William Byron ended his 35-race winless streak in the Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, taking his first win of 2026 at the very same track where he last won last year, around the same time. He won the Xfinity 500, leading 362 of the 500 laps, dominated both stages and beat Chase Elliott by 2.049 seconds on Sunday.
The result gave Byron his 17th Cup win and his 4th at Martinsville. It also came just one week after Kyle Larson had beaten him by 0.041 seconds at Talladega, where Byron had been so close to ending the drought himself before his Hendrick Motorsports teammate made a move through the field on the final lap.
“We’re always pretty good here, so it’s just, man, it’s been a freaking long road this year. This team’s worked really hard, and I just appreciate them. You know, we’ve had our struggles, but man, today feels damn good,” Byron said after he climbed out of the No.24 Chevrolet. Proud of his team and their collaborative efforts, he stated, “And, man, we never quit. So there’s something to be said about that.”
William Byron Turned Strategy Into Complete Control
Denny Hamlin led from the pole for two laps before a bad shift on Lap 3 handed the lead to Ty Gibbs. Hamlin took it back on Lap 45, but the first green-flag pit sequence was the game changer. Byron went in for fresh tires while Hamlin, Larson and a few others stayed out, hoping they could make it to the end of Stage 1 without losing too much track position.
That gamble cost both of the championship leaders. Preece got past Hamlin in the traffic, Byron went ahead on the fresher tires. With six laps to go in Stage 1, Byron passed Preece to take the stage win. Larson finished the stage one lap down, and Hamlin dropped to 17th with no stage points.
Byron then had total control of every green flag lap of Stage 2. The first caution of the day came on Lap 199 when Carson Hocevar spun. Christopher Bell then added to his troubles of the day with a pit road speeding penalty.
Meanwhile, on the restart, Joey Logano made contact with Bell coming into Turn 1 on Lap 215, sending Bell into Hamlin and spinning both Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. Larson took the free pass position during that caution and eventually got his lap back.
Then, the final stage gave Byron another chance to show that the speed he’d achieved earlier wasn’t just down to the timing of the tires. He went back to the front after his green-flag stop on lap 343, extended his lead over Elliott in the final line to well over 5 seconds, and then managed the gap when Elliott was able to close it down to about a second with 30 laps to go. He pulled away again before the end and finished the day with a maximum of 76 points.
Larson salvaged P9 after the race really threatened his championship cushion early. “Yeah, I mean, I’m happy, but I’m also bummed because there’s just a lot of opportunity there in the stages… It all could have been a lot worse tonight. So, you know, look at the positives from that. Go to Homestead next week with a comfortable gap but still not locked up. I’m surprised that it’s that good. ”
About heading to Homestead, Larson stated, “I mean, there’s always concern when it’s not clinched. So, yeah, I absolutely will feel some pressure this week. I know it’s a large gap, but crazy things can happen. So, just got to go there and execute like we have all Chase and, yeah, just be ready to capitalize.”
He leaves Martinsville 67 points clear of Bell and 70 clear of Hamlin, so Homestead will be the decider.
“I absolutely will feel some pressure.”
@KyleLarsonRacin heads to @HomesteadMiami with a 67-point lead in the championship standings. https://t.co/axvTiaq4S8
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 1, 2026
Hamlin finished sixth after leading 40 laps but picked up only three points on Larson, with the No. 5 scoring nothing in either stage. “But, you know, for us this weekend, it was about, you know, nothing ever to gain, everything to gain, nothing to lose. And we just didn’t gain enough to make it realistic,” Hamlin said.
“I feel confident that I’ll be able to go there and contend. I’d love to get another win for the end of the year. I thought it was going to come today. But just we’ll have to get one more shot at it next week and see if we can’t get our just one more win,” he added. His Stage 1 strategy got him buried in traffic, and the subsequent spin with Bell took away another chance to close the gap.
The second position holder in the championship standings table, Bell finished 10th and moved ahead of Hamlin in the standings, though he was left frustrated with the pace of the No. 20 Toyota. “I got tricked into thinking I was better than I was. My team, Adam, did a great strategy call there in stage one to pit and got us a bunch of track position.”
“And then on the stage two start, I felt like I was pretty good. And then Adam came on the radio and said that William was running part throttle. And I’m like, well, I’m at 100%, and he’s at 80%. And just, I don’t know, I was pretty close on the short run, and then the long run I fell off. So all in all, 10th is probably about where we stacked up. It was a really hectic day, and it is what it is,” he said.
His crew chief, Adam Stevens, gained Bell track position through strategy early on, while Byron was still running part throttle when Bell already needed full throttle.
Now it all comes down to the final race at Homestead. As per the points, Larson almost has the championship in his hands. But if Larson has a bad day and Hamlin or Bell has a good one, things can definitely turn around for all of them.