At one point this evening during the Cup Series Xfinity 500, the question at Martinsville shifted from who could catch William Byron to whether anyone could take the lead from him. The No. 24 Chevrolet led 362 of 500 laps, won both stages and gave Hendrick Motorsports the victory it had been waiting for this season. He started eighth. By the end, the rest of the field had spent much of the afternoon looking at his rear bumper.
Byron didn’t start the race at the front of the field. Denny Hamlin led the first two laps before a missed shift on Lap 3 let Ty Gibbs take over. Gibbs held the lead for 43 laps, and Hamlin later worked his way back past him. Ryan Preece also entered the shakeup, taking the lead on Lap 84 as the field aligned itself with green-flag pit stops.
That run and sequence meant everything to Byron. He had already come to pit road while several front runners stayed out, and the drag on his tires began to show. Preece then took the lead by more than seven seconds, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the cars on fresher tires behind him. Byron surged to the front, caught Preece, and made a daring pass with six laps left in the race’s opening stage.
He then held off Gibbs to secure the stage win. The first 130 laps went by without a caution. He also dominated the second stage, adding another strong sequence and continuing to control the race past the halfway mark. His lead was not simply the product of being in front when other drivers pitted. He repeatedly put distance between himself and the competition. That pace was visible well before the final run, not just in the finishing order.
The order shuffled, but Byron kept returning to the front. Ross Chastain led the pack while Byron cycled through pit stops. Byron reclaimed the lead after the stops, and his advantage held through the latter half of the race. With 43 laps left, he even pushed his own teammate Kyle Larson a lap down. Chase Elliott was the driver closest to him at the finish. The Hendrick teammates crossed the line first and second, with Ty Gibbs P3, Josh Berry P4, and Shane van Gisbergen in P5.
Byron’s win marked his 17th Cup Series win, his fourth at Martinsville, and his first of the 2026 season. It came in his 323rd career start and extended his streak to seven consecutive seasons with at least one Cup win. He also recorded the fastest lap of the race, completing a maximum-points afternoon with the two stage wins and the win.
He led 362 laps, more than double what he led over the regular season, a career high. Afterward, Byron described the season as a long road and credited the team for continuing to work through its struggles. That made Martinsville more than another trophy. It was the kind of day the No. 24 team had been trying to put together for months, and it arrived with the championship finale one week away.
Larson finished P9 and kept a 67-point advantage over Christopher Bell, while Denny Hamlin remained 70 points back. The title will be decided at Homestead-Miami on Nov. 8. Byron will head there without a championship to chase, but with something his season had not yet delivered: a win earned by controlling the race from the front. It was his first Martinsville win since 2023, and he rarely had to defend the lead for very long.
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