life is that way. You just gotta keep being resilient. We were. Just feels damn good.”
With Byron parking his No. 24 Chevrolet in Victory Lane at Martinsville on Sunday, that meant Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, and Joey Logano, all of whom were in must-win situations, were eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Of the other three drivers who entered Sunday’s event in a must-win situation, Blaney was undoubtedly the closest to making it happen, leading 177 laps (second to only William Byron) and finishing in the runner-up spot after losing out in the late-race battle with the No. 24.
“I look back on that long run before the last yellow where William got by me. I just got loose, trying to work through that,” Blaney said after the race. “My rear driver was fading quickly. I tried to manage a lot in the beginning. Just was starting to fade.”
As the battle for the race-lead, and ultimately the win, developed inside the final 50 laps of Sunday’s event, Blaney just couldn’t fight against Byron, who was the class of the field throughout the entire afternoon.
“[Byron] was just a little better than us at the end. I seemed to lose a little bit rear drive quicker than he did. He was able to keep it longer than me. That’s how he got the lead,” Blaney added. “Thought I got a good restart, the last one. Kind of entered up top, tried to carry speed, and he just motored right around me on the bottom. Pretty impressive.”
While Chase Elliott wasn’t in the fight for the victory, per se, the driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet was in the top five all afternoon, waiting to potentially capitalize on any mistakes by the leaders.
Ross Chastain was a major beneficiary of the ill-timed pit cycle caution for Erik Jones spinning in Turn 3, and used that to collect a fourth-place finish in his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
Kyle Larson spent time at the front on Sunday, as well, but had nothing for his teammate, William Byron, finishing in fifth. However, despite not getting into Victory Lane, Larson did beat Christopher Bell by two positions and several stage points, locking himself into the Championship 4.
Ryan Preece had an impressive showing behind the wheel of the No. 60 for RFK Racing on Sunday, running as high as third before fading to sixth at the checkered flag. Christopher Bell was seventh with Joey Logano just behind him in eighth.
Todd Gilliland followed a runner-up finish at Talladega with one of the best runs of his NASCAR Cup Series career, keeping his Grillo’s Pickles Ford Mustang inside the top-10 all day, before coming home in ninth. Josh Berry, despite being involved in numerous incidents, rounded out the top-10.
Ironically enough, the only two NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drivers that failed to finish inside the top-eight, were the two already locked into the Championship 4: Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Hamlin and Briscoe both struggled with engine issues in the middle portion of Sunday’s event, as did 23XI Racing driver Riley Herbst.
The Championship 4 has been set: William Byron, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, and Denny Hamlin. Coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race from Phoenix Raceway will take place on Sunday, November 2, at 3:00 PM ET on NBC.
