Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Collection race was chaotic in its first half and comparatively tame in its second.
It was William Byron who scored the win on a dominant day for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports group that snapped a 35-race winless drought courting again to final yr’s fall Martinsville race. The win was by no means actually doubtful over the ultimate run. Chase Elliott briefly obtained inside one second of Byron within the remaining 20 laps as a consequence of lapped visitors, however Byron shortly drove away and snuffed out any hope Elliott had of sweeping the yr’s races at “The Paperclip.”
The win is Byron’s first of 2026 and his fourth at Martinsville.
“We’re all the time fairly good right here,” Byron advised NBC. “It has been a frickin’ lengthy street this yr. This crew’s labored actually arduous. We have had our struggles however man, in the present day feels rattling good… we by no means stop. There’s one thing to be mentioned about that.”
In the meantime, factors chief Kyle Larson will head to the Nov. 8 season finale at Homestead with a 67-point cushion over second-place Christopher Bell and a 70-point lead over Denny Hamlin. Larson would’ve clinched the championship with a lead of 76 factors or extra, however a call from crew chief Cliff Daniels to maintain Larson on the racetrack in the course of the entirety of the primary stage resulted in Larson scoring no stage factors and being behind the 8-ball.
Larson was by no means in profitable rivalry, however his ninth-place end was sufficient to provide him an enormous hole going into Homestead. Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle employed the identical Stage 1 technique, and whereas Hamlin led early, he additionally failed to attain stage factors.
Christopher Bell seemed to be in the perfect place to maintain Larson trustworthy and had profitable velocity early, however his No. 20 fell off because the race went on. A spin that Hamlin was additionally caught up in didn’t assist both driver.
Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry and Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the highest 5, with Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, Larson and Bell finishing the highest 10.
Notable outcomes
Different notable finishers embody Ross Chastain in eleventh, Tyler Reddick in twelfth, Chase Briscoe in 14th, Joey Logano in 18th, Carson Hocevar in twenty first, Ryan Preece in twenty third, Chris Buescher in twenty fourth, Daniel Suarez in twenty eighth, Ryan Blaney in thirty fifth and Austin Cindric in thirty sixth. Blaney and Cindric have been taken out after arduous contact to the entrance ends of their Workforce Penske Fords. Josh Bilicki completed final (thirty seventh).
The 2026 Cup Collection finale will happen at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 8, with the inexperienced flag dropping shortly after 3 p.m. ET. NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio could have race protection.
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