William Byron scores Hendrick Motorsports’ 300th Cup win

William Byron continues to have a knack for pulling off wins in the most unexpected situations: his first three wins of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season at Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Darlington came in overtime restarts, followed by a fourth at Atlanta after taking the lead before rain cut it short. Only at Watkins Glen was he truly the top driver where he dominated for his fifth win.

His series-leading sixth victory of the year saw the return of his clutch gene when he took the lead for the restart with six laps remaining. He kept Ross Chastain and pole winner Bubba Wallace at bay to record Hendrick Motorsports‘ 300th Cup Series win.

The final twenty laps were marked by a series of frantic restarts. Prior to the six-lap dash, Martin Truex Jr.‘s wreck set up a run that lasted for two laps during which Byron found a run with team-mate Kyle Larson, only for the latter to hit the wall and produce another caution. Byron struggled on the ensuing restart but received another chance when a massive accident took out Team Penske‘s Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric, Wallace’s team-mate and Stage #1 winner Tyler Reddick, and A.J. Allmendinger.

“I think it was kind of one of those days that I knew it would be a grind from start to finish,” said Byron. “Honestly, we had kind of advanced forward quicker than maybe I expected and got the Stage #1 points and felt good about that. The sequence in Stage #2, I just made a mistake and pitted there, and Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) made the right call, and we restarted twenty-fifth or wherever we were. It was just really hard to go forward after that. We slowly inched our way forward after Stage #2 and got ourselves to like fifteenth and I felt good about our race car. we had good confidence, like I could do what I needed to do and pass people on the long run, so I felt good about that.

“Once we got in the top ten, it was picking one off each six, seven to ten laps, and once we got a sniff of probably the first two rows, our car was right up there and just needed a couple good restarts. I didn’t hit the sequence of restarts very well. The first one was pretty good with Kyle. Had pretty good push there and they couldn’t get clear, and then the next one after that I was terrible on. The final one, I just felt like I got a good launch and knew what I wanted to do in (turns) one and two and got a good run off of two and put it three wide, and that was kind of it.

“Felt good about that to end on a good one. Just really happy about the win and everything it means for the company.”

Wallace and Larson led 111 and 99 laps, respectively, but the former was unable to catch Larson’s team-mate in the final run. Nonetheless, the pole and finish give him some breathing room after narrowly advancing to the playoffs’ Round of 12 on points.

“Third time, I fooled myself starting on top. These guys gave me the right information. #14 (Chase Briscoe) was tight and he sent it off in there. Wasn’t going to stick, but that’s what he’s going to do. We’re racing for a win,” Wallace explained. It was the first time he led triple-digit laps in a Cup race, with his previous best being eighty at Richmond in July. “I just hate it. I should have just kept my line into three and forced William to get tight. but we’re so vulnerable in these cars, right? Just upset with myself. Really needed a win there, and it was a good showing. I don’t know where that puts us, I don’t really care, but I know what I did, and I choked.”

It was a disastrous day for Richard Childress Racing and Rick Ware Racing as both two-driver stables pitched a zero-percent finish rate due to crashes. RCR’s Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch both wrecked out in Stage #1 while RWR’s Todd Gilliland and J.J. Yeley were respectively eliminated in the first and second segments.

Race results